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#1
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Why do you 180?
Good day,
I got caught in some weather the other day and had to 180 outa there. Punched up goto nearest on the Lowrance, put the Love Boat down, called wifey for a ride home (three hours by car), and the airplane still sits at the unscheduled stop waiting to finish the flight, probably tomorrow. My question is this; Why do you 180 instead of pressing on? What are your motivations? What goes through your head? Here are mine for this particular event in order of priority more or less; 1. I didn't want to embarrass myself by having to put down on a road or field and causing a big scene. 2. I didn't want to bend the airplane by having to put down on a road or field. 3. I didn't want to die in a CFIT (closely related to the first part of number 1 above). 4. I didn't want my wife to be without a husband. 5. I didn't want my dogs to be without a Dad. 6. I didn't want to inconvenience my wife. I know there are steely eyed pilots out there who will flame me for having to come up with so many arguments for the 180 but these are the things that went through my head. You'll notice dying was actually number three. That's kind of interesting in that it reveals something about my ego. If it had come right down to the moment however, things probably would have switched around a bit. Thoughts? BillC |
#2
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Faced with a decision, I always ask myself "How would this look at the
inquest?" If I made the wrong decision, and it came out at the inquest that I had the information I needed to make the right decision and ignored it, my friends in the aviation community would say "Gee, I thought he was smarter than that." Don't want that to happen. I also don't want the newspaper articles to parrot "He was a good pilot" quotes from friends when it is apparent from the circumstances of my demise that I was a lousy pilot. Bob Gardner "BillC85" wrote in message ... Good day, I got caught in some weather the other day and had to 180 outa there. Punched up goto nearest on the Lowrance, put the Love Boat down, called wifey for a ride home (three hours by car), and the airplane still sits at the unscheduled stop waiting to finish the flight, probably tomorrow. My question is this; Why do you 180 instead of pressing on? What are your motivations? What goes through your head? Here are mine for this particular event in order of priority more or less; 1. I didn't want to embarrass myself by having to put down on a road or field and causing a big scene. 2. I didn't want to bend the airplane by having to put down on a road or field. 3. I didn't want to die in a CFIT (closely related to the first part of number 1 above). 4. I didn't want my wife to be without a husband. 5. I didn't want my dogs to be without a Dad. 6. I didn't want to inconvenience my wife. I know there are steely eyed pilots out there who will flame me for having to come up with so many arguments for the 180 but these are the things that went through my head. You'll notice dying was actually number three. That's kind of interesting in that it reveals something about my ego. If it had come right down to the moment however, things probably would have switched around a bit. Thoughts? BillC |
#3
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"BillC85" wrote in message ... I know there are steely eyed pilots out there who will flame me for having to come up with so many arguments for the 180 but these are the things that went through my head. You'll notice dying was actually number three. For myself, dying comes much lower on the list than that. Not that I want to die, you understand: I will not have done everything I want to do or have seen everything I want to see if I live to be a thousand. I am unlikely to tire of life any time soon. Nevertheless, I am not afraid of very many things (well, the dark, and heights, maybe). My concerns are more for passengers, people and property on the ground, and I really hate the idea of failure -- the idea that I was responsible for the safe conduct of a flight and that I blew it. |
#4
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In article ,
"BillC85" wrote: Good day, I got caught in some weather the other day and had to 180 outa there. Punched up goto nearest on the Lowrance, put the Love Boat down, called wifey for a ride home (three hours by car), and the airplane still sits at the unscheduled stop waiting to finish the flight, probably tomorrow. My question is this; Why do you 180 instead of pressing on? What are your motivations? What goes through your head? Here are mine for this particular event in order of priority more or less; 1. I didn't want to embarrass myself by having to put down on a road or field and causing a big scene. 2. I didn't want to bend the airplane by having to put down on a road or field. 3. I didn't want to die in a CFIT (closely related to the first part of number 1 above). 