Managing Risk

Flying involves risks. Fortunately, most of these risks have been identified and managed down to remarkably low levels. However, accidents still occur, and the key to successful flight is an in-depth knowledge of the risks and how to effectively manage them.

"Managing Risk: Best Practices for Pilots" uses actual aircraft accident examples, statistics, aviation safety studies, and the authors' more than 60 years of combined experience as pilots and flight safety educators to document and describe the 10 most significant accident threat categories.

This book provides practical strategies as well as "best practice" countermeasures pilots can use to avoid or effectively manage risks during crucial phases of flight. Readers will have a more complete knowledge of the external threats to flight safety, coupled with a deeper understanding of how human errors often play out in the cockpit.

Students and pilots at all certificate levels will improve their risk management skills by learning the practices described in this book, and ATP applicants will find it fulfills a portion of the new knowledge requirements that become effective August 1, 2014.

Written by Dale Wilson and Gerald Binnema, with a Foreword by John J. Nance.

Dale Wilson: Dale Wilson, M.S., is Professor of Aviation at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, where he teaches courses in flight crew physiology and psychology, threat and error management, aviation safety management, and aviation weather. He holds a Master's degree in Aviation Safety from the University of Central Missouri and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Trinity Western University in British Columbia, Canada. He has held several professional pilot certifications, including: Airline Transport Pilot, Certified Flight Instructor, Advanced Ground Instructor, and Instrument Ground Instructor from the Federal Aviation Administration; Master Flight and Ground Instructor from the National Association of Flight Instructors; and Airline Transport Pilot License and Class I Flight Instructor from Transport Canada.
Dale has been a pilot for more than 30 years and has logged several thousand hours in single- and multi-engine airplanes in the U.S. and Canada. He has also served as an Aviation Safety Counselor and as an FAA Safety Team representative for the Spokane Flight Standards District Office. His primary research interests include visual limitations of flight, pilot decision-making, and VFR flight into instrument meteorological conditions. He has published more than a dozen articles in scholarly journals and professional aviation magazines, and has given numerous safety-related presentations to pilots at conferences and seminars in the U.S. and Canada.

Gerald Binnema: Gerald Binnema, M.A.S., is a consultant in aviation safety, based in British Columbia, Canada. He provides human factors training and assists in developing effective safety management systems for a variety of organizations, including international airports, airlines and helicopter operators. Prior to this he served as an Air Accident Investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) and as an Aviation Safety Officer with Transport Canada. Mr. Binnema also worked as a flight instructor and in Africa as a missions pilot. He holds a Master's degree in System Safety from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and a Bachelor's degree from Trinity Western University. He has also studied human factors at Lund University in Sweden.
Gerald has been a pilot for more than 30 years and holds a Canadian Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL); a Class 1 Flight Instructor rating; multi-engine, float, and instrument ratings; and a Glider Pilot License and Glider Instructor rating. Mr. Binnema has published several safety articles in aviation publications, including Transport Canada's Aviation Safety Letter, and has delivered hundreds of seminars on crew resource management, pilot decision-making, and human factors. He is also a gliding enthusiast and loves to soar above the Coastal Mountains of British Columbia.

John J. Nance: John J. Nance, a native Texan who grew up in Dallas, holds a Bachelor's Degree from SMU and a Juris Doctor from SMU School of Law, and is a licensed attorney. Named Distinguished Alumni of SMU for 2002, he is also a decorated Air Force pilot veteran of Vietnam and Operations Desert Storm/Desert Shield and a Lt. Colonel in the USAF Reserve, well known for his involvement in Air Force human factors flight safety education, and one of the civilian pioneers of Crew Resource Management (CRM). John has piloted a wide variety of jet aircraft, including most of Boeing's line and the Air Force C-141, and has logged over 13,000 hours of flight time in his commercial airline and Air Force careers. He flies his own aircraft, was a veteran Boeing 737 Captain for Alaska Airlines, and is an internationally recognized air safety analyst and advocate, best known to North American television audiences as Aviation Analyst for ABC World News and Aviation Editor for Good Morning America.
John has logged countless appearances on national shows such as Larry King Live, PBS Hour with Jim Lehrer, Oprah, NPR, Nova, the Today Show, and many others. His editorials have been published in newspapers nationwide, including the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He has long been listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, and Who's Who Among Emerging Leaders in America.
He is also the nationally-known author of 19 major books, five non-fiction, plus 13 fiction bestsellers. John is a founding board member and is on the executive committee of the National Patient Safety Foundation.