Event Details and Registration

Human performance degradation is often taught as a universal concept, but Part 91 pilots in Central Florida face a unique variant: errors that occur precisely because the airspace feels familiar. This seminar focuses on the cognitive traps that emerge when pilots fly well known routes—reduced vigilance, assumption based decision making, expectation bias, and unnoticed cue miss patterns. Using ASRS cases and Orlando area examples, we will examine how routine operations quietly erode attention and how to build deliberate countermeasures that keep judgment sharp even in airspace you think you know.

Please visit the Orlando Executive Airport FAASTeam Library web site:

 https://www.fsr-inc.org/FAAST/Seminar/Notice.aspx

From Colonial Drive turn south on Rickenbacker Dr. Continue through the Fairgreen St intersection to the end of Rickenbacker Dr. and into the parking lot. Park in any available designated spot. Walk east to the Airport Administration Building.

Orlando Executive Airport (ORL)
365 Rickenbacker Dr.
Orlando, FL 32802

For additional and background information, please visit the Orlando Executive Airport FAASTeam Library web site: https://www.fsr-inc.org/FAAST/Seminar/Notice.aspx

Background
Most human factors seminars address broad issues—fatigue, distraction, stress, and workload. But accident and ASRS data show a different pattern in Central Florida: pilots make some of their worst decisions in the airspace they know best. Familiarity creates a false sense of security, leading to assumption driven shortcuts, reduced cross checking, and missed cues that would be obvious in unfamiliar airspace.The July seminar explicitly emphasizes:
•    Familiar airspace cognitive traps
•    Expectation bias unique to home field flying
•    Assumption driven errors that do NOT appear in unfamiliar airspace
•    This is fundamentally different from general human factors training

This seminar isolates the environment specific cognitive traps that occur only when the pilot is operating in a “home field” mindset. These traps are not about low skill or poor training—they arise from predictability, routine, and over learned patterns that cause the brain to down regulate vigilance. In high density, mixed use airspace like Orlando, this becomes a silent risk amplifier.
Pilots will learn how to detect when familiarity is degrading their attention, how to interrupt expectation bias, and how to apply structured cognitive checks that keep performance sharp even on the most routine flights.
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Relevant ACS Elements
Private Pilot ACS
•    PA.I.D: ADM and Risk Management
•    PA.II: Preflight Planning and Personal Minimums
•    PA.VIII: Emergency Operations
Commercial Pilot ACS
•    CA.I.D: ADM and Professionalism
•    CA.II: Preflight Planning and Risk Assessment
•    CA.VIII: Emergency Operations
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Teaching Points
•    Fatigue induced cue miss patterns
•    Distraction recovery protocol (stop → stabilize → resume)
•    Overconfidence and normalization of deviance traps
•    Bias interruption tools
•    Personal minimums matrix tied to cognitive state
•    Workload management in mixed use airspace
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Key Takeaways
•    Cognitive drift is detectable if you know the cues
•    Distraction recovery must be deliberate, not improvised
•    Familiar airspace increases—not decreases—risk
•    Personal minimums must adapt to cognitive state
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FAA References
•    FAA Human Factors Guide for Aviation
•    Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (FAA H 8083 25C), Ch. 2
•    AC 60 22 (ADM)
•    AC 61 98D (Proficiency and WINGS)
•    NASA ASRS Database: https://asrs.arc.nasa.gov
•    FAA Human Factors Videos (FAA YouTube channel)

Thanks to Lindsey Merced at the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) for use of their Administrative Offices, to Senior FAASTeam Rep David Conrad for registration and handouts,to FAASTeam Rep and WINGSPro Eric Mason, M.D.,to FAASTeam Rep Steve Moore, to FAASTeam Rep and DRONEPro KC Sealock, to Obie Young, Florida Aviation Network, a FAASTeam Industry Member, and to John Tenney, FAASTeam Rep.