4. I didn't want my wife to be without a husband. 5. I didn't want my dogs to be without a Dad. 6. I didn't want to inconvenience my wife. I know there are steely eyed pilots out there who will flame me for having to come up with so many arguments for the 180 but these are the things that went through my head. You'll notice dying was actually number three. That's kind of interesting in that it reveals something about my ego. If it had come right down to the moment however, things probably would have switched around a bit. Thoughts? BillC You done good! Remember the old adage: "He who insists on flying on a gloomy, rainy day (night) is often buried on a bright, sunny day." I have set down several time over my 45 years of VFR flying and do not regret any of them. Both I and my plane survived to fly another day. There is NOTHING so pressing as to endanger you or your passengers. |
#5
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All those things used to play the dominate role in motivating me one way or
the other. Years of facing 'land outs' while glider racing have made this kind of decision making all too familiar - e.g. "just one more turn in this dead thermal then I'll try that that little mound over there - damn, if I land in this field, I'll be the only pilot not to make it back today" In fact, I often ended up in a field or the wrong airport. Sometimes I pushed it too hard and scared the s**t out of myself. Other times I made a sensible decision and landed in some god forsaken field or some sort. Despite the fact that up to 50 other competitors would review my 'failures' daily and even make note of it at breakfast the next morning, I slowly figured out that there was no difference between pushing it and failing, and being safe before failing. The bad part was scaring myself. The even worse part was scaring my spouse/crew. So I'd say my motivation now is simply not to scare the bezeesus out of either myself or my mate. I did several 180s this past Friday bouncing up against some storms in Pennsylvania/NY. I had decided before performing the first one that I was more than willing to land, refuel, and fly 3 hours back home or getting a room. No problem bouncing up against them, just no penetration. Finally got thru 30 miles off course. (Damn, I miss CBAV) About a month ago, We did a precautionary landing at a airport that I knew was 'dead'. No fuel, no people, no help. I was 30 miles from home, 20 miles from RDU. Was given vectors to RDU 3 or 4 times. Lightening and fast growing cumulus caused me to reverse direction each time. We had fuel but since the cells had so little movement and home base was under attack, we parked it. Found the owner of the airport mowing. He drove us home. Nice guy! I know we could have made it into RDU. I know there was a good chance of scaring the crap out of both of us on the way. No problem with the decision to avoid all that. Fear of death works for me. But it's hard keeping the ego at bay. "BillC85" wrote in message Why do you 180 instead of pressing on? What are your motivations? What goes through your head? |
#6
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"BillC85"
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom: Yeah. I don't want my "buddies" buying beers for my widow and consoling her in ways generally unacceptable unto me. Jim -Thoughts? - -BillC - Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup) VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor http://www.rst-engr.com |
#8
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"Jim Weir" wrote in message
Yeah. I don't want my "buddies" buying beers for my widow and consoling her in ways generally unacceptable unto me. Jim Used to be that the beer swilling geezer around the 'port would have had a difficult time responding.... but now.... definitely motivating! :-) |
#9
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TripFarmer wrote:
I have decided prior to flying what my personal minimums are. I hope I stick to them and do a 180 anytime I see things are below those minimums. I have two sets of personal minimums. Those when I fly solo and those when I fly with passengers. There are also minimums for each aircraft I rent based on size and speeds of the aircraft and terrain to be overflown. The minimums when flying the Champ are different than those for the Turbo Arrow IV based on aircraft performance and equipment. Instrument Rating training taught me what I do not want to fly in. Time (flight hours and years of experience) will teach you to read the weather you see and make a call to FSS and inquire about what exists along your route so you can make a plan before you encounter weather that would necessitate the 180. |
#10
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"BillC85" wrote in message ... Good day, 4. I didn't want my wife to be without a husband. 5. I didn't want my dogs to be without a Dad. Interesting sex life - or an unfortunate name for children. Never come across a pilot who has fathered dogs. |
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