On “staying an
extra night,” my motto has always been: “If you have time to
spare, go by air!”
-----Original Message-----
From: Lancair Mailing List
[mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of RWolf99@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006
3:45 PM
To: Lancair Mailing List
Subject: [LML] Avoiding Tragic
News
As
Clint Eastwood says, "A man's got to know his limitations".
As a
second lieutenant (engineer, not pilot), I once talked to the USAF Aero Club
manager who told me that they did not allow their members to fly at night
without an instrument rating. He said the statistics showed it was
substantially less safe. I took this advice to heart, and never flew at
night until I got my IFR ticket 15 years later. I then had an experience
similar to Greyhawk's, where I turned away from the airport in a small town in
California and immediately lost visual references. Not because I flew
into a cloud, but because the area was so desolate. (Lompoc, CA) No
big deal -- I just transitioned to instruments and life was good. God
only knows what would have happended without the instrument training to fall
back on.
As a
new IFR pilot flying a Cessna 150, I never knew which of us could handle the
worse weather -- me or the airplane. Either way, I didn't fly in
"real weather". The ubiquitous California marine layer was no
big deal, but towering cumulus? Thunderstorms? No way!
Call me
a wuss if you have to -- I don't care. I don't even mind staying an extra
night away from home in order to have a safe and pleasant flight the next
day. Your limitations may be higher than mine, and if so, you should feel
free to attack more difficult weather than I do. You guys that fly for a
living have to -- I don't. But we all have our limitations, and we need
to stay within them.