Severity of an Event  Risk  Flight Risk Assessment Tools  Why Should I Use a FRAT?  1-10  Just thinking about this task may not consider the actual risk exposure. We may allow our personal desires to manipulate our risk  assessment in order to meet personal goals. A formal process using pen and paper gives a perspective on the entire risk picture and is  a good way to make a thorough analysis.  “In the thick” is no time to try to mitigate a potentially hazardous outcome. When preparing for a flight or maintenance task  pilots  and maintenance technicians may set aside time to stop and think about the hazards involved.  Because every flight has some level of risk  it is critical that pilots can differentiate  in advance  between a low risk flight and a high- risk flight  establish a review process  and develop risk mitigation strategies. A Flight Risk Analysis Tool (FRAT) enables proactive  hazard identification  is easy to use  and can visually depict risk. It is a tool many pilots use to make better go/no-go decisions.  After all mitigating steps have been completed  you may confront the possibility that a flight cannot be made or continued for a  variety of reasons not only for yourself but also for your passengers. Remember that many pilots have ignored or failed to mitigate  serious and high-risk hazards  and a tragic fatal accident is all too often the result.  Risk mitigation often begins days  sometimes weeks  before a planned flight. For example  a pilot flying a single-engine piston  aircraft without ice protection lives in the Pacific Northwest and is planning a trip in January for a scheduled speech. While keeping  the long-range weather forecast in mind  planning in advance gives the pilot several options to mitigate risk:  There are almost an infinite number of actions you can take  depending on the nature of the hazard or risk. For example  the pilot  flying from point A to point B (50 miles) in MVFR conditions has several ways to reduce risk:  The final step in risk management is mitigation  which is the payoff for accomplishing the entire risk management process and will  often allow for mission accomplishment (the reason most pilots fly). By effectively mitigating known risks to acceptable levels  pilots  can complete their planned flights safely or ensure that alternate options are selected for those rare occasions when the planned or  ongoing flight cannot be completed.  Assessing risk may be the most difficult part of risk management and applying the terms described above to specific risks takes some  practice. Once you have assessed risk likelihood and severity for all identified risks  you can readily classify the overall risk level for  that hazard. For example  simply connecting the two factors as shown in  Figure 1-4  indicates the risk is high and the pilot may  consider whether to not fly or fly only after finding ways to mitigate  eliminate  or control the risk.  The next element is the severity or consequence of a pilot’s action(s). It can relate to injury and/or damage. If the individual in the  example above is not an instrument flight rules (IFR) pilot  what are the consequences of encountering inadvertent IMC? In this case   because the pilot is not IFR rated  the consequences could be fatal. The following are guidelines for this assignment.  ⦁ $_{Catastrophic—results in fatalities  total loss }$ ⦁ $_{Critical—severe injury  major damage }$ ⦁ $_{Marginal—minor injury  minor damage }$ ⦁ $_{Negligible—less than minor injury  less than minor system damage }$ ⦁ $_{Drive. }$ ⦁ $_{Wait for the weather to improve to good visual flight rules (VFR) conditions. }$ ⦁ $_{Take a pilot who is rated as an IFR pilot. }$ ⦁ $_{Delay the flight. }$ ⦁ $_{Cancel the flight. }$ ⦁ $_{Book commercial flight/transfer the risk to the airlines. }$ ⦁ $_{Change the date of the event to accommodate weather. }$ ⦁ $_{Cancel flight altogether. }$ ⦁ $_{Depart a day early from the Pacific Northwest to avoid an incoming low-pressure area that will bring low }$ IFR and certain icing conditions. 