Definition
The combined exposure to hazards in a given flight or operation, made up of identified risk (hazards the pilot has recognized and assessed) and unidentified risk (hazards that exist but have not been spotted). Total risk is what the pilot is actually flying with, whether they see all of it or not.
Plain English
All the risk on a flight added together — the dangers you've spotted plus the ones you haven't. It's the real amount of risk you're carrying, not just the part you know about.
Context Anchor
Seen in FAA risk management discussions, especially when an instructor or pilot is sorting out what hazards exist before a flight or training activity.
Derivation
From Latin totus, meaning whole or entire. Used here in the sense of the complete picture of risk — everything the pilot is exposed to, recognized or not.
Why Pilots Care
Recognizing that total risk always exceeds what has been identified encourages conservative go/no-go decisions and ongoing vigilance throughout the flight.
Grounding Statement
Before a flight, total risk is the whole set of things that could make the flight unsafe, whether the pilot has already noticed them or not.
Intuition Check
Total risk does not mean the flight is automatically too dangerous. It means the complete amount of risk present before deciding which parts can be reduced, accepted, or avoided.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor explained that total risk on any flight includes both the weather concerns the student listed and the fatigue they hadn't recognized.
Example Sentence 2
Even after all checklist items were completed, the pilot accepted that some portion of the total risk remained unidentified.