IMSAFE fitness self-check

IMSAFE is the pilot's own pre-flight fitness self-check (TC AIM RPA 3.2.7). If the answer to any item is "yes", you are likely not fit to fly. The six letters:

• Illness
• Medication
• Stress
• Alcohol
• Fatigue
• Eating and drinking

Medication (TC AIM AIR 3.10): over-the-counter drugs (sedating antihistamines, cough medicines, sleeping pills) can cause drowsiness and impair judgement and coordination just like a prescription drug. The illness itself can impair you even when the medicine masks the symptoms. Unless a Civil Aviation Medical Examiner (CAME) clears it, treat the drug like alcohol: when in doubt, do not fly.

Trap: in the TC AIM list the E is Eating and drinking, not "Emotion". And "over-the-counter" does not mean flight-safe.

Practice