I spent a portion of the last week of 2024 like many readers of this piece may have: trying to make sense of everything that happened in aviation last year, and sizing up what it might mean for what will happen this year. Maybe you actually read through the trade journals and media sites that make detailed lists of these kinds of things (I confess that I did). But if you’ve been in aviation for long, you know that yesterday is as good as ancient history in our field; most aviation professionals are oriented toward the future instead of being fixated on the past.

In one widely-read and respected journal in our industry, there were no less than five of these lists, and as I was reading through them, it occurred to me that many of the things that some industry experts are sure are “out” or “trending down” in 2025 will soon be “in” again and “trending up.”

To add to all of this prognosticating, just as I was sitting down to write this article, the tragic news of the Jeju Air Flight 2216 accident broke. Perhaps by the time this article is in print, we’ll know more than we do now and surely there will be many lists of safety topics to discuss in the coming years from that accident. Some of these lessons may be new, but like the lists of “what’s in and what’s out for 2025,” many of them will have been discussed before only to find new life in the present. 

Pilots are known for having their own individual views on almost every topic under the sun, including lists pertaining to flight safety. I instructed for more than 25 years, in both military and civilian settings, and continue to work today with some of the newest pilots in our profession. Each and every one of the many hundreds of pilots I have worked with has their own individual “safety profile”—much like their own “personal fingerprint of error” described by my colleague and friend Tony Kern in his book, Blue Threat: Why to Err is Inhuman (2009). None of them—and none of us—are the same. We all commit errors, and all of us in aviation do it slightly differently.

At the same time, if we’re honest about it, we are all working on something that we can be better at, even if we’re mostly private about what that is. I’ve never gotten in the cockpit and had a fellow pilot tell me, “Hey, just wanted to let you know that I’ve been making a lot of mistakes lately, but I’m working on them.”

So, before the accident investigators and influencers across our profession gather up everything new that we should be thinking about as a result of the latest mishap, I wanted to offer a short list of things that are “still in” (and maybe always will be) when it comes to managing our individual safety profile—through the eyes of a practicing pilot who still makes errors and is constantly working on something. To be fair to fans of  “What’s out,” I have added a list for that, too.

'In' for 2025

1. Knowing the design logic of your aircraft’s flight management system (FMS) better than they teach it at the schoolhouse; making a professional point to understand every function of the FMS and being able to help others understand better as well.
2. Eliminating, one error at a time, “clunky” and “awkward” interactions with the aircraft autoflight systems—no more sudden jolts when the autopilot is disconnected, no more autoflight-induced errors that impact the flight path, even just a little bit.
3. Adopting as standard—on 100% of all flight legs—a debriefing protocol that recaps every error made on the flight deck, no matter how small, with a complete understanding of why it happened.
4. Looking beyond just the family of publications that define your professional job (company SOPs and aircraft operating instructions) and considering the vast amount of information (yes, much of it very relevant to current flight operations) available in SAFOs, Advisory Circulars, and safety reporting systems like NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). To get started, read SAFO 17007 on Manual Flight Operations Proficiency, AC 90-105A on RNP Operations in the U.S., Oceanic and Remote Areas, and just for fun, put your aircraft type into the ASRS search engine along with the phrase “flight path deviation.”

'Out' for 2025

1. Coming off a long period of days off (vacation, sick time, et cetera) in the same way you’d come to work when you’ve been flying regularly; instead, change your routine on these days to arrive at least a couple of hours early to go over your basic procedures and review flight-critical knowledge, to include your flight department’s stabilized approach policy and fatigue risk management protocols.
2. Post-flight briefings that sound something like this: “I don’t have anything for you, you got anything for me?” Instead, implement a meaningful flight debriefing protocol that includes questions and not statements: “Did we do anything that was unsafe today in any way? Did we do anything non-standard? Did we understand everything that occurred with respect to the aircraft autoflight system? Have we reported every discrepancy to aircraft maintenance and engineering?”
3. Adding to the already divisive “noise” in our industry that focuses on the differences between the most experienced, veteran professionals and the newest entrants to aviation—across every specialty. Instead, try asking questions about their respective careers that can lead to a genuine exchange of vital viewpoints as we all move ahead together—for example: “Where do you want to be in your career field in five years? In 25 years?” and “What has been the most interesting aspect of your entire career and how did it impact where you are today?”
4. “Mailing it in” when it comes to your own recurrent training. Instead of focusing only on “checking the training box,” use every valuable minute of your training time–in the briefing, in the training device itself, and in the debrief—to totally “fill up” the recurrent training experience with more than just the minimum required.

We have a lot to look forward to this year, and already the first month of 2025 will be behind us when you see this article. It’s never too late to get started on improving your routine and becoming better at your profession than you were last year or even yesterday. I think it’s a reasonable ask to accomplish everything on both of these lists and improve not just your own safety margins, but those of your colleagues and fellow professionals. Personally, I’m anxious to see how I improve my personal airmanship over the next 12 months. Who wants to join me?

The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily endorsed by AIN Media Group.