Get-There-Itis

Jaybird180

Jaybird180

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Jaybird180
This thread is to talk about the mindset that can be the downfall of many pilots, people who tend to be goal oriented and ways to mitigate the dangers.

The thread is open for input.
 
Get there-itis almost claimed my life once. Never again.
 
As the owner of a VFR day only bugsmasher with no gyros that takes several multi-hundred mile XC's a year, I'm am frequently afflicted with this malady and receive at least two or three get-there-ectomies a year as a result. The longest get-there-ectomy procedure I've been forced to endure was 3 days in a Motel 6 in Buttcrack Virgina less than 150 miles from home.

I've done a lot of "well, that was stupid" but so far, due to my superical judgements, I've never yet had a never again - at least weather wise.
 
Sometimes the decision is easy. Most of the time, though, it isn't. The weather a lot of times is marginal, but probably flyable. Getting utility from your airplane and knowing the difference is the hard part. What I do is always be ready to spend an extra day or two and be sure my passengers understand that too. I have had to make a run to the local Walmart to pick up fresh underwear and buy razor/toothbrush.
 
You've got to be able to

a. Blow off your passengers. They have zero say in the go no go decision (unless they don't want to go, in which case they have complete veto power).

b. Objectively assay the wx.

c. Objectively assay yourself.

I have sat out enough wx that I've gotten savvy about fining interesting places to wait it out. That said, I've noticed my own tendency to allow worse weather conditions getting home than I do getting there.
 
Get-there-itis is more the attitude than the actual conditions.

The attitude is "I have to get there" and then making irresponsible conditions, typically uninformed ones. The attitude is one that is taking risks because it's felt that it has to be taken, not because it's a well planned trip with understanding of the weather, potential outs en route, etc.

However, many of us have flown through similar really crappy weather, and it wasn't get-there-itis. It was more "Well, this just won't be very fun." Part 121 and 135 operators especially have to do this frequently because it's the job. When it's a job, it's more about "Can I do this safely?" "Yes" "Ok, what are you doing on the ground?" than "I don't wanna, so I'm going to go sit in front of the TV instead."

Learn and understand the difference...
 
A couple of tricks I try to use:

1) Always have a credit card available so you have a good chance of having an alternative, be it staying in a hotel room or renting a car.

2) If someone must be back on a particular day, have an alternate means of transportation for them. Coming back from Key West one year, Leslie needed to be at work the following day. The weather looked iffy, so I dropped her in St. Pete and she came back commercial, even though we agreed that we could probably get through via GA. Turns out that I did make it back that evening, but it was good not having the need driving me.

3) If you have passengers, make sure that they realize that safety is number one and they must have an alternate form of transportation available or be willing to cancel/postpone the flight. Flying down to New Orleans this month,I told the passengers ahead of time that, should weather (or maintenance issues) come up, our alternate plan was to drive down.
 
gprellwitz said:
A couple of tricks I try to use:

1) Always have a credit card available so you have a good chance of having an alternative, be it staying in a hotel room or renting a car.

2) If someone must be back on a particular day, have an alternate means of transportation for them. Coming back from Key West one year, Leslie needed to be at work the following day. The weather looked iffy, so I dropped her in St. Pete and she came back commercial, even though we agreed that we could probably get through via GA. Turns out that I did make it back that evening, but it was good not having the need driving me.

3) If you have passengers, make sure that they realize that safety is number one and they must have an alternate form of transportation available or be willing to cancel/postpone the flight. Flying down to New Orleans this month,I told the passengers ahead of time that, should weather (or maintenance issues) come up, our alternate plan was to drive down.
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Those are good ones.

My favorite "trick" is that if I feel I "have to" be there by a certain time, I leave early enough that at any point from preflight to touchdown, if I don't like something (mx, wx, whatever) I can rent a car and drive the rest of the way (or drive my own car if I find something on preflight).

Flexibility is also important. Most of the time, I don't have to be anywhere at a specific time, and I'm often going long distances - I rather enjoy not sticking to my original plan sometimes, and seeing where things happen to take me! You can go 100 miles "off course" in the middle of a 1000-mile trip and not add much total distance at all.

I really like the process of continuous decisionmaking that's involved in flying, and I love the adventure that a constantly-changing plan brings my way. Sometimes I see a really neat and unexpected sight. Sometimes, I see or hear friends on frequency - Or in person! (Example: On my way down to TX for Thanksgiving, I was flying over Rogers, AR, and looked down to see Chip's hangar door open and his truck outside, so I decided to spiral down, land, and say hi! :))

That's the long way of saying: Make a plan, but don't feel like you have to stick to it. If you have trouble deviating from plans, you'll need to be much more conservative in your pre-flight decisionmaking, and you should probably work on becoming more flexible.
 
An oldie but a goodie--much better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground! I have a corollary, when you are sitting there, dead, you will have lots of time to think of the other things you could have tried other than launch. Remembering these aphorisms actually is helpful, to me at least. And I do lots of vfr where I have to get there.
 
