Preflighting the Pilot – Do You AIMSAFFER?

Whenever a pilot decides to go out on a flight, the pilot needs to to take certain preflight actions to minimize risk and have a safe trip. Checking the weather and NOTAMs, preflight inspection of the airplane and other essential tasks should be accomplished before each flight. Proper planning is essential. A risk assessment, using something like a PAVE checklist (Pilot, Aircraft, EnVironment, External factors) or a FRAT (Flight Risk Assessment Tool) is a good risk mitigator. To make the right go/no-go decision, we should have a personal minimums list to compare our risk assessment results with. We should commit to not violating those minimums. When you consider these basic factors of risk, you might find that if the weather starts to worsen, you might land and wait it out. if the aircraft develops a mechanical issue, you may be able to solve the problem in flight or land and have it repaired. If the PILOT is malfunctioning, we are in real trouble.

We need to give as much or more emphasis and thoroughness to evaluating the pilot’s readiness to fly as any of the other risk items. Some FAA publications promote the IMSAFE (Illness, Medication/drugs, Alcohol, Fatigue, Emotion) self-check to use in evaluating our fitness to pilot an aircraft. You might just start your self-evaluation with a very generalized question – “how do I feel today?” I have added a few more items to the IMSAFE list. I have added another “A” at the beginning for Attitude, a second “F” for Food and water and an “R” at the end for Recency – AIMSAFFER. For the P (Pilot) in the PAVE checklist, I perform the AIMSAFFER evaluation on myself. If I have some doubts, I might get an unbiased opinion from my AME (Aviation Medical Examiner) or a respected fellow pilot.

Here is an explanation of the application of each item in AIMSAFFER –

1. Attitude – Some of the FAA publications include a list of the 5 hazardous attitudes – Macho, Anti-authority, Invulnerability, Impulsive and Resignation. I also add Complacency, Selfishness and a few others to the list (please see my blog on “Pilots with Attitudes” coming soon). A pilot might be the worst judge of whether he or she is exhibiting one or more hazardous attitudes. A pilot friend might recognize this and speak up and recommend that I not take the trip.
2. Illness – Many physical or mental illnesses can impair a pilot’s ability to function safely – even if the pilot doesn’t really feel bad. Pain, dizziness, weakness or discomfort from an illness can be a serious distraction to the pilot. Head colds, ear infections, flu, upset stomach, diarrhea, nausea, muscle cramps and high body temperature are some of the many conditions that can seriously impair a pilot in flight.
3. Medications/Drugs – Some over-the-counter and prescription drugs can cause serious pilot impairment. You should consult the labels for warnings. Also, if there is any doubt, consult the FAA list of medications or your AME. Recreational drugs – those that have mind -altering effects are obviously to be avoided.
4. Stress – Stress can come in different forms from different sources – heavy workload to complete in a short amount of time, worry while waiting for serious medical test results, worry over an IRS audit, etc. Stress can be a major distraction from performing all of the duties of a pilot in flight. Some pilots have decided to go flying to get their mind off severe stress – this is not a good idea. If you do this under stress, take another pilot with you.
5. Alcohol – Alcohol can obviously cause impairment. Even when you consume a small amount, you can become impaired when reaching higher altitudes in flight. You can succumb to hystotoxic hypoxia, caused by the combination of alcohol affecting the absorption of O2 in the brain and the lower partial pressure of O2 at altitude.
6. Fatigue – Fatigue has been a suspected cause of pilot error in several fatal flight accidents. One accident where a sleepy pilot survived, involved a Piper Seneca flying from Tennessee to the Florida panhandle. The pilot had the autopilot engaged in cruise flight and he closed his eyes to rest for a minute. He completely fell asleep and was awakened by the sound of the engines cutting out from fuel exhaustion. He looked outside and saw nothing but ocean in all directions. He made a distress call as he glided down to ditch the plane in the water. The coast guard eventually found him and he was rescued in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
7. Food and Water – A pilot who hasn’t had recent nourishment and hydration can significantly underperform the duties of flying an aircraft. Some people have actually fainted from dehydration or lack of nutrition.
8. Emotion – This can be in the extreme positive or extreme negative. If you just won $50 million in the lottery, you might go flying to celebrate and be distracted by how excited you feel and thinking of all the stuff you want to buy while not checking your oil pressure or lowering your gear for landing. Maybe you just found out your best friend was killed in a car accident and you are shocked and feeling very sad and you just want to go flying to take your mind off of this – not a good idea. Again, this can be a serious distraction and if you go, you should have another pilot on board who can monitor your behavior and actions.
9. Recency – There are 2 kinds of recency of flight experience. You can have legal recency, like 3 takeoffs and landings in the last 90 days to take passengers. You can also have practical recency, like practicing short field and soft field takeoffs and landings with a flight instructor, just before you fly to an airport with a short, grass runway. Let’s say you have logged 6 instrument approaches, holding and course intercepts in the last 6 calendar months before this month. all of this experience was logged 5 1/2 months ago. You have done no instrument flying since then. You have a trip today and the destination airport has a 3oo’ ceiling and 1 mile visibility with a gusty crosswind and some turbulence. You have the legal recency but probably not practical, safe recency of experience. If instead, you flew some approaches 2 days ago, simulated down to precision minimums with gusty crosswinds and turbulence in the same airplane you will use for your trip and you consistently performed well within safe standards, then you might have practical recency. For every flight, the pilot should have both legal and practical recency of experience.

Some accidents have occurred when a pilot has had problems with a combination of 2 or more items from the AIMSAFFER list which greatly increased the odds of a bad ending to the flight. Perhaps these pilots made the wrong decision in the beginning to go because they exhibited one or more of the hazardous attitudes. It is good if you are picky about the condition of your airplane before you fly it, be just as picky about your condition before you take on the responsibility of a pilot. Fly safe!