Pilots are some of the smartest, most detail-oriented, conscientious, deliberate people I know. That’s also why they take some of the biggest risks—because if you ask them, they’ll tell you they’re some of the smartest, most detail-oriented, conscientious, deliberate people they know. Visit an airport and hang out with pilots. If you hang around long enough, you’ll hear somebody say–right after swapping a particularly harrowing hangar tale–“Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement.” Pilots love to quote Mark Twain. But despite our abnormally high self-confidence, pilots also are coachable. We learn from our mistakes, and the mistakes of others. This book is dedicated to all those smart pilots who’ve made dumb mistakes and lived to tell about them, so that the rest of us can learn from them and become better aviators.
Jeffrey James Madison a pilot since 1995, is a well-regarded aviation safety expert. He is writer of the “Human Factors” column in General Aviation News. Jeffrey, a former Part 121 and Part 135 airline captain, is an ATP, CFI/MEI, and has over 1,000 hours dual given. He has flown into more than 250 GA airports throughout most of the Lower 48.