General Aviation Joint Safety Committee
CFIT Working Group
Outreach Guidance Document
2023/10-29-295(I)PP
This outreach guidance is provided to all FAA and aviation industry groups that are participating in outreach efforts sponsored by the General Aviation Joint Safety Committee (GAJSC). It is important that all outreach on a given topic is coordinated and is free of conflicts. Therefore, all outreach products should be in alignment with the outline and concepts listed below for this topic.
Outreach Month: November 2025
Topic: Overreliance on Automation
The FAA and industry will conduct a public education campaign emphasizing the dangers of Overreliance on Automation and best practices for safe flight operations with Technically advance aircraft and avionics.
Background:
GAJSC study of Fatal General Aviation Loss of Control Accidents found that a significant number may have been been caused, at least in part, by pilot reliance on aircraft automation rather than hand-flying skill and proficiency.
Teaching Points:
- Aircraft automation has reduced pilot’s physical workload but in many cases increased cognitive workload.
- GA pilots quickly come to trust automated aircraft control and mistrust their hands-on flying ability.
- Relying on automated control quickly diminishes hand-flying proficiency.
- Pilot Deviations have increased despite the ability to navigate more accurately with GPS recievers and moving map displays.
- Pilots are not good at monitoring automated systems and consequently can miss significant deviations from plan and be surprised at what their aircraft are doing.
References:
- Overreliance on Automation PowerPoint
- Human Factors for Pilots – on line courses on FAASafety.gov
- Module 3 – Human Performance
- Module 9 – Human Information Processing
- Module 10 – Design and Automation
