Definition
Physiological and psychological pressures a pilot creates or accepts through personal choices and lifestyle, rather than those imposed by the flight environment. Common examples include the use of drugs, exhaustion, alcohol, tobacco, hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar from skipped meals), and emotional stress. These stresses degrade pilot performance and are particularly harmful to night vision.
Plain English
Things you do to yourself that make you a worse pilot. Skipping sleep, drinking, smoking, missing meals, flying upset, or using drugs all reduce how well your body and mind work in the cockpit, especially at night.
Context Anchor
Encountered when studying night flying, night vision, and personal fitness before a flight.
Derivation
"Self-imposed" means placed on yourself by your own actions or choices. The term highlights that these stresses are not forced on the pilot by weather, the aircraft, or the mission — the pilot brings them into the cockpit personally, which also means the pilot can choose to remove them.
Why Pilots Care
These stresses directly lower visual performance at night and are a leading contributor to night flying incidents that could otherwise be avoided through simple personal choices.
Grounding Statement
A tired pilot who recently used nicotine or skipped food may look outside at night and see less than a rested, healthy pilot in the same airplane.
Intuition Check
Do not read self-imposed stresses as only emotional pressure or feeling nervous. Here it means physical or behavior-related strains on the pilot's body that can reduce vision, especially at night.
Example Sentence 1
Before a night cross-country, the pilot reviewed self-imposed stresses and decided to delay departure after realising he had only slept four hours.
Example Sentence 2
During the preflight briefing the instructor reminded the student that self-imposed stresses like smoking would slow dark adaptation and reduce visibility of dim runway lights.