Much of flying is an act of faith. You are placing your trust in those who designed and built the aircraft, in those who maintain it and in those who trained you to defy gravity for a living.

The Theory: The sky is so vast and your aircraft so small, there’s almost no chance of a “midair” encounter. Of course we all know this theory is invalid and would never embrace such a blind course of aircraft avoidance. And yet so many of our actions validate the theory that we needn’t look outside our aluminum tubes to see others that might share our airspace. The classic “beak-to-beak” midair collision scenario came from the U.S. Air Force in the 1970s. It featured an F-4 Phantom II heading right at you, the closure speed was on the order of 900 kt. and you didn’t stand a chance.

For safety’s sake, it is up to us to help problem pilots improve. Learn about the seven types of problem pilots, what drives them and how to approach them.