Experience and confidence are essential in helicopter flying, but they can also lead to complacency and poor decisions. In this extract from his upcoming Killer Instinct presentation at EU Rotors, Jonny Greenall examines how normal pilots make normal mistakes — and why recognising our limitations is a vital part of flight safety.

“I’ve Got This…” – The Killer Instinct in Helicopter Flying

An excerpt from Jonny Greenall’s upcoming presentation, “Killer Instinct”, at the EASA Rotor Safety Zone, EU Rotors.

The U.S. Joint Helicopter Safety Analysis Team (JHSAT) found that 84% of helicopter accidents were related to pilot judgment and actions.

Think about that for a moment.

Not necessarily bad pilots. Not necessarily inexperienced pilots. Just normal pilots, making normal mistakes.

Pilots with experience, qualifications and thousands of hours in their logbooks. Pilots who have flown the same aircraft hundreds of times, completed the same manoeuvres and dealt with similar situations before.

So how does it go wrong?

Sometimes, it starts with three little words:

“I’ve got this.”

Overconfidence: experience can be a dangerous thing

“I’m experienced. I know the aircraft. I’ve handled this before.”

Sound familiar?

Experience is valuable. It helps us recognise patterns, make decisions and deal with the unexpected. But experience can also create a problem: we become comfortable.

We know the aircraft. We understand its handling characteristics. We have seen what it can do, and perhaps we have got away with pushing things a little further than we should have.

Gradually, confidence grows. Unfortunately, our awareness of the risks does not always keep pace.

This is overconfidence bias: when our perception of our own ability, or of what the aircraft can do, exceeds what the situation actually allows.

And helicopters can be particularly unforgiving when that happens.

The helicopter will not save you

Accident investigations have highlighted a familiar problem, after a recent accident it was highlighted:

“These intrinsic qualities of the helicopter can lead pilots to have excessive confidence in the helicopter's performance and in its ability to get out of tricky situations.”

Helicopters are remarkably capable machines. They can hover, land in confined areas and operate where many other aircraft simply cannot. That capability is one of the reasons we love flying them.  But capability has limits.

A helicopter that has always recovered from a situation before may not recover the next time. Weight, temperature, altitude, wind, aircraft condition and pilot technique all influence what is possible.

The fact that you have done something before does not mean you can safely do it again under different conditions.

And the fact that you got away with it last time does not make it good airmanship.

The real danger

The problem is not confidence itself. We need confidence to fly effectively.

The problem begins when confidence replaces assessment.  When familiarity makes us complacent. When experience persuades us that the rules apply to everyone else. When we commit to a manoeuvre because we believe we can handle it, rather than because we have properly assessed whether we should be doing it in the first place.

That is where sound judgment starts to slip.

And it can happen to any of us.

A question worth asking

The next time you find yourself thinking, “I’ve got this”, stop for a moment.

Ask yourself a different question:

“What happens if I’m wrong?”

That question may be worth more than another thousand hours in your logbook.

Because good pilots are not the ones who believe they can handle everything. They are the ones who recognise when the situation is asking too much of them — and make the decision to change the plan.

That is not a lack of confidence.

That is professional judgment.

This is one of the human factors explored in Jonny Greenall’s upcoming presentation, “Killer Instinct”, at the EASA Rotor Safety Zone during EU Rotors.