D. Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM)

1. Aeronautical Decision Making is a unique environment

• 1. It is a systematic approach to the mental process used by pilots to consistently determine the best course of action in response to a given set of circumstances. It is what a pilot intends to do based on the latest information he or she has.
  2. The importance of learning and understanding effective ADM skills cannot be overemphasized. While progress is continually being made in the advancement of pilot training methods, aircraft equipment and systems, and services for pilots, accidents still occur. Despite all the changes in technology to improve flight safety, one factor remains the same: the human factor which leads to errors. It is estimated that approximately 80 percent of all aviation accidents are related to human factors and the vast majority of these accidents occur during landing (24.1 percent) and takeoff (23.4 percent). [Figure 2-1]
  3. ADM is a systematic approach to risk assessment and stress management. To understand ADM is to also understand how personal attitudes can influence decision-making and how those attitudes can be modified to enhance safety in the flight deck. It is important to understand the factors that cause humans to make decisions and how the decision making process not only works, but can be improved. d) Steps for good decision-making are:
     1. Identifying personal attitudes hazardous to safe flight
     2. Learning behavior modification techniques
     3. Learning how to recognize and cope with stress
     4. Developing risk assessment skills
     5. Using all resources
     6. Evaluating the effectiveness of one’s ADM skills
  4. The ADM process addresses all aspects of decision making in a solo or crew environment and identifies the steps involved in good decision making. These steps for good decision making are as follows:
     1. Identifying Personal Attitudes Hazardous to Safe Flight. Hazardous attitudes can affect unmanned operations if the remote PIC is not aware of the hazards, leading to such things as: getting behind the aircraft/situation, operating without adequate fuel/battery reserve, loss of positional or situational awareness, operating outside the envelope, and failure to complete all flight planning tasks, preflight inspections, and checklists. Operational pressure is a contributor to becoming subject to these pit-falls.
     2. Learning Behavior Modification Techniques. Continuing to utilize risk assessment procedures for the operation will assist in identifying risk associated with the operation. Conducting an attitude assessment will identify situations where a hazardous attitude may be present.
     3. Learning How to Recognize and Cope with Stress. Stress is ever present in our lives and you may already be familiar with situations that create stress in aviation. However, UAS operations may create stressors that differ from manned aviation. Such examples may include: working with an inexperienced crewmember, lack of standard crewmember training, interacting with the public and city officials, and understanding new regulatory requirements. Proper planning for the operation can reduce or eliminate stress, allowing you to focus more clearly on the operation.
     4. Developing Risk Assessment Skills. As with any aviation operation, identifying associated hazards is the first step. Analyzing the likelihood and severity of the hazards occurring establishes the probability of risk. In most cases, steps can be taken to mitigate, even eliminate, those risks. Actions such as using visual observers (VO), completing a thorough preflight inspection, planning for weather, familiarity with the airspace, proper aircraft loading, and performance planning can mitigate identified risks. Figure A-1, Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Process Chart, is an example of a risk assessment tool. Others are also available for use.
  5. Evaluating the Effectiveness of One’s ADM Skills.
     (1) Successful decision making is measured by a pilot’s consistent ability to keep himself or herself, any persons involved in the operation, and the aircraft in good condition regardless of the conditions of any given flight. As with manned operations, complacency and overconfidence can be risks, and so there are several checklists and models to assist in the decision making process. Use the IMSAFE checklist to ensure you are mentally and physically prepared for the flight. Use the DECIDE model to help you continually evaluate each operation for hazards and analyze risk. Paragraph A.5.5 and the current edition of AC 60-22, Aeronautical Decision Making, can provide additional information on these models and others.

