Originally Posted by Fly Boy Knight

The "survival" mentality at Ameriflight (or any single pilot operation) is kind of inherent to the type of flying as well. Flying single pilot isn't "dangerous" per say however it does require a much higher level of attention to detail in one's flying.

Simple tricks like leaving your hand on the flap lever until the flaps are ACTUALLY at the position you selected and moving your hand over the ice protection switches every takeoff instead of just when you have to are ways to mitigate some of these risks however, the fact that there are only one set of eyes watching over you inherently raises the potential for mistakes to creep in.

In a two crew environment, something as simple as one pilot saying "runway heading check" or "were we cleared for the approach yet?" can be the difference between an uneventful flight and an enforcement action but in the single pilot world, there is no "extra safeguard" against the limits to a human's attention to detail.

As freight dog said, there have been instances where pilots get fired for doing "dumb" things and, although the same can be said for any airline, the fact that you are alone and that nobody is directly watching over you can lead to more complacency, more slacking in the procedures, and more potential for errors to creep into your flying without you even being aware of it and unfortunately for the pilots, Ameriflight has to treat these little "mistakes" as big threats because, to be frank, these little mistakes CAN be a huge threat to both you and the company so, although AMF and other single pilot operators my appear to be more "fire-happy" than say the regional airlines, they are that way for good reason.

As for the "bad employee" aspect, making a mistake and covering it up or lying about things will end your employment just about anywhere and, as freight dog said, these particular people usually do bring it on themselves. If you choose to be lazy / complacent / lax in your profiles/procedures, you are just compounding the inherent higher level of risk involved with the job. With respect to this, if you make a mistake, have the integrity to fess up and take your licks because being suspended for an honest mistake and having a little blip appear on your PRIA is much better than being "Not eligible for re-hire"