5.2 Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM)
Key Takeaways
- The DECIDE model is six steps: Detect, Estimate, Choose, Identify, Do, Evaluate.
- IMSAFE self-assessment covers Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, and Emotion before every flight.
- The five hazardous attitudes are Anti-authority, Impulsivity, Invulnerability, Macho, and Resignation — know each antidote.
- PAVE risk categories are Pilot, Aircraft, enVironment, and External pressures.
- On scenario questions, the conservative, safety-first option is almost always credited over completing the mission.
Aeronautical Decision Making
Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM) is a systematic approach to evaluating risk and selecting the safest course of action. It is one of the densest human-factors topics on the Part 107 exam, and questions are usually scenario-based: you read a short situation and pick the response that best manages risk. Memorize the four frameworks below; the exam tests them by name and by application.
The DECIDE Model
| Step | Action | UAS Example |
|---|---|---|
| D — Detect | Notice that a change has occurred | Surface winds have increased to gusting 22 knots |
| E — Estimate | Judge how the change affects safety | Gusts may exceed the aircraft's stated wind tolerance |
| C — Choose | Set a desired outcome | I want the aircraft on the ground, undamaged |
| I — Identify | Determine the actions to reach it | Fly the pre-planned route back to the launch point |
| D — Do | Execute | Begin the recovery and land |
| E — Evaluate | Assess whether it worked | Did landing resolve the hazard? Was the call correct? |
The sequence begins with Detect — a common distractor swaps in "Determine the safest action" as step one, which is wrong.
IMSAFE: Personal Fitness
Before every flight the Remote PIC screens themselves with IMSAFE:
| Letter | Factor | Self-Check |
|---|---|---|
| I | Illness | Am I sick? Even a cold dulls judgment |
| M | Medication | Could anything I take impair me? |
| S | Stress | Am I distracted by work, money, or family? |
| A | Alcohol | No alcohol within 8 hours; Blood Alcohol Concentration under 0.04% |
| F | Fatigue | Am I rested, or awake past 12-15 hours? |
| E | Emotion | Am I emotionally fit to make calm decisions? |
The Five Hazardous Attitudes
The FAA names exactly five hazardous attitudes, each with a memorized antidote. Expect a scenario that quotes a pilot's thought and asks you to name the attitude — or to supply its antidote.
| Hazardous Attitude | Thought | Antidote |
|---|---|---|
| Anti-authority | "Don't tell me what to do — the rules are dumb." | "Follow the rules. They are usually right." |
| Impulsivity | "Do something — now!" | "Not so fast. Think first." |
| Invulnerability | "It won't happen to me." | "It could happen to me." |
| Macho | "I can do it — watch this!" | "Taking chances is foolish." |
| Resignation | "What's the use? It's out of my hands." | "I'm not helpless. I can make a difference." |
A frequent trap: a pilot who skips required authorization because "I've flown here before with no problem" is showing anti-authority (disregarding a rule), not macho or impulsivity.
PAVE and the Risk Matrix
PAVE organizes pre-flight risk into four buckets — Pilot, Aircraft, enVironment, External pressures. External pressures (a client deadline, a paid job, social expectations) are the silent driver behind most accident chains, which is why they get their own letter.
Risk is then weighed as likelihood × severity:
| Negligible | Minor | Major | Catastrophic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Probable | Medium | Serious | High | High |
| Occasional | Low | Medium | Serious | High |
| Remote | Low | Low | Medium | Serious |
| Improbable | Low | Low | Low | Medium |
Worked Scenario
You have a paid roof-inspection flight. Conditions are 3 statute miles visibility with a broken layer at 800 feet, and the client wants the imagery today for a morning meeting. Walk it through ADM: PAVE flags the External pressure (deadline) and the enVironment (marginal ceiling/visibility); the driving hazardous attitude is get-there-itis tinged with impulsivity; DECIDE detects the marginal weather, estimates the violation/accident risk, and chooses to postpone. The credited answer is to reschedule — the safest option independent of the client's wishes.
The 3-P and Continuous Risk Loop
The FAA also teaches a simpler running model, the 3-P loop: Perceive the hazards (using PAVE as the checklist of where to look), Process their consequences (using the likelihood-times-severity matrix), and Perform by implementing the best control, then start over. Risk management is not a one-time pre-flight gate; it is a loop you re-run whenever something changes — the wind picks up, a battery runs lower than expected, or a crowd gathers. A pilot who completed a thorough pre-flight risk assessment but never re-evaluated when conditions deteriorated has still failed at ADM.
Setting Personal Minimums
A powerful, exam-relevant tool is the personal minimum — a self-imposed limit stricter than the regulation, fixed in advance when you are calm and unpressured. For example, you might decide "I will not launch above 20 knots of wind" or "I require 5 statute miles of visibility even though the rule allows 3." Because the number is set before the job and before the client pressure arrives, it short-circuits the in-the-moment rationalization that drives get-there-itis.
When an exam scenario describes a pilot abandoning a pre-set limit to satisfy a deadline, the hazardous-attitude framing (impulsivity or invulnerability) and the conservative corrective action are what the question is testing.
The Five Hazardous Attitudes and Their Antidotes
The FAA tests the five hazardous attitudes by name, and the credited answer is always the matching antidote — a short phrase you recite to redirect your thinking.
| Hazardous attitude | Self-talk | Antidote |
|---|---|---|
| Anti-authority ("Don't tell me") | Rules are for others | Follow the rules; they are usually right |
| Impulsivity ("Do something quickly") | Act before thinking | Not so fast; think first |
| Invulnerability ("It won't happen to me") | Accidents happen to others | It could happen to me |
| Macho ("I can do it") | Prove how good you are | Taking chances is foolish |
| Resignation ("What's the use?") | Events are out of my hands | I'm not helpless; I can make a difference |
The 3-P and DECIDE Models
Two structured models recur on the exam. The 3-P model is Perceive the hazards, Process their consequences, and Perform the best action — repeated continuously through the flight. The DECIDE model is a six-step loop: Detect the change, Estimate its significance, Choose the safe outcome, Identify actions, Do them, and Evaluate the effect. Both reduce to the same exam answer: gather information, weigh risk, and act conservatively.
Exam Strategy: When two answers are close, pick the one that adds margin, delays the flight, or brings in another resource. The FAA consistently rewards the most conservative, safety-first decision over mission completion. When asked to name an attitude or its antidote, match the pair in the table exactly.
A Remote PIC says, "I know the rules require authorization here, but I've flown this spot before with no problems." Which hazardous attitude is this?
In the IMSAFE checklist, the "S" prompts the pilot to evaluate:
The antidote for the hazardous attitude of invulnerability is:
The DECIDE model for aeronautical decision making begins with which step?