On Sat, 09 Oct 2004 01:10:21 +0100, Sid Boyce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I always take the most cautious of decisions which doesn't mean you > don't run into the unexpected occasionally, but as far as I can, I stick > to "Better to be down here, wishing you were up there, than to be up > there, wishing you were down here". The most cautious decision, though, is not to fly at all (or drive, or ride your bicycle on a road used by cars, or ...). Realistically, you have to be willing to take some risks, so the question is what those risks will be: for example, if you decide that you will fly only in CAVU, the airplane will not be practical for cross-country flying except maybe in the desert. That's my issue with the "better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air ..." thing that aviation publications and instructors put out -- it doesn't provide any real, practical guidance when you're sitting deciding whether to start out for home or book a hotel room for the night. One nice tip from the King course was to divide preflight risks into four categories: Pilot, Airplane, enVironment, and External pressures. Don't fly if one of them is obviously bad; it's OK to fly if one is borderline (i.e. you're a little tired, but the plane is in good shape, the weather's excellent, and there's no pressure to complete the trip), but not if two or more are borderline, i.e. the avionics are a little iffy for the trip *and* the weather might be coming down. > Last night I saw a documentary on lightning and thunderstorms, scary as > always. A glider with a guy on a trial flight got split and a straight > smooth control rod ended up like a badly bent worm gear; the instructor > and the guy baled out and parachuted down with the instructor suffering > a broken ankle and the student landing on a flat roof - the thunderstorm > looked some way away and they were heading away from it ready to make an > approach to land. May be they would have been OK if it wasn't a > composite - that's why our school got rid of the Katanas and stick with > solid metal C152's and a C172. My main concern about thunderstorms is the turbulence, though I imagine lightning and hail are not much fun either. All the best, David -- http://www.megginson.com/ _______________________________________________ Flightgear-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-users 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
