Definition
A reduction in pilot vigilance and active monitoring caused by over-reliance on automated flight systems such as the autopilot, flight director, autothrottle, or flight management system. The pilot assumes the automation is functioning correctly and stops cross-checking it, which delays detection of errors, mode changes, or system failures.
Plain English
When the autopilot and other automatic systems are doing the flying, it's easy to relax and stop watching them closely. Automation complacency is the loss of attention that happens when a pilot trusts the machines too much and stops checking what they are actually doing.
Context Anchor
Seen in cockpit resource management, autopilot use, instrument flying, and accident-prevention discussions.
Derivation
Complacency comes from the Latin complacere, meaning 'to please greatly' or 'to be very satisfied.' In modern use it means a comfortable, untroubled satisfaction that causes someone to stop paying attention. Paired with automation, the term describes the specific kind of inattention that sets in when the machines appear to be handling things well.
Why Pilots Care
It reduces situational awareness and increases risk when automation fails, malfunctions, or encounters situations outside its design limits.
Analogy
It is like using cruise control in a car and then stopping your normal checks of speed, traffic, and the road. The system is helping, but you are still responsible for what happens next.
Intuition Check
Automation complacency does not mean automation is bad. It means the pilot’s attention has become too passive while using it.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor warned the student that automation complacency can set in on long cross-country flights when the autopilot is holding heading and altitude without issue.
Example Sentence 2
Recurrent training includes scenarios designed to break automation complacency by requiring periodic manual cross-checks even during routine cruise.