Pre-flight risk assessment

The risk assessment is a structured prompt to think before you fly. It groups factors using PAVE — Pilot, Aircraft, enVironment, External pressures — the same framework taught in general aviation, so it should read as something familiar rather than a number we invented.

What it looks at today

• Weather against your personal minimums.
• Daylight remaining after your planned flight time, computed from your launch location.
• Whether you are under schedule or client pressure — you tell it this.
• Whether the site is new to you.

What it does NOT look at

Pilot fitness and aircraft condition are not assessed yet. Rather than score them as fine, we leave them out of the maths entirely and label them 'not assessed' — a score that looked at half the picture and reported low risk would be worse than no score at all. Assess both yourself before you fly.

Reading the result

The band — low, moderate, elevated, or high — always comes with what drove it and what to do about it. A number on its own is not useful. Note that any single serious factor pushes the band to at least elevated: three fine things do not average out one real problem.

Advisory only. This is not a clearance, an authorisation, or a legal determination, and it does not decide whether an operation is permitted. That judgement is yours as pilot in command.