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Guide · flight risk assessment

How to run
a preflight risk
assessment.

Five steps, the PAVE checklist done properly, and the part almost everyone skips: deciding your triggers before you are standing on the ramp with a passenger asking whether you are going.

APPLIES TO
Part 91 through structured training programs
TIME
Best done the night before, then reviewed on the day
OUTPUT
A written rationale you would defend out loud
AUTHORITY
Pilot in command · always
[ 01 ]

The procedure

Five steps, in order.

  1. 01

    Gather operational data

    Collect METAR, TAF, SIGMETs, PIREPs, NOTAMs, aircraft performance data, pilot currency, and route information including terrain and alternates.

  2. 02

    Apply the PAVE checklist

    Evaluate Pilot (IMSAFE), Aircraft, enVironment and External pressures. Write down a specific risk in each category before engine start.

  3. 03

    Set personal minimums triggers

    Define hard go/no-go thresholds for ceiling, visibility, crosswind and fatigue. Triggers decided in advance are far easier to honour in flight.

  4. 04

    Score route-specific hazards

    Assess terrain exposure, historical accident density along your corridor, airport complexity, and en-route weather trends — not just the departure observation.

  5. 05

    Document and decide

    Record the assessment, state your decision and its rationale, and brief passengers or an instructor. Keep the record for training and review.

[ 02 ]

PAVE, properly

Four categories, and the one that actually kills people.

Pilot, Aircraft, enVironment, External pressures. Three of them are technical. The fourth is the reason accident narratives so often read as a sequence of individually reasonable choices.

PILOT
IMSAFE, honestly. Illness, medication, stress, alcohol, fatigue, emotion — plus the currency question most pilots skip: when did I last fly this aircraft, in these conditions, at this time of day?
AIRCRAFT
Airworthiness, equipment for the conditions you will actually meet, fuel with a reserve you would defend out loud, and weight and balance for the load you are actually carrying.
ENVIRONMENT
Departure, en route and destination weather as a trend rather than a snapshot. Terrain, runway environment, lighting, density altitude, and the alternates you would divert to at the point you would still have the fuel to reach them.
EXTERNAL
The pressures nobody writes on a form: the passengers waiting, the hotel booked, the meeting on Monday, the aircraft due back. This is the category that turns three acceptable factors into an accident.

03 · Triggers

Decide the no-go before you want to go.

A minimum you set at your desk is a number. A minimum you are negotiating with at 06:40, in front of a passenger, is a suggestion. Write the triggers down, in your own numbers, and treat crossing one as a decision already made.

A workable trigger set
CEILING
A floor for departure, en route and destination
VISIBILITY
A floor you will not shade downward
CROSSWIND
A component limit per runway, not a feeling
RUNWAY
A minimum length for your aircraft and load
FATIGUE
A duty-day limit and a hard bedtime the night before
DIVERT
A point on the route, chosen before departure

FlightReady stores the first four and checks them against retrieved conditions on every assessment. The last two stay with you.

[ 04 ]

Paper versus computed

The same idea, with the data attached.

A paper FRAT asks the right questions. Its limitation is that it cannot see today's weather, does not know your currency, and forgets everything the moment you fold it.

Static FRAT form versus a computed assessment
Paper or static formFlightReady
Who scores each lineYou, by hand, on every flightThe engine, from retrieved data and your profile
Where the weights come fromGeneric, printed on the formPublished base weights across 11 factors
Does it see today's weatherNo — you transcribe itYes — retrieved at analyze time and stamped
Does it know your minimumsOnly if you remember themStored, and checked line by line
Does it know the corridor's historyNoHistorical NTSB records near the route, cited
What survives afterwardsA sheet of paper, if you keep itA saved snapshot and your written rationale
Who decidesPilot in commandPilot in command — unchanged
Base factor weights · composite v4renormalized across available factors
  • WeatherAWC · on demand0.25
  • Pilot readinessYour profile0.15
  • Personal minimumsYour limits0.15
  • Aircraft readinessYour aircraft0.12
  • TerrainElevation model0.10
  • AirportsFAA reference0.08
  • Accident historyNTSB · historical0.08
  • NOTAMsFAA · varies0.05
  • Human factorsYour input0.05
  • Weight & balanceWhen provided0.05
  • TrafficCorridor context0.02

Relative weights · normalized at run time across available factors · missing data drops confidence

[ 05 ]

Questions

FRAT questions, answered.

!Advisory only. FlightReady supports a decision, it never makes one. Verify critical information through official aviation sources. The pilot in command decides.

MethodologyHow the computed version is weightedMethod noteFor private pilotsMinimums enforced against retrieved conditionsAudienceFor students & CFIsTeaching the reasoningAudienceInsightsAccident-pattern research behind the factorsResearch
Run a computed FRAT→See the weights
Next step

The form is not
the point. The pause is.

Whether you use paper or software, the value of a FRAT is that it stops you long enough to notice the factor you were about to accept without thinking.

Run a readiness brief→Read the methodology

Advisory only · the pilot in command decides

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Advisory boundary. FlightReady is advisory decision support. It is not an official weather briefing, a certified dispatch tool, or a substitute for pilot-in-command judgment, flight instruction, aircraft documentation, or FAA-approved sources. Verify critical information through official aviation sources before every flight.

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Composite v4 · advisory scoring