Mixed messages

[Mike M]

Mixed messages. April Sport Aviation. Drew Liebermann, "I'll Never Do That Again." Lousy enroute visibility in a Cessna 172. Solution? Climb, confess, get help, success! Jeff Skiles, "Contrails." "If we don't make it out today we may be stuck for days." Get-home-itis? Solution? Scudrunning. "If the weather proves too bad to fly, we shall find someplace to land." In an AIRLINER? May issue, second installment, "Contrails." More vintage airliner scudrunning. Takeoff into 800 ft ceiling with fog below? I give up, is Jeff's point that we're supposed to pick the hazardous attitude displayed by his crew? I vote "invulnerability," maybe "macho," but could be "resignation." Slight chance "anti-authority", but definitely not "impulsivity" because "thorough preflight planning and weather analysis" was conducted by "a true professional" and executed by an experienced crew who often fly lower with paid passengers. So - do not try this at home, or you too can do this when you grow up?

[WLIU]

I will suggest that appropriate tactics for a 5000 hr pilots may not be appropriate for a 100 hr pilot. When I had 100 hrs, flying VFR out of sight of my local airport in 1500' and 5 was not appropriate. With a lot more experience, I might pick my way along under a stable weather weather system with those conditions for 1000 miles. Experience and training makes a huge difference in how you can and should approach weather.

I will note that most pilots do not learn to really understand weather until they earn an instrument rating. The knowledge that you gain helps you fly in marginal VFR with no IFR gear in addition to learning how to use the system to go through the clouds and shoot approaches.

The point is to understand the limits of your knowledge and experience and expand it in an organized and planned way. The guys who never fly in less than 5000 and 10 go away from home, Mother Nature moves in, and then they are looking at trying to fly in 2000 and 5 with no preparation. I suggest that flying close to your home airport on days when it is 1500 and 3 is good education. No pressure to get somewhere and you can quit when you've had enough or your gas budget is exhausted. The best way to learn about flying in weather is to poke your nose into it, a little at a time, just like you learned about the rest of aviation.

So I will suggest that the message isn't mixed. As with many things, you just don't know what you don't know. But learning that stuff is another excuse to go flying. And that is what we like to do right?

Best of luck,

Wes
N78PS