Definition
The internal hazards a pilot brings to a flight — physical, mental, emotional, and experiential factors that can degrade decision-making, perception, or performance. Pilot risks are one of the four risk categories an instructor teaches a student to evaluate during preflight risk assessment, alongside aircraft, environment, and external pressures.
Plain English
These are the risks that come from the pilot themselves — how they're feeling, how rested they are, how current they are, and how much experience they have with this kind of flight. The pilot is part of the risk picture, not separate from it.
Context Anchor
Used in FAA instruction and preflight planning when a pilot or instructor is identifying what could make a planned flight unsafe.
Derivation
Pilot comes from an older word meaning a person who steers or guides a vessel. Risk means the chance of harm or loss. Together, pilot risks points to the chances of trouble that come from the person guiding the aircraft.
Why Pilots Care
Recognizing these risks lets instructors and pilots address human factors before they lead to incidents or accidents.
Intuition Check
Do not read pilot risks as “risks to pilots” only. In this FAA context, it mainly means risks created by the pilot’s condition, readiness, or decisions.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor walked the student through pilot risks before the cross-country, asking about sleep, recent currency, and any pressure to complete the flight on schedule.
Example Sentence 2
Good risk management starts with honestly identifying your own pilot risks on every flight.