Transitioning to single-pilot

After spending dozens, maybe even hundreds, of hours flying with a mentor or otherwise qualified pilot in the right seat, you’ve been given the nod to act as a single-pilot pilot-in-command (SP PIC). This is an accomplishment to savor—one many professional pilots will never achieve, flying as they do in a world of strictly multi-pilot aircraft.

Yet the transition to acting as an SP PIC comes with a decided increase in workload and risk. Managing that should be approached as a serious task and given careful consideration and planning. Having worked with pilots transitioning to SP light jet operations for nearly twenty years, I can share a few tips to keep the process safe and (hopefully) stress-free.

Spread your wings slowly

Safely managing any flight operation starts well before the pilot even drives to the airport. In considering the first year of SP operations, the pilot should appreciate that comfort and true proficiency operating their jet will not come immediately. Yes, you passed a checkride that required you to demonstrate you can operate your jet to ATP standards. However, day-to-day flying will present challenges not experienced during type training, and proficiency is a perishable skill that decays quickly between training events.

Recognizing this, a careful pilot puts up guardrails during their initial SP ops in the form of written personal minimums, or better yet, a personalized flight operations manual. While pilots often consider parameters such as the lowest visibility in which they’ll try to fly an approach, or the highest wind with which they’re comfortable, other “minimums” are just as critical to codify.

For example, how long will you let a “duty day” stretch before you self-ground? Several high-profile light jet accidents occurred when a single pilot launched a late-night flight after a long day of work. Without another pilot to say “no,” it’s easy to talk yourself into feeling OK to fly if you haven’t considered ahead of time what your cutoff is.

Have a flight risk assessment tool (FRAT) to help you consider the risks of each flight. There are many free and paid FRAT tools; the best allow you to customize your risk profile so that operations outside your normal profile (e.g., a flight to the mountains if you live in the flatlands) can be properly weighted, and not assigned a one-size-fits-all risk rating.

Finally, just because you are alone in the cockpit does not mean you need to be alone for the planning and dispatch phases of the flight. Hopefully, you’ve developed a relationship with a trusted mentor by now, so lean on their experience in the flight planning and risk assessment phase of your initial SP ops. Often, a more experienced eye can point out unnoticed risks and, ideally, offer mitigation strategies and “Plan Bs.”

Use a pseudo-copilot

Without the presence of a mentor or other qualified second pilot, using all the resources possible to offload workload takes on added importance. Properly used and managed, automation is the most powerful tool available to the single pilot. While it is important to maintain hand flying proficiency, there are scenarios when using the autopilot allows the SP PIC to take a step back from the tactical demands of flight and maintain a broader “aircraft commander” level of situational awareness.

Departures into busy terminal areas with multiple level-offs and changing speed limits, “descend via” arrivals, and approaches in IMC are examples of when hand flying as an SP is not the best strategy. Let the automation perform the task of managing aircraft trajectory, so mental bandwidth is freed up to ensure that trajectory is actually what is required.

Proper use of flow patterns and checklists is another way in which an SP PIC can create “pilot redundancy.” By performing a memorized flow pattern, for example, an after-engine start flow, and then immediately following up with the corresponding checklist, the pilot doubles their chance of properly configuring the aircraft.

Imagine a pilot performing the after-engine start checklist as a “to-do list.” If they are interrupted at the point where they would set the flaps to the takeoff position, it is possible they will rejoin the checklist for one item later without having set the flaps.

If the same pilot first performed a flow that included setting the flaps to start taxiing with the flaps out of position, they would both have to omit the flaps from their flow, and then again skip that very same step in their checklist—extremely unlikely.

Move it upstream

Anything that can be done in the cockpit should be done as early as possible. Yet many original equipment manufacturer (OEM) checklists are set up in a way that if used as “to-do lists,” the pilot will be completing high-workload tasks during the approach phase—often the busiest time in flight. One popular light jet has the pilot confirm the approach briefing is complete after setting the initial flap deployment—a step that usually doesn’t take place until within a few miles of the final approach fix.

