Aeronautical Decision-Making, CRM, and Risk Assessment

A Mishap Is Often a Chain

Most UAS mishaps begin with manageable warnings: changing wind, declining battery margin, distraction, or schedule pressure. Each ignored warning removes another layer of safety.

ADM: A Deliberate Process

Aeronautical decision-making is a systematic way to recognize a problem, choose an action, and evaluate whether that action is working. It replaces guesswork with repeatable habits.

Three Interruptions

1. Notice threats and changes.
2. Pause to assess options.
3. Act and reassess.

A safe landing or cancellation can be the best mission decision.

Part 107 Connection

ADM and risk management are central to the current Part 107 Operations domain, weighted at 40%. They also support sound weather, airspace, emergency, and airport decisions.

DECIDE: Detect and Estimate

Use DECIDE after a meaningful change. Detect what changed, then Estimate whether it requires action. Do not wait for a minor deviation to become an emergency.

DECIDE: Choose Through Do

Choose the desired outcome, Identify available actions, and Do the safest one. The desired outcome may be to land, delay, or cancel rather than complete the task.

DECIDE: Evaluate

After acting, Evaluate the result. A climb away from a building may solve obstacle clearance but reveal that gusts still exceed the crew's acceptable operating margin.

3P: A Fast Continuous Loop

Perceive circumstances, Process their safety impact, and Perform the best action. Repeat the loop before launch, during each phase, and whenever conditions change.

P: Pilot

Review fitness, fatigue, stress, medication, proficiency, and attitudes. A technically capable pilot who is exhausted or rushed has a reduced ability to detect and correct threats.

A and V: Aircraft and enVironment

Check aircraft, batteries, links, payload, configuration, and performance. Then assess weather, obstacles, airspace, airport activity, people, lighting, and visual line of sight.

E: External Pressures

Client urgency, money, spectators, and a desire to "make up time" are hazards. External pressure is not a reason to lower a safety margin; it is a reason to reassess it.

Worked Decision

Poor sleep, cold batteries, gusts, a crane, and client pressure produce risks across PAVE. Reduce scope, set a wind trigger, increase clearance, or cancel if residual risk remains unacceptable.

Anti-authority and Impulsivity

Anti-authority: "Don't tell me." Antidote: "Follow the rules. They are usually right."

Impulsivity: "Do it quickly." Antidote: "Not so fast. Think first."

Invulnerability and Macho

Invulnerability: "It won't happen to me." Antidote: "It could happen to me."

Macho: "I can do it." Antidote: "Taking chances is foolish."

Resignation

Resignation: "What's the use?" Antidote: "I'm not helpless. I can make a difference." A crew member can call for a pause, identify a hazard, and recommend a safer option.

Exam Technique

Match the attitude to the belief expressed in the scenario. "We need to get moving" points to impulsivity; "this rule does not apply to my quick flight" points to anti-authority.

CRM Uses Every Resource

CRM uses all available people, information, equipment, and time. Its purpose is not hierarchy for its own sake; it is detecting threats, sharing workload, and making better decisions.

RPIC Authority

A designated RPIC is directly responsible for and the final authority for the small UAS operation. Final authority includes delaying, changing, or terminating a mission when safety requires it.

Brief the Team

Before launch, assign roles and cover routes, boundaries, communications, launch and landing areas, traffic, lost-link response, abort triggers, and who may call "stop" or "land."

Use Each Role Properly

The control manipulator reports workload. The VO scans for hazards. The customer supplies mission needs, not in-flight safety limits. Ground personnel receive clear separation instructions.

Closed-Loop Communication

Closed loop means: send a clear message, have the receiver repeat critical information, then confirm or correct it. This exposes misunderstanding before it becomes an unsafe action.

Specific Beats Vague

Instead of "Watch out," say: "Helicopter east, moving west, low altitude." Then state the action: "I am landing now." Direction, hazard, and action remove ambiguity.

Challenge Constructively

State the concern, consequence, and recommended action: "Wind is above our limit. Obstacle margin is decreasing. Recommend return and landing." Escalate clearly if ignored.

Confirm Critical Ownership

Before and during flight, verify who has controls, who is scanning, and whether a call is advisory or mandatory. Never rely on "I thought you had it."

Three Levels of Awareness

Perception notices information. Comprehension understands its meaning. Projection anticipates what happens next. Seeing a helicopter is perception; anticipating a conflict is projection.

Cross-Check, Do Not Fixate

Cycle attention among aircraft position, airspace, people, obstacles, battery trend, route, time, telemetry, and crew reports. A camera view can distract from the safety picture.

Update the Shared Picture

Say meaningful changes aloud: "Battery reserve is 30%; we are ending the second orbit and returning." Explicit updates keep the RPIC, VO, and control manipulator aligned.

Priority Under Workload

Prioritize aircraft control, collision avoidance, communication, then mission tasks. Simplify, delegate, pause payload work, or land when workload rises. Automation still requires monitoring.

Risk Assessment Sequence

Identify hazards, estimate likelihood and severity, assign risk, select controls, then reassess residual risk. Risk is not finished when a control is proposed; it must be reevaluated.

Likelihood and Severity

Likelihood asks, "How probable is the event?" Severity asks, "How serious could the outcome be?" Gusts near a crane can raise likelihood, while a strike can carry high severity.

Controls Must Be Real

Useful controls include postponement, greater standoff, a safer route, dedicated scanning, extra battery reserve, and mandatory landing triggers. "I am skilled" is not a verifiable control.

Residual Risk Drives the Decision

After controls, ask what risk remains. If gusts remain unpredictable or required visual observation cannot be maintained, residual risk may be unacceptable. Redesign, defer, or cancel.

Before Flight

Plan the mission, conduct PAVE, assess likelihood and severity, select controls, and decide whether residual risk is acceptable. A complete plan includes contingencies and landing options.

Brief Before Launch

Assign roles and cover communications, traffic, visual observation, airspace, emergencies, lost link, abort triggers, and stop authority. A good brief creates a shared mental model.

During Flight

Run the 3P loop continuously. Use DECIDE when a deviation appears. If workload rises, return to priorities: aircraft control, collision avoidance, communication, then mission tasks.

After Flight

Debrief changes, controls, and lessons. A changing condition requires a changing plan. Continue with the Skarp diagnostic, then use the next mock exam to pressure-test these decisions.