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Always Maintain Situational Awareness

Situational awareness is a just convenient shorthand to express prompt, clear knowledge of

• where you are at any point in time
• where you are supposed to be at any point in time according to your clearance and instructions
• where you intend to go and what steps you need to take to reach your destination
• who else is around you, and where they are going, and what their intentions are

ATC assigned taxi instructions include:

• the runway or point to taxi to
• your route
• hold short instructions or
• runway crossing clearances.

Situational awareness is key.
Loss of situational awareness is a clue that you are in danger.

As soon as you recognize that your situational awareness is not complete, stop and act to restore it.

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Review airport layouts ahead of time

Safety starts at home, as early as during flight planning time:

• study Airport Diagrams and NOTAMs well before the flight
  • annotate Airport Diagrams with closures and abnormalities, such as missing markings or lighting
  • update your EFB data – don’t fly with outdated charts
  • study the Hot Spots
  • check for pre-designated, or standard taxi routes
  • materialize and write down the taxi route(s) you expect three times: at the departure airport, at the arrival ariport and at the alternate.
• At the turnout after landing is not the right time to look at the airport diagram for the first time – there is no excuse
  • study destination airport at plan time
  • consider reviewing again the airport diagram during instrument approach briefing

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Learn all airport signage and markings

and know where to expect to find them

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Write down taxi instructions

Be prepared to write down ATC taxi instructions

• this helps because memory is faulty: we forget, we make mistakes!
• writing instructions also helps counter expectation bias.

Develop a shorthand notation to write taxi instructions.
You can use ‘X’ to denote crossing, taking advantage of the fact that no taxiway X exists.

Review the route given against the airport diagram – does it make sense?

Do not hesitate to ask ATC again if in doubt.

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Study and use proper phraseology

Misunderstandings cause accidents!

Do not allow coincidences (e.g., runway 22 vs gate 22 in the JFK near-miss discussed above) to create confusion.

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Readbacks must include runway crossing and hold short instructions

Always read back:

• any instruction to hold short of a specific runway
• any runway assignments
• any clearance to enter a specific runway.

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When in doubt, never assume, always request clarifications

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Beware of the unique challenges present at untowered fields

At untowered fields:

• You can not count on tower or ground control assistance
  • no professional is there to help you maintain awareness of all other traffic – air and ground
  • nobody is there corrects your mistakes: you can carry mistakes into the late stages of a flight
    (e.g., taking off in the wrong direction and proceeding in that direction)
    
• You don’t just have to worry about your own mistakes – nobody is there to correct other pilots’ mistakes
  • you must guarantee your own separation
  • you must watch for other pilots’ mistakes!
    
• A larger fraction of pilots are not career pilots
  • the average level of accuracy and professionalism might be lower
  • you might expect less adherence to standard operating procedures
  • you might expect airplanes that don’t need to satisfy transponder or ADS-B requirements
    
• Taxiways are less developed, or could be missing completely, forcing traffic to back-taxi
  • be extremely alert and diligent with calls
  • especially if you need to back-taxiing on the runway

Best practices

• use the airport diagram to plan your route
• monitor the CTAF and maintain situational awareness always
• announce your intentions on CTAF, early and often
• cross-check the diagram as you move
• when moving, apply right-of-way rules but promptly give way any time it may benefit safety, even if you have right of way.

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Turn on exterior lights when taxiing

Keep strobe, position and navigation lights on whenever possible and reasonable.

Use your landing light to signal your intentions to move.

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Request progressive taxi instructions if helpful

If at an unfamiliar field or at one with a complex taxiway network, consider asking ATC for progressive instructions.

ATC will assist you one step at a time.

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Check for traffic before entering every runway and taxiway

Visually scan for traffic at every intersection.

Visually verify that the runway is clear before initiation your takeoff roll.

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When landing, clear the runway soon

Then stop fully and wait for taxi instructions before moving.

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Beware of Hot Spots

Study your Airport diagrams with special attention for hot spots, locations where incidents have occurred in the past and are designated as potentially hazardous aread.

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Limit Distractions on the Flight Deck

When taxiing, you should focus primarily on taxiing, at the exclusion of other, non-essential tasks.

Keep all other workload at a minimum.

Avoid any “heads down” work while the plane is moving.

Maintain a “sterile cockpit”, avoiding unnecessary conversation and distractions:

• even better than sterile cockpit, you can adopt a fully cross-checked stream of consciousness:
  • say what you are doing, what you are about to do, why
  • the other pilots verify the correctness of each steps
• if you have “unruly passengers” (i.e., children), use technology when available, for example intercom isolation:

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