Self-Awareness as a Pilot’s Superpower - Part 3

Fresh out of flight school, junior pilots are often teetering between two psychological poles: imposter syndrome (persistent self-doubt about one’s abilities despite clear evidence of competence) and unchecked optimism. Here we find fertile ground for the Dunning-Kruger effect—that cognitive bias where individuals with low ability in a domain overestimate their competence.

Many junior pilots don’t yet know what they don’t know. Their situational awareness is still developing, especially in an environment where are so many things to do, and while they may be technically proficient, they often lack what psychologists call metacognitive accuracy—the ability to accurately evaluate one’s own knowledge and decision-making capacity.

At this stage, humility is a superpower. Becoming a pilot is a long road, and mentorship is essential. And CRM is more than a box to tick—it’s a lifeline that reminds new pilots they’re part of a bigger system where asking for help is not a weakness, but wisdom.

With experience comes confidence—and with confidence, the risk of overestimating one’s judgment. This is where pilots start trusting their gut a bit more… sometimes a bit too much.

From a psychological perspective, this is the "conscious competence" stage. You know what you’re doing, but processing it still requires effort. The danger lies in what we call illusory superiority—thinking you're better than average when, statistically, most of us can’t be (and there is absolutely nothing wrong with being average - this means standard, hard working and with a lot of potential!).

This phase demands balance. Pilots must learn to trust themselves without disregarding SOPs, to project authority without becoming unapproachable, and to build on their growing confidence while leaving space for healthy self-doubt. 

3. Captain: The Expert’s Paradox

The seasoned captain has intuition grounded in years of experience. Captains often recognize patterns quickly, make decisions rapidly, and understand the unspoken gaps in SOPs.

But expertise carries its own blind spots. Overconfidence here can be even more dangerous because it’s often harder to detect. Experienced pilots may unintentionally cut corners, dismiss junior input, or become resistant to feedback. Psychological flexibility serves as a strong safeguard against this —the willingness to adapt, accept uncertainty, and model humility for the next generation.

Great captains not only fly well, they elevate others by creating a safe space for questions, doubts, and continuous improvement. They model what it looks like to be confidently humble.

Being able to accept that we do all make mistakes and can’t know everything. And not being embarrassed about admitting this!

Here’s the thing, getting your licence does not mean you’re a pro-pilot who can never mess up. Getting your command doesn’t mean you can’t mess up for that matter! We ALL have to keep learning and (you’ll probably hear this a whole lot) but the day you think you know it all is the day you should probably stop flying!

But let’s not be all negative about it. Admitting you don’t know something isn’t a bad thing, and it’s also just as important to have confidence in what you do know.

It’s a balance, but it is a tough one to get right. We have to have confidence in what we know we know, the skills we know we have, we just have to make sure we don’t get complacent or cocky.

So confidence versus over-confidence is really about judging things, taking all the You stuff, Person beside you stuff, and External conditions stuff into account, and balancing what you know you know, with areas you might need to develop more. 

OK, you’ve got the helpful psychology bit, so let me give you some real world pilot examples too.

The reason it is so important was shown, tragically, in the case of Airblue Flight 202.

The A321 was heading to Islamabad in Pakistan, with a 61 year old Captain who had over 25,000 hours as PF, while the First Officer (and PM), had under 2000 total time, and just a few hundred on the A321. Throughout the flight, the Captain had been testing the FO - asking them questions to check their knowledge, and using what the report described as “harsh words and a snobbish tone” resulting in “intermittent, humiliating sessions”. Unsurprisingly, this led to the FO losing confidence, becoming submissive and not really challenging the Captain.

The approach in use was a circle to land, and in poor conditions (low cloud, rain and low visibility) flying this as standard as possible was more important than ever. However, the captain did not, and because of the atmosphere set in the flight deck, the first officer was unable to effectively question the captain.

I won’t write out the full sequence of events, but encourage you to go and read the report. In summary, while the first officer did eventually try to challenge the captain, they never intervened enough and the aircraft ended up crashing into terrain.

For first officers, and especially lower experienced ones, having the self-awareness to reflect on your skills and weaknesses and to know when you need more support is important, but having the confidence to speak out and intervene when needed is critical. A huge number of accidents have occurred with an overbearing captain flying, and an under-confident FO who was unable to intervene.

Confidence is something we continually work on through our careers. Don’t pressure yourself to be ‘perfect’ (you never will be), but by continually developing we can build the competencies we need to be confident in what we know.

So whether you’re new to the flight deck or flying on instinct, remember: being an expert isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about knowing which questions matter and how to find the answers as a team.