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Feature Article: The Competence of Incompetence

With the advent of a new study as to what constitutes competence there is a new fear by the self-assured that they may be among the many incompetent pilots in the world. You and I have every reason to be worried that we are among the incompetents and unknowingly so. Competency is not so much a matter of mind as it is of demonstration.

The fact is that pilots who perform poorly are supremely confident of their performance being within acceptable parameters. These poor performers are likely to have more confidence about their abilities and performance than will the truly competent. Pilots, individually and collectively, do not know what they don't know.

Since ignorance is bliss, pilots proceed through their flying careers blissfully self-assured and unaware that incompetence is exposed to a greater extent by the inability to recognize its existence. Incompetence is a double whammy on the pilot who makes mistakes of performance and judgment and is unable to recognize the problem. This recognition limitation is often discovered when the pilot is extended beyond the point of a successful outcome. The opportunity to be extended and surviving is not always offered or available. When the opportunity is survivable we have had an experience, when it isn't survivable we were' dumb'.

The pilot who has this deficiency in self-analysis will continue with poor performance and judgment until running out of viable options. The pilot will go to great lengths to explain how all that happens in a particular event has nothing to do with his competence or judgment. The level a pilot has reached in ability to self-evaluate is directly related to his ability to reason, use language and see what is funny about life. Pilots, who are unable to reason, speak, and laugh are likely to overestimate and distort their abilities and performance.

Competent pilots are more likely to underestimate their competence. Competent pilots tend to believe that other pilots are likewise competent just because they are pilots. The judging of other pilots flight performance is likely to make the competent pilot feel unchanged about himself. The same judging by the incompetent pilot will likely raise his opinion of himself. Incompetents are unable to evaluate the displayed incompetence of others.

Training in reasoning can improve an incompetent's self-evaluation by reducing the exaggeration of self-perception. The better you know what you know the better you realize how much you don't know. Overconfidence is a common characteristic of the incompetent. They will consistently rate themselves as "above average" on a wide rage of flying abilities. The more difficult the task the more likely is the incompetent to give himself a high rating.

Fortunately, in flying, an awareness of one's own inabilities is inevitable. Poor landings are always a return to reality for both competent and incompetent pilots. Poor judgment will eventually expose the incompetent's incompetence, often with most tragic results. For every incompetent removed from the gene pool, there is always another under training.

Last Modified August 16, ©2026 TAGE.COM