2. Effective team communication

• 1. Using All Available Resources with More Than One Crewmember (CRM). A characteristic of CRM is creating an environment where open communication is encouraged and expected, and involves the entire crew to maximize team performance. Many of the same resources that are available to manned aircraft operations are available to UAS operations. For example, remote PICs can take advantage of traditional CRM techniques by utilizing additional crewmembers, such as VOs and other ground crew. These crewmembers can provide information about traffic, airspace, weather, equipment, and aircraft loading and performance.
  2. Examples of good CRM include:
     Communication procedures; One way to accomplish this is to have the VO maintain visual contact with the small UA and maintain awareness of the surrounding airspace, and then communicate flight status and any hazards to the remote PIC and person manipulating the controls so that appropriate action can be taken. Then, as conditions change, the remote PIC should brief the crew on the changes and any needed adjustments to ensure a safe outcome of the operation.
     Communication methods; The remote PIC, person manipulating the controls, and VO must work out a method of communication, such as the use of a hand-held radio or other effective means, that would not create a distraction and allows them to understand each other. The remote PIC should evaluate which method is most appropriate for the operation and should be determined prior to flight.
     Other resources; Take advantage of information from a weather briefing, air traffic control (ATC), the FAA, local pilots, and landowners. Technology can aid in decision making and improve situational awareness. Being able to collect the information from these resources and manage the information is key to situational awareness and could have a positive effect on your decision making.

3. Task management

• 1. Tasks vary depending on the complexity of the operation. Depending upon the area of the operations, additional crewmembers may be needed to safely operate. Enough crewmembers should be utilized to ensure no one on the team becomes overloaded. Once a member of the team becomes overworked, there’s a greater possibility of an incident/accident.

4. Crew Resource Management (CRM)

• 1. While CRM focuses on pilots operating in crew environments, many of the concepts apply to single-pilot operations. Many CRM principles have been successfully applied to single-pilot aircraft and led to the development of Single-Pilot Resource Management (SRM). SRM is defined as the art and science of managing all the resources (both onboard the aircraft and from outside sources) available to a single pilot (prior to and during flight) to ensure the successful outcome of the flight. SRM includes the concepts of ADM, risk management (RM), task management (TM), automation management (AM), controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) awareness, and situational awareness (SA). SRM training helps the pilot maintain situational awareness by managing the automation and associated aircraft control and navigation tasks. This enables the pilot to accurately assess and manage risk and make accurate and timely decisions.
  2. SRM is all about helping pilots learn how to gather information, analyze it, and make decisions. Although the flight is coordinated by a single person and not an onboard flight crew, the use of available resources such as auto-pilot and air traffic control (ATC) replicates the principles of CRM.

5. Situational awareness

• 1. Situational awareness is the accurate perception and understanding of all the factors and conditions within the five fundamental risk elements (flight, pilot, aircraft, environment, and type of operation that comprise any given aviation situation) that affect safety before, during, and after the flight. Monitoring radio communications for traffic, weather discussion, and ATC communication can enhance situational awareness by helping the pilot develop a mental picture of what is happening.
  2. Maintaining situational awareness requires an understanding of the relative significance of all flight related factors and their future impact on the flight. When a pilot understands what is going on and has an overview of the total operation, he or she is not fixated on one perceived significant factor. Not only is it important for a pilot to know the aircraft’s geographical location, it is also important he or she understand what is happening. For instance, while flying above Richmond, Virginia, toward Dulles Airport or Leesburg, the pilot should know why he or she is being vectored and be able to anticipate spatial location. A pilot who is simply making turns without understanding why has added an additional burden to his or her management in the event of an emergency. To maintain situational awareness, all of the skills involved in ADM are used.

6. Hazardous attitudes

• 1. Being fit to fly depends on more than just a pilot’s physical condition and recent experience. For example, attitude affects the quality of decisions. Attitude is a motivational predisposition to respond to people, situations, or events in a given manner. Studies have identified five hazardous attitudes that can interfere with the ability to make sound decisions and exercise authority properly: anti-authority, impulsivity, invulnerability, macho, and resignation.
     Hazardous attitudes can affect unmanned operations if the remote PIC is not aware of the hazards, leading to such things as: getting behind the aircraft/situation, operating without adequate fuel/battery reserve, loss of positional or situational awareness, operating outside the envelope, and failure to complete all flight planning tasks, preflight inspections, and checklists. Operational pressure is a contributor to becoming subject to these pit-falls.
  2. Learning Behavior Modification Techniques.
     (1)Continuing to utilize risk assessment procedures for the operation will assist in identifying risk associated with the operation. Conducting an attitude assessment will identify situations where a hazardous attitude may be present.
     