I think a fair number of GTI accidents involve slowly deteriorating weather along with a pilot who fantasizes that "it should get better further on". I don't think many pilots will blast into <1 mile vis from 6+ or duck under a 300 ft ceiling from an area with 3000+ AGL cloud bases and entertain thoughts of continuing. But put an inexperienced pilot in conditions that are "just a little uncomfortable" and slowly getting worse and the decision to turn around might not materialize before that pilot is in obviously lousy weather and serious trouble. A related factor is that when things get bad slowly, there's no obvious nearby safe retreat option and finding a handy airport to land at can be quite difficult to do when you're in over your head.

So my advice is to recognize that a gradual drop in ceiling or visibility represents a serious trap that needs to be avoided as much as a dark cloud with sparks, or a wall of snow.
 
steingar said:
I have sat out enough wx that I've gotten savvy about fining interesting places to wait it out. That said, I've noticed my own tendency to allow worse weather conditions getting home than I do getting there.
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I find that's even more true in the rental arena. The need to get the plane back for the next renter, etc. just seems to add an additional level of pressure to get back to home base.
 
hankrausch said:
An oldie but a goodie--much better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground! I have a corollary, when you are sitting there, dead, you will have lots of time to think of the other things you could have tried other than launch. Remembering these aphorisms actually is helpful, to me at least. And I do lots of vfr where I have to get there.
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That is one of my favorite aviation quotes!

Anyway, I usually leave a day or two open (free from work) at the end of a long trip to allow for some wiggle room in case things don't go as planned.
 
challock said:
Anyway, I usually leave a day or two open (free from work) at the end of a long trip to allow for some wiggle room in case things don't go as planned.
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Heck, I leave an extra day or two off work after Oshkosh, the FlyBQ, etc. just to recover from the fun! :D
 
The cost of a coffin is more than the cost of a hotel....

and another thought that a friend of mine shared w/ me years ago about traveling in general is:

"Unusual travel opportunities are dancing lessons from the gods" she told me about a time when the trains went on strike and she was in Czechoslavakia and got stuck in a small town... she could of griped about it or been afraid/uncomfortable but she chose to see it as an interesting change of plans and enjoy the weirdness - So I suppose when we get stuck in Podunk ville due to weather/Mx we could try to look at it that way too.
Seems that sometimes that GTI is subtle and we have to be ruthlessly honest with ourselves about what's really happening. I was affected it by it once and scared myself rather badly... That was when I decided to get my instrument ticket :)
 
Jeanie said:
The cost of a coffin is more than the cost of a hotel....

and another thought that a friend of mine shared w/ me years ago about traveling in general is:

"Unusual travel opportunities are dancing lessons from the gods" she told me about a time when the trains went on strike and she was in Czechoslavakia and got stuck in a small town... she could of griped about it or been afraid/uncomfortable but she chose to see it as an interesting change of plans and enjoy the weirdness - So I suppose when we get stuck in Podunk ville due to weather/Mx we could try to look at it that way too.
Seems that sometimes that GTI is subtle and we have to be ruthlessly honest with ourselves about what's really happening. I was affected it by it once and scared myself rather badly... That was when I decided to get my instrument ticket :)
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Of course, an instrument ticket is no cure for GTI. If anything, it makes the job harder, because now you're thinking about "how close to my personal mins are those ceilings" or "what are the chances of a thunderstorm really popping up that I can't see" or "what are my outs if I encounter ice."

I had two precipitating events prior to getting my instrument ticket. One was when we had a thin layer overlying the island we were on, and it was going to delay our departure a day. Luckily, we had enough instrument pilots amongst the planes we had with to launch and meet up later. The other was a night flight with flight following where we had started to descend for clouds we knew were ahead of us, but not soon enough. We were on autopilot, so just refrained from touching anything (except the strobes), and it was a non-event. It could easily have been otherwise had the circumstances been different. Somehow I don't remember who was PIC for that flight! :)
 
Grant's right. An IR does not cure GTI, in fact it can make it more fatal.

I've pushed it, but not to the limit fortunately. The last time I was flying above and between two thunderstorms at 14,500 ft. I ended up diverting and sitting it out. That's where judgment and experience comes to play. Knowing when to bail and erring on the conservative side. Yes, I spent three or four hours sitting, but I am still here to type about it.

I also find that GTI is stronger coming home than going. There is something about your own bed, plus pressures of work, etc that pulls very strongly. However, a bed or job ain't gonna help you if you're dead.
 
Anthony said:
... a bed or job ain't gonna help you if you're dead.
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I guess it's probably true that most weather related accidents are investigated in the following day in the sunshine. That's always been a good antidote for my GTI. If you've flown much at all away from your home airport, you're going to be face most certainly with a strong pull to "go" in a challenging situation. Everyone gets GTI just like everyone gets a cold if you breathe in public. The key is in what medicine you have as an antidote for the affliction and hopefully your antidote is good enough without a "never again" experience - or that should be your goal, says I.
 
Analogy re personal minimums and GTI:

You won't drive to the restuarant for dinner in a heavy rain, but you will drive to work.

You won't drive to work in snow and ice, but you will drive to the hospital with your sick child.

Both Personal Minimums and GTI are subjective. This is why you will endure less ideal conditions flying home than you would going outbound.
 
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