About SETP

The work of a test pilot centers upon the development of aerospace systems intended for a greater purpose, beyond personal edification. While there may be personal risk required to accomplish this work, its primary purpose is to reduce the risk to others.

Valid flight test is essential for the research and development of aerospace systems. Nature is deaf to our hopes and predictions. Conclusions must be objectively based upon the results to minimize the influence of preconceived notions.

Corruption puts personal gain above honor, ethics, and mission. It amounts to intentionally presenting false information and willfully endangering the safety, health, and welfare of the end-user, passenger, and public.

Failure to give credit where due is a form of theft. Crediting the work of others creates an environment where test pilots can leverage the trust that they have truly earned.

We are all capable of succumbing to prejudice and allowing inconsequential differences to hide valuable contributions. This also applies in the cockpit and flight test environment, where there is no room for dismissing reasonable opinions out-of-hand based solely on the station of the source.

Test pilots are often the most important voice for test safety when the inevitable and difficult decisions balancing cost, schedule, and safety risk must be made. A test pilot's vigorous and appropriate advocacy for test safety can prevent an imbalance in risk.

Test pilots are surrounded by potential mentors because the complexity of the flight-test environment means that everyone on the test team exclusively holds important knowledge or perspective. Accepting and genuinely considering criticism is a powerful means of self-improvement.

Test pilots succeed in large part thanks to the lessons-learned of those that have gone before. When a lesson is learned, a professional test pilot will pass it on in an appropriate and effective manner.

The aerospace industry advances at such a pace that test techniques can quickly become outdated, inadequate, or irrelevant. Only education—either formal or through mentorship—can enable a test pilot to find or develop an appropriate test methodology.

A test pilot must strive to enhance their competency, and improve or mitigate their limitations. A test pilot accepts only those tasks that they are—or will be—qualified to perform.

Early in the development process of an aerospace vehicle, the most important and most qualified advocate for the end-user may be the test pilot. The opinion of the test pilot must be objective, balanced, and insulated from emotion.

A test pilot recognizes their fallibility and understands that an error needn't be shameful. The shame is in the hidden or unreported error that eats into the safety and effectiveness of the flight test process. Every error is an opportunity for self-improvement.