Definition
A single-pilot resource management (SRM) skill that combines two linked actions: managing the resources, workload, and risks of a flight, and making timely decisions about how to handle them. It is one of the SRM skill areas an instructor evaluates when assessing how well a student handles the demands of flying alone.
Plain English
The pilot's ability to keep on top of everything happening in the flight and make good, timely choices about what to do next. It is treated as one combined skill because managing a situation and deciding what to do about it happen together.
Context Anchor
Seen in instructor evaluation of single-pilot resource management skills, especially when judging how a learner handles choices during a flight scenario.
Derivation
Manage comes from older words connected with handling or directing something by hand. Decide comes from Latin words meaning to cut off, which fits the idea of cutting off other options and choosing one. Together, Manage/Decide points to both handling the situation and making the choice.
Why Pilots Care
Weak Manage/Decide performance is a leading contributor to loss of control and other incidents in single-pilot operations.
Intuition Check
Manage/Decide does not just mean being in charge or having an opinion. In this FAA training context, it means the learner shows usable decision-making in the situation being evaluated.
Example Sentence 1
During the lesson, the instructor noted that the student's Manage/Decide skill needed work, because she recognized the deteriorating weather but waited too long to choose a diversion.
Example Sentence 2
During the post-flight briefing the examiner highlighted the pilot’s Manage/Decide choices after an unexpected runway closure.