Human Factors

Accidents / Mishaps / Incidents / Lessons Learned:

• Hard lessons learned. (Air Facts).
• Insidious failures: don’t trust, verify.
• KFLY crash August 2021.
• Know your limitations. (Air Facts).
• Pilot survives fiery crash of Cirrus SR22 | Mountain Air Airport, NC (4K).
• Top 10 causes of GA accidents. (GA News, 2025)
• What we can learn from accident reports. (GA News)
• What we can learn from accidents. (NAFI)
• What were they thinking? Decision making in high threat environments. (Vid).
• Where do we lose it? The *real* threat! (stalls).

Articles / Related Topics:

• Boring is the new black. (Air Facts).
• Human Factors:
• Ignore YouTube detectives - it’s usually pilot error. (AF).
• No one in command. (GA News).
• Say it out loud. (GA News)
• The second decision. (GA News).
• ILAFFT (I learned about flying from that). Flying Mag.
• Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. (Air Facts).
• Pilot Demons. (Machado)
• SRM and CRM (Single-pilot and Crew Resource Management).
• Tips to avoid a brain stall while flying. (GA News)
• Why we make excuses not to fly.

Attitudes / Culture:

• 7 'wake-up calls' most new, confident pilots experience.
• A little humility goes a long way. (GA News).
• Expectation bias can cause accidents - or worse. (Flying Mag).
• Hazardous attitude (Acronyms and Mnemonics).
• Importance of Embracing Proficiency Culture. (Flying Mag).
• Mere Fear. (Machado).
• Peer pressure among pilots. (Air Facts).
• Plan Continuation Bias in 57 Seconds. (get-home-itis).
• Plan continuation bias and CFIT. (FAA blog).
• YouTube, Top Gun, and aviation culture.

Automation:

• Stepping down in automation - lessons for children of the magenta line.

Distractions:

• Distracted pilot loses control on takeoff due to an incorrect transponder setting.
• Runway Safety - Untimely Distraction.

Engines / Powerplants:

• Improper leaning of engine proves fatal for two.
• Loss of power on takeoff.
• Power loss at 300 feet - What went wrong, what went right.
• Prop strike - what counts as one?
• Stuck exhaust valve leads to crash.
• The Unstretchable Glide. When your only engine fails, you decide where to land, not ATC.

Errors:

• 5 mistakes every student pilot makes at least once.
• Fatal Cirrus accident shows that some knowledge doesn't translate.
• Five mistakes many general aviation pilots make and how to avoid them.
• IFR aircraft loses separation with 1,500 foot tall antenna.
• Incorrect altitude readback leads to near CFIT incident.
• Multiple mistakes were too much to overcome.
• Pilots receive ATC low altitude alert from the wrong altimeter setting.
• Prevalence Error - Why we look but do not see.
• Systems Knowledge? NTSB blamed instructor, but looked closely at autopilot system.
• Who’s pilot in command? A faulty assumption leads to an accident.

Fuel:

• Faulty assumptions. (Air Safety Inst).
• Landing accident caused by fuel starvation.
• Pilot didn’t have time to sump fuel but could wait for the crash. (GA News).
• Pilots experience engine failure from fuel contamination. (bm).

Go-arounds:

• Botched go around. (Vid)

Ground Ops:

• Planes crash after student tries to pass on the taxiway.
• Preflight, Interrupted. (Aviation Safety).
• Rushed preflight leads to a terrifying discovery. (Air Facts).
• Rushed preflight leads to Cessna taking off with the tow bar attached.
• Worn ignition switch - It could happen to anybody..

Hazards:

• FOD in the cockpit causes two blown tires on landing.
• See Night Flight.

Illusions:

• 4 things you should know about runway illusions, and how to solve them.
• 7 visual illusions to be prepared for on your next flight.
• 8 optical illusions pilots should understand and know how to avoid.
• Eight optical illusions pilots need to know.
• Flying an ILS into fog, and the associated visual illusions.
• This wintertime illusion can cause accidents on a VFR day.
• Quizzes:
• Do you know these 6 landing illusions?
• Runway width illusions:
• Compensating for wide/narrow runways. (Vid 194).
• How to overcome runway width illusion. (Vid 223).
• Somatogravic Illusion (see spatial disorientation below).
• Vestibular illusions - don't let them disoriented you.. (FAA)

Landing:

