Your 'Personal Minimums' Checklist

You’ve often heard the phrase that air travel is one of the safest forms of travel. The regulations make it so. But for pilots of non-airline aircraft, i.e. ‘general aviation’ pilots, the rules are a little different. For us, it’s more of our own personal choice whether to be safe or to be reckless. The onus is on you to be safe.

As pilots in general aviation, a major part of our decision-making on whether or not to fly is something called ‘personal minimums.’ The word ‘minimums’ refers to a minimum requirement or standard that absolutely must be met before a decision is made to go ahead with the planned flight. There are legal minimums set by the authorities for various things - for example, you cannot fly under visual flight rules (by the ‘see and avoid’ method) if the visibility is less than 3 miles. Personal minimums go above and beyond the legal requirements, and apply to ourselves as pilots, the airplane we’re flying, and the environment around us.

For example, if the weather is below a certain standard, say, 5 miles of visibility, I would make a decision to not go flying. That’s setting a personal minimum for weather. Likewise, if I’ve had an alcoholic beverage 12 hours before my expected time of departure, I would probably postpone the flight, even though it's well within the legal requirement of ‘8 hours, bottle to throttle.’ That’s setting a personal minimum for my own condition as a pilot. If the airplane I usually rent isn’t available and instead another one was available with completely unfamiliar avionics and instruments, I would not fly. That’s setting a personal minimum for the condition of the airplane I fly. Personal minimums operate in such a way that once you set the standards for yourself, the decision to go or not has already been made for you. These minimums will also change from time to time as you gain more experience as a pilot.

To create a personal minimums checklist for various situations in life can be very useful, especially in high-pressure situations. Whenever something doesn’t feel quite right, or you have to say ‘Ah, it’s alright, it’s just for this one time,’ STOP and think. Before you do what you do, are all the conditions of your personal minimums met to your standards? If not, just stop right there and get back to safety. You’re under no compulsion to do anything risky or under pressure. The first and foremost thing in your mind must only and only be your own health and sanity. Create a personal minimums checklist that’s easy to remember and make sure every item is fulfilled.

The nice part is that you can change your personal minimums according to your level of experience. Once you gain enough experience operating under your current set of personal minimums, you can change your standards to be more flexible. Or the other way round - if something involves more risk or more pressure, you can change your standards to be more strict. Because now you know better. You now have the experience required that qualifies you to change your personal minimums. And when that checklist is fulfilled, go ahead and let your dreams take flight. Your safety is now assured.

Checklist complete.