Human Performance and Decision Making at Night
Situational awareness at night
Night flying reduces the cues available for building a mental model. Monitor position, fuel, weather, terrain and system status actively. Set personal minimums for night, especially for cross-country, marginal weather and unfamiliar airfields, and review them before the flight rather than in the air.
Decision making
Use a structured model such as DECIDE: detect the change, estimate its effect, choose an outcome, identify actions, do them, and evaluate. Watch for plan-continuation bias (pressing on because the destination is close), get-there-itis, and automation complacency. Single-pilot night operations have no one else to catch errors, so verbalise checks and use written callouts.
Worked example
Destination weather is at minima and the alternate is 25 minutes away with better conditions; fuel is sufficient but not generous. Reasoning: the safe decision is to divert before the destination approach, while fuel and options remain. Pressing on to have a look risks a go-around into deteriorating weather with less fuel. State the decision, turn toward the alternate, and inform ATC.
Traps
Letting the destination's familiarity override the weather; ignoring fatigue; not briefing the go-around; and treating a GPS moving map as situational awareness rather than a tool.