Turning back ain't always so easy.

saddletramp

saddletramp

Line Up and Wait
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Oct 15, 2015
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Walla Walla. WA
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saddletramp
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ALW
Yesterday I did something I haven't done for years. I turned around & scrubbed a flight.

My wife, daughter, & I flew our 182 over the Cascade Mts to Easter dinner at the in-laws. It was a glass smooth, perfect 1.5 hour flight over. I knew a front was moving in but according to the forecast we could beat it home if we left late afternoon.

At 17:30 when we arrived at the departure airport I noticed the windsock was straight out & the wind was blowing straight across the runway. My thought was that the front must be a bit early. There was also a reported 10,000 ft overcast.

When we departed the air was gusty & rough. The vertical speed raced up & down. My intention was to climb to 9,500 & stay far above the mountain peaks along our route. At 5,500 ft I realized the bases were probably at 6,500. I knew I could go low & sneak through the Snoqualmie pass at 3,500 but again the air was rough. I also had two "new to general aviation passengers". If I had been solo I would have flown low through the pass no problem but did I want to scare my passengers with the all turbulence?

It was then I announced to my passengers that I was turning back. It was a hard decision to make since I've been through that pass low-level scores of times in my 40+ years of flying.

We landed & borrowed my father-in-laws spare vehicle & drove home. It took us 5 hours but we were safe.

Even though it was the best decision for my passenger's sake it still killed my ego.

Now, Friday, I have to go retrieve my airplane. Ego be damned.
 
saddletramp said:
Yesterday I did something I haven't done for years. I turned around & scrubbed a flight.

My wife, daughter, & I flew our 182 over the Cascade Mts to Easter dinner at the in-laws. It was a glass smooth, perfect 1.5 hour flight over. I knew a front was moving in but according to the forecast we could beat it home if we left late afternoon.

At 17:30 when we arrived at the departure airport I noticed the windsock was straight out & the wind was blowing straight across the runway. My thought was that the front must be a bit early. There was also a reported 10,000 ft overcast.

When we departed the air was gusty & rough. The vertical speed raced up & down. My intention was to climb to 9,500 & stay far above the mountain peaks along our route. At 5,500 ft I realized the bases were probably at 6,500. I knew I could go low & sneak through the Snoqualmie pass at 3,500 but again the air was rough. I also had two "new to general aviation passengers". If I had been solo I would have flown low through the pass no problem but did I want to scare my passengers with the all turbulence?

It was then I announced to my passengers that I was turning back. It was a hard decision to make since I've been through that pass low-level scores of times in my 40+ years of flying.

We landed & borrowed my father-in-laws spare vehicle & drove home. It took us 5 hours but we were safe.

Even though it was the best decision for my passenger's sake it still killed my ego.

Now, Friday, I have to go retrieve my airplane. Ego be damned.
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Turn your ego around. You should be proud of your airmanship.
 
Good ADM. It isn't only what the pilot can handle, you have to consider the passengers (and whether you want them to ever get in a small plane again).
 
Agreed with all above - great ADM. Sometimes doing the right thing "doesn't feel good", but being safely on the ground and pondering if you did the "right thing" usually means that you did.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
Probably not... He said he's done it solo many times.
But he put his pax first and I'd definitely call that a win.
Click to expand...

Yeah maybe overstated, but you get the idea. Many accident chains start with "Oh this isn't so bad... I can do this..." especially weather related accident chains.

It's all good. Everybody smiling and in one piece is always a good day at any airport.
 
Palmpilot said:
I think that I have felt good about at least 90% of the no-go decisions I've made.
Click to expand...

I'd put that at 100%.

Because the few times the flight plans have been flyable weather when I cancelled, have been scenarios where I simply couldn't get enough weather information to make a reasoned decision other than to choose safety over convenience.
 
Sound exercise of judgement. Would that we all.
 
I'm a type A personality, as many pilots are. We want to get the job done and don't want to waste time doing it. While I wouldn't hesitate cancelling a flight due to safety, in this case it's a even harder decision to scrub it.

You knew you could be safe and wouldn't have had a problem going through the pass, but decided to turn back due to passenger comfort and knowing how uncomfortable it would have made your passangers.

That is real airmanship and a much harder decision than most go-no goes. Really, really nice job.
 
saddletramp said:
Even though it was the best decision for my passenger's sake it still killed my ego.

Now, Friday, I have to go retrieve my airplane. Ego be damned.
Click to expand...
Would you rather keep your ego undamned and end up an NTSB statistic?

A beating heart always trumps a ****y ego, in my book.

Give it some time, you will get used to the idea that saving the lives of your passengers (and yours) is more important.
 
I really don't understand why your ego was bruised. Takes way bigger balls to do the right thing than to be dumb and keep pushing forward. If anything, your ego should have been boosted.
 
neilw2 said:
I'm a type A personality, as many pilots are. We want to get the job done and don't want to waste time doing it. While I wouldn't hesitate cancelling a flight due to safety, in this case it's a even harder decision to scrub it.

You knew you could be safe and wouldn't have had a problem going through the pass, but decided to turn back due to passenger comfort and knowing how uncomfortable it would have made your passangers.

That is real airmanship and a much harder decision than most go-no goes. Really, really nice job.
Click to expand...


This sums it up nicely. I took off that afternoon confident that we'd fly VFR over the top because the forecast lead me to believe that was a possibility.

A little personal background. I learned to fly when I was 16 in the mountains of Montana. I worked numerous fire seasons as a USFS pilot & flew many low-level missions during forest fires. I've also taught mountain flying for many years when I was instructing full-time.

That said, I knew I could get through the pass safely but didn't want to scare the holy crap out of my wife & daughter. With the pass running east/west & the winds aloft blowing from the south I knew being in the pass beneath those peaks was going to be one rough ride. If the winds had of been east/west I probably would have flown it.

It was the best decision considering all factors.

Thanks for all your thoughts.
 
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