Big Piston's thoughts resonate well with me. It's pilot's typical nature to stretch things a bit. A bit is usually okay, but you have to know your limit. I was once flying a 182RG back to Toronto from Montreal (watched the F1 races). As I contemplated my final destinationon the far side of Toronto, and fuel remaining. I decided to land at the airport on the near side of Toronto to fuel up. In making the decision to delay our arrival, and inconvenience my pax, I asked myself: "would I take a half hour detour, to prevent really sweating the final few miles at night?". Yep, I would. Pax understood.
I always try to envision those Swiss Cheese holes moving around, and lining up in a bad way, so I fall through. Among many things, fuel awareness keeps one Swiss Cheese hole from lining up.
but IMHO it DOES summarise things - the solution is really, as has been said, training, both initial and continuation, yes, you can go into further detail, but that is the essence.
Yes, but, so many pilots you ask (including me), will tell you that they are using their superior skills to prevent an accident. But, after the accident, you ask how it happened with the assumed application of superior skill, and you get a face down to the left response.
Your superior skills are only as good as taught and practiced - appropriate to the aircraft type. Which obviously takes us to:
instructors that are lacking in experience and the basics, if they do not have that then how can they pass it on?
It's unkind to generalize, but yes. I know few instructors who fly so much in the non training environment to fresh on real world flying aspects - beyond the curriculum...
Knowing I had to train forced approaches in a highly modified Caravan last week, I practiced first. That would sound good in a debrief, but I assumed too much skill of myself, and got to the edge of where I could safely be. The plane was fine, but the mod suffered a small amount of damage at my hand, which should not have happened. A few hours had it repaired, but I wore it. It did have a use though, as I reminded the chief pilot I was training that it
could be done, so when he was training, be extra sharp. He appreciated that I had done it, so he could learn from my mistake, rather than his! The fourth Swiss Cheese hole was only a small one, but I lined them all up, and scraped paint, where I never had before!