Air Facts Journal is one of my favorite web publications. I’ve been reading Richard Collins since I was a wee lad (thank you, FLYING Magazine) and the other authors and editors there are every bit as good– I learn something from just about every article. One of my favorite features is their “Go or No Go,” in which you’re presented with a realistic scenario involving a flight: you’re in city X, you want to get to city Y, here’s the weather, here are any other pertinent facts… do you go or not? The discussions around these articles have been really helpful in pointing out to me what my personal minimums and comfort levels are at this stage of my aviation career (which I intend to be long-lived, thus my interest in learning from the experiences of others).
This week’s “Go or No-Go” involves the world’s most famous freight pilot:
Talk about “get-home-itis.” Your trip today is the final leg of a marathon freight dog run, with over 1 billion legs in the logbook so far. The flight has gone flawlessly, but you’re dead tired and would really like to get home to the Mrs. (Claus, that is). But just because you’re the big red man doesn’t mean you can skip the weather briefing, so you take one last glance at your iPad before takeoff.
It shows a good deal of white stuff out there and some serious fog, so it looks like your last flight won’t be easy. The good news is you are very current (23 hours in the last day) and your Mark IV sleigh is in excellent condition. You also don’t have to worry about running out of fuel tonight–you started using renewable energy sources long before it was fashionable–so you can deviate if you need to.
Read the report below and then tell us if you’re going or canceling.
Even if you aren’t a pilot, it’s worth looking at the scenario to get a sense of some of the factors that can influence, positively or negatively, a decision to complete a planned flight. The other scenarios they’ve published make for interesting reading too.
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