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Just to let you know, I am registered here, but I thought that I should post anonymously so protect the guilty....
So here we go:
I currently have about six hundred single engine land flight hours, an instrument ticket that is 'out of annual', and about 75% of an IPC completed. I fly a pipeline patrol that covers a pipeline running through four states. On the day in question we were on the last allowable day to cover the fifteen hundred mile line, which takes us about twelve hours of flight time at 500' AGL. The weather at 8 AM, which is the latest that I can take off and still complete the line was solid IFR between me and the line, but clearing on the other side. I called the boss and told him I was staying at base, and he advised me to call him as the weather improved.
As the weather went from IFR to better IFR to spotty IFR to Really Marginal VFR, I continued to make phone calls and get increasingly demanding "advice" that I "needed to get the line done today, no matter what." The "advice" was not really a suggestion, but more of a demand with a veiled threat of firing me mixed in with it. It was sort of a "go, or get fired" cocktail.
We all know where this is going, but I will finish the story for those who must know "The Rest of the Story."
Basically, what happened was the line about an hour from my base was still covered in spotty fog and ceilings that were 1000' over the ASOS stations. This is technically VFR because the visibility was 4 miles or so, again spotty at best. The reason that I waited is because along the route, the airports sit close to a river and are in valleys mainly, where as the line goes up and down hills and dales, and generally runs amok amidst the plains. So a 1000' ceiling at [Daves Field] (again, name changed to protect the guilty) is not necessarily a 1000' ceiling over our pipeline.
I wanted to wait another hour, becuase ceilings were coming up, slowly, and I thought an extra hour might get me 2000' or more, rather than launch into spotty fog and 1000'? ceilings.
The exact quote from the boss' mouth was "Either you leave right now and fly the line, or you come to [Braziltown] and I will fly the line myself."
Here's the good part of the story, where $35,000 of part 141 schooling pays off:
"OK" says I, (now wait for it), "I'll see you in 45 minutes with the plane."
I took the plane to [Braziltown] and dropped it off, then I got to ride home in a truck.
My quiestion now becomes: "Is this job worth the constant "advice" that I get to go into poor weather?"
What do you think?
So here we go:
I currently have about six hundred single engine land flight hours, an instrument ticket that is 'out of annual', and about 75% of an IPC completed. I fly a pipeline patrol that covers a pipeline running through four states. On the day in question we were on the last allowable day to cover the fifteen hundred mile line, which takes us about twelve hours of flight time at 500' AGL. The weather at 8 AM, which is the latest that I can take off and still complete the line was solid IFR between me and the line, but clearing on the other side. I called the boss and told him I was staying at base, and he advised me to call him as the weather improved.
As the weather went from IFR to better IFR to spotty IFR to Really Marginal VFR, I continued to make phone calls and get increasingly demanding "advice" that I "needed to get the line done today, no matter what." The "advice" was not really a suggestion, but more of a demand with a veiled threat of firing me mixed in with it. It was sort of a "go, or get fired" cocktail.
We all know where this is going, but I will finish the story for those who must know "The Rest of the Story."
Basically, what happened was the line about an hour from my base was still covered in spotty fog and ceilings that were 1000' over the ASOS stations. This is technically VFR because the visibility was 4 miles or so, again spotty at best. The reason that I waited is because along the route, the airports sit close to a river and are in valleys mainly, where as the line goes up and down hills and dales, and generally runs amok amidst the plains. So a 1000' ceiling at [Daves Field] (again, name changed to protect the guilty) is not necessarily a 1000' ceiling over our pipeline.
I wanted to wait another hour, becuase ceilings were coming up, slowly, and I thought an extra hour might get me 2000' or more, rather than launch into spotty fog and 1000'? ceilings.
The exact quote from the boss' mouth was "Either you leave right now and fly the line, or you come to [Braziltown] and I will fly the line myself."
Here's the good part of the story, where $35,000 of part 141 schooling pays off:
"OK" says I, (now wait for it), "I'll see you in 45 minutes with the plane."
I took the plane to [Braziltown] and dropped it off, then I got to ride home in a truck.
My quiestion now becomes: "Is this job worth the constant "advice" that I get to go into poor weather?"
What do you think?