Defensive flying entails being aware of the environment—including other pilots, air traffic control, weather, terrain, and airspace—in order to avoid accidents or situations that could put us and others in danger.

To practice defensive flying is to be acutely aware—at all times—of where you are and what’s around you. “Situational awareness” is another way pilots think about this, maintaining an overall understanding of what is going on at any given moment in the environment in which we’re operating.

A great way to achieve this is to listen to radio communications so that you can create a mental picture, visualizing the aircraft around you and where they are going. This is especially helpful in the airport environment when there are several aircraft flying to and from the same airport.

Listening to other aircraft on the radio gives you much-needed information about the location of those aircraft and their direction of flight. At nontowered airports, communicating by radio is essential to ensure a safe and coordinated flow of traffic.

At towered airports, seasoned pilots listen to all traffic on the frequency to understand where airplanes are—and to anticipate how they may be asked to join the traffic flow.

Air traffic controllers are incredible professionals, but we must never forget that we are the pilot in command. For example, if a controller clears us for takeoff, we should already be aware if there is another aircraft landing on that same runway. Always visually verify the approach is clear before taxiing onto the runway. Similarly, make sure, and call it aloud, that the runway is clear when landing or cleared to land.

If there is a question about another aircraft’s location, use your defensive flying skills and ask. If you’re in a nontowered environment, contact the other aircraft directly. If communicating with ATC causes confusion, ask the controller to “say again,” or refuse an instruction by simply saying “unable.”

Remember, even when we have help from ATC and/or ADS-B traffic technology in the cockpit, we still need to maintain that mental picture of where we are relative to other aircraft and terrain—and never stop scanning for traffic.

These simple acts of defensive flying help improve the safety of your flight and the safety of our entire aviation system.