After enduring over a week of rain and clouds, I was excited to drive out to Linden Airport today and go flying in my 1969 Cessna 182M. I got my pilot's license on June 21 and have logged about 131 hours total with about 69 hours as Pilot in Command.
The winds this morning were about 12 knots, gusting to 17 knots. This is pretty windy, but not entirely crazy. Not having flown in two weeks, I was anxious to get back in the plane and continue accumulating cross country flight time so that I can obtain my instrument rating (I need 50 hours of solo x-country before I can get the rating). So I planned a flight from Linden to Ocean City, Maryland. By 10:30, I was just about to head out the door.
In the back of my mind, however, was a small voice. It was a voice advising me to re-check the weather and re-think the trip. I went back to the computer and checked the latest weather at Newark (which is ony 6 miles north of Linden). The winds had increased to 19 knots, with gusts up to 25 knots. There was a high wind warning in effect. Now we were into territory where I would be increasing my risks substantially. I was no longer comfortable.
So I stayed home. And that, in a nutshell, is how pilots live to old age. The go/no-go decision is often very tough and there was certainly no legal reason I could not have made the flight. But there was also no real reason to make the flight in these conditions. The potential crosswind component could have been close the maximum for my plane, let alone my abilities. The danger of gusts over 5 knots, even if they are right down the runway, is the potential for an inadvertent stall on final.
When I tell friends that I am a pilot, the majority are freaked out at the possibility that the engine would fail in flight. But a plane without an engine is just a glider. Part of the training for the Private Pilot's License is performing an emergency landing with no engine. It's a serious situation to be sure, but one which can be controlled reasonably well.
What really kills pilots is weather. There is no reason to fly knowingly into weather conditions that are at the edge of one's abilities, at least not without an instructor. Every month I get a newsletter that tracks general aviation accidents and the story, over and over and over, is pilots dying because they took off into conditions for which they were not prepared.
I hope that little voice never goes away.
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3 comments:
Good call Dave, I'd hate to turn TEDSTOCK into memorial service as well.
I would say you should take that little voice out for a nice dinner.
Don't ever take it for granted (not that I think you ever will) - it's probably the same voice that says "Yes, that chord's right" or "No, don't eat that shellfish."
But different from the voice that says, "Tell her you'll just put the tip in."
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