7. Hazard identification and risk assessment

• 1. Hazard identification
     Hazards in the sUAS and its operating environment must be identified, documented, and controlled. The analysis process used to define hazards needs to consider all components of the system, based on the equipment being used and the environment it is being operated in. The key question to ask during analysis of the sUAS and its operation is, “what if?” sUAS remote PICs are expected to exercise due diligence in identifying significant and reasonably foreseeable hazards related to their operations.
     
     Risk analysis and assessment
     (a) The risk assessment should use a conventional breakdown of risk by its two components: likelihood of occurrence and severity.
     Severity and likelihood criteria
     (a) There are several tools which could be utilized in determining severity and likelihood when evaluating a hazard. One tool is a risk matrix. Several examples of these are presented in Figure A-2, Safety Risk Matrix Examples. The definitions and construction of the matrix is left to the sUAS remote PIC to design. The definitions of each level of severity and likelihood need to be defined in terms that are realistic for the operational environment. This ensures each remote PIC’s decision tools are relevant to their operations and operational environment, recognizing the extensive diversity which exists. An example of severity and likelihood definitions is shown in Table A-1, Sample Severity and Likelihood Criteria.
  2. Risk acceptance
     
     In the development of risk assessment criteria, sUAS remote PICs are expected to develop risk acceptance procedures, including acceptance criteria and designation of authority and responsibility for risk management decision making. The acceptability of risk can be evaluated using a risk matrix, such as those illustrated in Figure A-2. Table A-2, Safety Risk Matrix—Example shows three areas of acceptability.
     Unacceptable (Red). Where combinations of severity and likelihood cause risk to fall into the red area, the risk would be assessed as unacceptable and further work would be required to design an intervention to eliminate that associated hazard or to control the factors that lead to higher risk likelihood or severity.
     Acceptable (Green). Where the assessed risk falls into the green area, it may be accepted without further action. The objective in risk management should always be to reduce risk to as low as practicable regardless of whether or not the assessment shows that it can be accepted as is.
     Acceptable with Mitigation (Yellow). Where the risk assessment falls into the yellow area, the risk may be accepted under defined conditions of mitigation. An example of this situation would be an assessment of the impact of an sUAS operation near a school yard. Scheduling the operation to take place when school is not in session could be one mitigation to prevent undue risk to the children that study and play there. Another mitigation could be restricting people from the area of operations by placing cones or security personnel to prevent unauthorized access during the sUAS flight operation.
  3. Other risk assessment tools for flight and operational risk management:
     Other tools can also be used for flight or operational risk assessments and can be developed by the remote PICs themselves. The key thing is to ensure that all potential hazards and risks are identified and appropriate actions are taken to reduce the risk to persons and property not associated with the operations.
  4. Reducing risk
     Risk analyses should concentrate not only on assigning levels of severity and likelihood, but on determining why these particular levels were selected. This is referred to as root cause analysis, and is the first step in developing effective controls to reduce risk to lower levels. In many cases, simple brainstorming sessions among crewmembers is the most effective and affordable method of finding ways to reduce risk. This also has the advantage of involving people who will ultimately be required to implement the controls developed.
  5. It is also very easy to get quite bogged down in trying to identify all hazards and risks. That is not the purpose of a risk assessment. The focus should be upon those hazards which pose the greatest risks. As stated earlier, by documenting and compiling these processes, a remote PIC can build an arsenal of safety practices that will add to the safety and success of future operations.
