Passenger Pressure in Business Aviation

The sheer volume of knowledge a pilot must master helps explain why only 0.2% of the U.S. population has at least a Private Pilot Certificate. As the ratings grow, the percentages decrease even further. There are several reasons the pilot population is small and dwindling. Having the self-discipline to get all that knowledge into one brain through study, training, and experience is daunting and costly. However, once you get paid to fly, it’s all worth it. 

Even though pilots become proficient in their aviation skills, business aviation (bizav) pilots face another layer of challenge: passenger skills. It’s not like an airline pilot, where the sounds of voices and shuffled feet are as close as they come to passenger interactions. 

Bizav pilots look their passengers in the eye, and Part 91 flight departments have an even closer, confidential relationship with their passengers. They see them all the time and get to know them. Without realizing it, that personal relationship can affect decision-making. 

The Shift From “If” to “How” 

As a pilot’s logbook grows and ratings are added to the certificate, perceptions shift with experience and knowledge. The first few years of flying are spent learning how to avoid adverse weather and airport challenges. But once you start getting paid to fly, pilots shift their thought process from avoiding challenges to finding a way to complete the mission. The questions change from “if” to “how” and subliminally create a strong, mission-oriented mindset. 

Especially in business aviation, you must learn to deal with weather and unfamiliar environments, operate in them, and find ways to the destinations (which are often unfamiliar airports), because someone is paying a lot of money for the privilege of being in a jet that can reach unusual locations. That person is sitting right behind you in the aircraft cabin, and you don’t want to let them down. That added pressure is blended with a bizav pilot’s thought process and mindset in moments of decision. 

That mindset guides observable behaviors from minor actions to major decisions. From taking off too close to an inbound storm because you know the airport will be shutting down and the passengers must get to a wedding, to touching down above ref because you want the boss to love your landing, pilots subconsciously behave to please. Their actions are guided by earned self-confidence, skill, and previous outcomes. 

Every pilot has continued an approach that wasn’t quite stable, but the outcome is often a perfect landing because the pilot corrected it along the way. It reinforces the mission mindset of completing the task at hand, even if it’s beyond the parameters. That focus can become so narrow that options like going around are eliminated in the moment. 

Yielding to Passenger Peer Pressure Can Lead to Bad Outcomes 

Passenger peer pressure that isn’t properly addressed can increase the likelihood of adverse outcomes in several ways. For example, pilots learn that a little extra airspeed makes for softer landings, and most of the time, they have extra runway. That pattern becomes established, and 99% of the time, it’s no problem. Then that same formula is applied to a contaminated or shorter runway, and that 20 knots above ref on the approach is the extra push it takes to cause a runway excursion. 

The irony is that most pilots know this, but in that tunnel vision of completing a task, options are forgotten. It takes a crew philosophy to use everyone’s piloting skills to full capacity. Pilots know what parameters/profile an aircraft should be in to continue an approach, so when the Pilot Monitoring sees the profile shifting, that pilot has the best opportunity to point out the situation and offer a solution without being insulting. 

Honestly, many approaches begin outside the parameters of stabilized because ATC often has you too high, too fast, or too close to another aircraft (or they tell you someone is right behind you), and they leave it up to you to fix the problem after you’ve been cleared to land or cleared for the approach. 

This is the moment when Pilot Monitoring should be pointing out those deviations. Give the Flying Pilot a moment to correct, but if the aircraft profile isn’t changing, speak louder and associate a solution. “We’re still ref plus 15, but we’re in flaps full or gear down range,” or something to that effect. 

Sure, the Flying Pilot might be offended by the suggestion, but it will open their mind to possibilities, and pilots aren’t there to worry about offending someone. They’re there to get the aircraft on the ground safely and offend each other at the bar later. 

Speak up.