Risk Management Magazine

As an aviator, I am cautious around anyone who uses the word “easy.” Just because a mission appears to be simple does not mean it will turn out that way. It is our responsibility as pilots to conduct proper flight planning procedures and risk management to identify potential hazards in the mission before takeoff.

All too often in aviation, we are hesitant to admit when we don’t know something or, even worse, that we made a mistake. This was never more evident to me than when my unit began to turn in our OH-58A/Cs and transition to the UH-72 Lakota.

Have you ever been in a situation where you weren’t paying attention to the road or anything else going on around you? For whatever reason — maybe you were on a familiar route or distracted by something inside your vehicle — most of us have displayed some amount of inattention on the roadway.