  6. As with any aviation operation, identifying associated hazards is the first step. Analyzing the likelihood and severity of the hazards occurring establishes the probability of risk. In most cases, steps can be taken to mitigate, even eliminate, those risks. Actions such as using visual observers (VO), completing a thorough preflight inspection, planning for weather, familiarity with the airspace, proper aircraft loading, and performance planning can mitigate identified risks. Figure A-1, Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Process Chart, is an example of a risk assessment tool. Others are also available for use.
  7. As previously discussed, identifying hazards and associated risk is key to preventing risk and accidents. If a pilot fails to search for risk, it is likely that he or she will neither see it nor appreciate it for what it represents. Unfortunately, in aviation, pilots seldom have the opportunity to learn from their small errors in judgment because even small mistakes in aviation are often fatal. In order to identify risk, the use of standard procedures is of great assistance. One guide in the form of a checklist that helps the pilot examine areas of interest in his or her preflight planning is a framework called PAVE. Elements of PAVE are:
     1. Pilot-in-command (PIC)
     2. Aircraft
     3. Environment
     4. External pressures
  8. With the PAVE checklist, pilots have a simple way to remember each category to examine for risk prior to each flight. Once a pilot identifies the risks of a flight, he or she needs to decide whether the risk or combination of risks can be managed safely and successfully. If not, make the decision to cancel the flight. If the pilot decides to continue with the flight, he or she should develop strategies to mitigate the risks. One way a pilot can control the risks is to set personal minimums for items in each risk category.
     Using the Personal Minimums (PAVE) Checklist for Risk Management, I will set personal minimums based upon my specific flight experience, health habits, and tolerance for stress, just to name a few. After identifying hazards, I will then input them into the Hazard Identification and Risk Management Process Chart (Figure A-1).
  9. P: Personal: Am I healthy for flight and what are my personal minimums based upon my experience operating this sUAS? During this step, I will often use the IMSAFE checklist in order to perform a more in-depth evaluation:
     Illness – Am I suffering from any illness or symptom of an illness which might affect me in flight?
     Medication – Am I currently taking any drugs (prescription or over-the-counter)?
     Stress – Am I experiencing any psychological or emotional factors which might affect my performance?
     Alcohol – Have I consumed alcohol within the last 8 to 24 hours?
     Fatigue – Have I received sufficient sleep and rest in the recent past?
     Eating – Am I sufficiently nourished?
     A: Aircraft: Have I conducted a preflight check of my sUAS (aircraft, control station (CS), takeoff and landing equipment, etc.) and determined it to be in a condition for safe operation? Is the filming equipment properly secured to the aircraft prior to flight?
     V: EnVironment: What is the weather like? Am I comfortable and experienced enough to fly in the forecast weather conditions? Have I considered all of my options and left myself an “out?” Have I determined alternative landing spots in case of an emergency?
     E: External Pressures: Am I stressed or anxious? Is this a flight that will cause me to be stressed or anxious? Is there pressure to complete the flight operation quickly? Am I dealing with an unhealthy safety culture? Am I being honest with myself and others about my personal operational abilities and limitations?
  10. Controlling risk
      After hazards and risks are fully understood through the preceding steps, risk controls must be designed and implemented. These may be additional or changed procedures, additional or modified equipment, the addition of VOs, or any of a number of other changes.
  11. Residual and substitute risk
      Residual risk is the risk remaining after mitigation has been completed. Often, this is a multistep process, continuing until risk has been mitigated down to an acceptable level necessary to begin or continue operation. After these controls are designed but before the operation begins or continues, an assessment must be made of whether the controls are likely to be effective and/or if they introduce new hazards to the operation.
      The latter condition, introduction of new hazards, is referred to as substitute risk, a situation where the cure is worse than the disease. The loop seen in Figure A-1 that returns back to the top of the diagram depicts the use of the preceding hazard identification, risk analysis, and risk assessment processes to determine if the modified operation is acceptable.
  12. Starting the operation
      (1) Once appropriate risk controls are developed and implemented, then the operation can begin.