• Aircraft slides off a slick runway: How to avoid the same problem.
• Crew cancels IFR and lands at the wrong airport.
• Fatigued pilots land on wrong runway after visual approach clearance.
• Loose iPad jams pilot's trim wheel, leading to an emergency landing.
• Pilot loses control on landing after passenger steps on the rudder pedal.
• Piper Cherokee lands fast and overruns in the rain.
• Precautionary landing leads to a big surprise. (field selection).
• Runway overrun caused by short field landing technique.
• Rushed pilot lands with gear up, blames iPad...
• Sun glare causes near miss during landing rollout.
• Survive: Beyond the forced landing. (AOPA)
• The many factors that lead to runway overruns.
• What not to do…when YouTube clickbait actually has value. (emergency landing).
• Why this landing went wrong and part deux. (AvWeb vid).

Loss of Control, Inflight (LOC-I) and Ground (LOC-G):

• Avoiding LOC-G. (ASI vid).
• Fly Safe: Prevent Loss of Control Accidents. (FAA).
• How not to lose control: What we can learn from Colgan 3407.
• Loss of control on the ground. (NAFI).
• Loss of control: turning over a new leaf. (Air Facts).
• Reducing loss of control accidents in five minutes. (Air Facts).

Medical / Medicals:

• 4 aeromedical risk factors to watch out for this winter.
• AOPA Summary
• Colorado Springs recommendation:  Jerome Limoge, MD (online schedule)

Mistakes: see Errors above.

Night / Night Flight:

• A pilot’s siege of troubles leads to a fatal outcome. (Flying Mag).

Performance / Weight and Balance:

• Accident case study: Into thin air. (AOPA)
• Overweight Diamond.

Physiological:

• How stress and anxiety affect pilots. (AF)
• Quiz: How does the body react to flight?

Procedures:

• Failure to use checklist and put seatbelt on right results in accident.
• Pilot gets caught between procedure and instinct.
• Pilot misses note 'Circle NA South Of Runway 09', resulting in near CFIT event.

Risk:

• Low and fast - a bad combination.
• The Danger Zone - Tips to reduce risk in all phases of flight.
• Top ten tips for managing risk.
• What makes a debatable risk?

Safety: separate page.

Situational Awareness: see Resource Management.

Spatial Disorientation:

• 6 ways pilots get confused in the clouds, and how to prevent it.
• Crash highlights the dangers of nighttime disorientation.
• How to overcome it in flight. (also somatogravic illusion).
• How to prevent the 6 types of spatial disorientation.
• Nighttime crash highlights the dangers of disorientation.
• Spatial disorientation: GA’s deadliest threat. (GAN).

STOL:

• Human Factors: A competitive environment. 
• STOL - Competitor killed in STOL competition crash.

Takeoff:

• Pilot loses control when his seat slides back during takeoff.

Traffic / Traffic Pattern:

• Calm wind at nontowered airport leads to landing incident.
• Hours of boredom, followed by...
• Incorrect traffic pattern entry leads to mid-air conflict.
• Near mid-air collision on final approach.
• Practice instrument approach leads to a near mid-air collision with VFR traffic.
• Sonex lands on top of another airplane.
• Turning back to the runway - Bonanza crash in Florida..
• Same incident debriefed by AvWeb.

Weather:

• A change of mind...or two. White-out conditions over a frozen lake in Alaska.
• Cessna 182 accident caused by combination of carb heat and density altitude.
• Fair weather flier. (Air Safety Inst).
• My near death experience. (Mooney).
• One hour closer to your first accident.
• Ready to Burst. Don’t let ‘get-home-itis’ lead you near thunderstorms.
• Scud Running At Night. Pilot stumbles around in the dark, in IMC.
• Stumbling around in the rain. (Aviation Safety).
• Summer haze and low on fuel.
• Trapped in ice. (Accident Case Study).
• VMC into IMC or VFR into IFR:
• In too deep. (Accident Case Study).
• VFR into IMC accident prevention. (Flying Mag).
• VFR into VMC - syllabus by AOPA.
• VFR To IFR in a flash on a solo cross-country. (Air Facts).
• Why do pilots continue to inadvertently fly into IMC? (GA News).
• Why can’t we solve VFR into IMC. (Flying Mag).
• What was one of the scariest moments in your life?
• Wind:
• Calm wind at nontowered airport leads to landing incident.

- FIG -