Free safety module 4 of 7Aviation Psychology & Risk Management11 min readLast reviewed: 2026-09-13
Recognise the cognitive biases, fatigue and outside pressures behind poor decisions, and apply Threat and Error Management (TEM) and clear go/no-go gates before and during flight.
Scenario
Afternoon Return with Family and Approaching Last Light. You are on a private cross-country flight with your family on board, 45 minutes from home base. Last light is in 30 minutes and you do not hold a night VFR rating. Fuel on board is 40 minutes — only 10 minutes above the 30-minute final reserve for a day VFR piston aeroplane — and a line of thunderstorms is crossing your destination.
Decisions and actions
Name the threat: the pressure to get the family home is a threat to manage, and pressing on into darkness or weather is the error it invites.
Night VFR flight requires a night VFR rating (CASR 61.955). Without one, you must be on the ground before last light — the end of evening civil twilight.
Divert early to an en-route aerodrome that you can reach in daylight with the final reserve intact, rather than stretching fuel towards closing weather.
Treat cloud as a hard boundary: without instrument training, flight into cloud quickly leads to spatial disorientation and loss of control.
Safety traps
Plan-continuation bias: over-valuing the part of the trip already flown and refusing to divert.
Fuel exhaustion after holding or diverting with too little margin.
Spatial disorientation and an unintentional spiral dive in deteriorating visibility.
Check your understanding
1. What is "plan-continuation bias", and when is it most hazardous?
The habit of revising the flight log during smooth cruise
The unconscious drive to continue with the original plan despite evidence that conditions have deteriorated beyond safe limits — strongest near the destination
Always choosing an alternate aerodrome further away than the destination
An instructor preference for standard VFR routes
Show answer
B. Plan-continuation bias is the tendency to stick with an existing course of action despite changing weather, fuel or daylight. ATSB research found VFR-into-cloud encounters became more likely as a flight progressed, peaking in the final part of the trip.
2. An aeroplane has entered an unintentional spiral dive. What is the correct initial recovery?
Pull back firmly on the control column to stop the descent
Reduce power, roll the wings level with coordinated aileron and rudder, then ease smoothly out of the dive
Apply full power and trim nose-up
Extend full flap to add drag
Show answer
B. Pulling back while still banked tightens the spiral and rapidly increases the load factor. Reduce power, level the wings first, then raise the nose smoothly.
Educational use only. This module does not replace current legislation, the AIP, ERSA, authorised weather briefings, the aircraft flight manual or instructor guidance. Verify operational information through official sources before flight.
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