Remembering that checklists are optimally used for checking, not doing, the pilot should review the descent and approach checklist well before top of descent for any items that can be completed before descent, and then checked later when their appropriate checklist is run.

One of the single best workload reducers I have found is obtaining the automatic terminal information service (ATIS) as far from landing as possible. At many airports, not only can the approach and transition not be loaded until the landing runway is known, but often, the assigned standard terminal arrival route (STAR) cannot be loaded in full without the landing runway being known.

With in-flight internet access, several tools allow the pilot to form a picture of the arrival and approach while hundreds of miles from landing and well outside audio reception of the ATIS. Many paid electronic flight bag (EFB) applications, such as ForeFlight, as well as free apps like FBO Link, have long offered Digital ATIS (D-ATIS) for the 75 busiest airports in the country. While many major airline hubs are less frequently visited by single-pilot operators, some of the busiest GA airports like Van Nuys (NVY) and Teterboro (TEB) are represented. In February of 2026, ForeFlight added what they call “T-ATIS” (transcribed ATIS) for another 80-plus airports beyond those that offer D-ATIS—a computer transcription of an audio ATIS. FBO Link offers a similar feature called “MyTIS” for a small per-request fee.

Even in aircraft without internet access, the pilot should try to obtain landing information before top of descent. Many en route controllers are happy to provide landing runway information when their workload permits; combined with ADS-B or SiriusXM METAR information, an excellent situational awareness picture can be built before the full ATIS is obtained.

Slow it down

Time can feel very compressed when venturing alone after having a second pilot in the cockpit. It’s important to realize that, unless on fire or running out of fuel, aviation doesn’t present many situations when acting quickly is a better path than taking more measured steps. This is doubly true when flying single pilot.

Any time the pilot can take steps to slow it down a little, they should. For example, visual approaches consistently lead to a higher rate of unstabilized approaches when compared to a proper instrument procedure—even in beautiful day VMC conditions. The first hundred hours flying solo, a pilot should consider asking for vectors to an approach rather than a visual. A vector outside the final approach fix only adds a few minutes to a flight, but the reduction in workload from those extra few miles can be remarkable. Jets are very unhappy when asked to “go down and slow down” at the same time; by being vectored for an approach, ATC effectively assists with energy management by positioning the aircraft at an altitude and location that should not require the drastic energy shedding all too common during visual approaches.

Likewise, unless asked by ATC to maintain a given speed, once in the terminal environment, there is no need to fly as fast as possible. While you could maintain 200 knots being maneuvered to final, it’s remarkable what slowing just 20 or 30 knots can do towards expanding time. Further, most light jets have several additional options for flap and gear deployment at 170 knots than they do at 200 knots, allowing for rapid drag increase should energy reduction be needed sooner than anticipated.

Triple check everything

If you follow the last step and slow down each phase of flight, beyond reducing the mental pressure on the pilot, the additional time allows for triple-checking the flight deck setup. All the little mistakes that are caught by a mentor or second pilot now must be caught by the single pilot. Is the navigation source on the primary flight display (PFD) correct for the type of approach to be flown? If flown from a ground-based navaid, is the frequency correct? Were the approach minimums set properly? If being vectored to intercept the final, have vectors to final been activated or the flight management system (FMS) otherwise properly sequenced? Do active and armed automation modes reflect the pilot’s desire? These small errors are made every day by pilots, and when alone in the cockpit, sometimes only repeated careful examination will bring them to the pilot’s attention.

Fight complacency

Finally, it’s all too easy to start feeling a little too comfortable in your new ride and begin losing some of the caution and discipline you had before your single-pilot adventures. It’s a regrettable truth that the longer a pilot has been flying a given type, the more common it is to see their flight discipline slide. Checklists are either left entirely unread or steps are missed or performed out of order, takeoff briefings skipped, or approach briefings given the most cursory of effort. While 99 percent of the time these omissions will not lead to a hazardous aircraft state, every so often they will, and without another pilot to catch the hazard, a small omission can rapidly turn serious. Maintaining the same level of discipline on your hundredth flight that you did on your first, no matter how comfortable you have become with your aircraft, is a single pilot must.