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

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

"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.

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.

"BillC85" wrote:

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 have NO problems about landing on a road or field. I cannot be
embarassed about something like this.

I got hit by an incredibly fast-moving fog bank that came out
of nowhere a few months ago. My first reaction was to check the
lights on the field (I had just taken off and knew there wasn't
enough real-estate to land on the runway). No lights working
(it was daytime). I figured if I could see the lights, the visibility
was good enough to turn around and land. Fine.

I know the area well-enough that I can
put the airplane down anywhere (empty fields everywhere except
for a few telephone poles and one building behind me, KDEN ahead
of me) and the insurance company will take possession of the
junk.

I don't scare easily, but I was definitely scared.

And then I remembered ..."look at the instruments, stupid!"

Headed south (which was my destination anyway) and in less
than 30 seconds, clear, beautiful weather. It was only over the
airport, about 1 mile diameter, and only between 200 & 600 AGL.

Really strange.

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?

"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

"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!

:-)

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.


Trip

In article , says...

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

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.