Definition
Incorrect techniques, procedures, or responses a learner has practiced repeatedly to the point of automatic performance, requiring deliberate effort to identify, unlearn, and replace with correct behavior.
Plain English
Wrong ways of doing things that a student has practiced enough times that they now do them automatically, and which take real effort to fix.
Context Anchor
In flight training, this term comes up when an instructor is watching a learner perform a task and correcting mistakes before they become the learner’s normal way of doing it.
Derivation
‘Faulty’ comes from the Latin fallere meaning ‘to deceive or fail’ — a faulty habit is one that fails the pilot when it counts. ‘Habit’ comes from the Latin habitus meaning ‘condition or manner,’ pointing to behavior that has become automatic through repetition.
Why Pilots Care
Uncorrected faulty habits can turn into automatic unsafe behaviors that increase accident risk once the student flies solo.
Intuition Check
Faulty habits does not mean a learner has a bad attitude or is careless. It means the learner has repeated an incorrect action or thought pattern enough that it may start to feel normal.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor noticed the learner was developing a faulty habit of skipping the fuel selector check during the before-takeoff flow.
Example Sentence 2
Early correction of faulty habits helps the student build safe procedures before they become automatic.