The Go/No-Go Decision
September 7, 2020 — This story actually starts yesterday, September 6th. We’ve really enjoyed visiting Washington’s state airports, so we planned a fun day trip out to Easton (ESW) just beyond Snoqualmie Pass. We’d head out, make a loop around the falls on the way, and take a 10 minute walk to a popular burger place for lunch once there.
Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go as planned. And it was something really lame, too: one of the center seat belt buckles was missing from N974CW. We’d actually run into this problem before, but were able to switch over to N811TT. My understanding before today was that the part had been found and reinstalled, but unfortunately that was not the case. We searched everywhere, but we just weren’t able to find it.
Unlike last time, TT wasn’t available so we had two choices: leave Crystal behind, or try another day. Crystal was really looking forward to it, so we opted for the latter. We’d just come back tomorrow!
That’s where things begin to get interesting. As soon as we got home, I started preparing for the newly rescheduled flight. The weather report was calling for some really strong winds. Like, >25 kts at the surface and upwards of 40 kts at 2,000 feet. That’s not exactly optimal mountain flying weather for a small aircraft.
Fast-forward to today, September 7th. I get up at 7 am, and Boeing Field is reporting calm winds at the surface. The forecast called for 10-15 kts by now, so I find myself wondering if the weather will really be as bad as they say. I check the forecasts again, and they are still showing wicked winds. I check other airports in the area, and it’s not nearly as bad as predicted. It should be OK, right?
Risk assessment is an important part of every preflight, and for me it starts with a saying that I wholeheartedly believe in:
It’s better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground.
Today’s flight isn’t for money. It’s a family flight for fun, so we can spend time together doing something new while enjoying one of the last summer weekends of 2020.
For us, today’s decision is easy: No Go.
My family means too much to me, and I simply won’t risk them (or their desire to continue flying together in the future) by putting us all in a situation that we may very well end up regretting. If things end up fine weather-wise, we’ll just shrug and say “oh well”. In either case, we’ll try again next time.
I can’t help but think about pilots whose livelihood depends on “just getting it done”. Are you a commercial pilot? If you’ve been in the industry for any amount of time, I’m sure there are days where, in hindsight, you know you probably shouldn’t have gone — but the bills were piling up. I wonder if that mindset had anything to do with the tragic incident in southern California earlier this year. I am so incredibly thankful that I don’t need to make that kind of decision today. Baseball in the backyard and hot dogs on the grill sounds like a great way to spend the afternoon.
Thank you for reading.
