PLT022: Aeronautical Decision Making
What code PLT022 covers, why the FAA tests it, and how to study Aeronautical Decision Making before your checkride.
Define Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM)
What this means for your checkride
Aeronautical decision making (ADM) is a systematic approach to the mental process pilots use to consistently choose the best course of action for a given set of circumstances. It covers recognizing the hazardous attitudes, managing risk and stress, and using structured judgment rather than reacting on instinct.
Poor judgment, not stick-and-rudder skill, drives many accidents, so the FAA tests whether you can define ADM and apply it, including spotting the five hazardous attitudes.
Pilots treat ADM as common sense. It is a learned, structured skill: identify hazards, assess risk, and apply the antidote to a hazardous attitude rather than act on impulse.
Where to study it
A code on your test report is an area of deficiency. An authorized instructor must review it with you and endorse that review before you take the practical test, and the examiner may revisit it during the oral. Study it until you can explain it out loud, not just recognize the answer.