This Time it’s Personal
We’ve all been there. Having spent a week planning a trip, the accommodation is booked, the aircraft is reserved and your friends are chirping with excitement. Four days before the trip you’re reading the synoptic charts with increasing fervor; the night before, you check your state’s capital's trend type forecast and at first light, you’re up and on-line, reading the local and area forecasts.
While you were hoping for a three-line terminal aerodrome forecast, you’re disappointed to see multiple lines, with a few FROMs and BECOMINGs, along with INTERs and TEMPOs.
With VFR into IMC, loss of control in mountainous turbulence, landings gone wrong in gusty crosswinds, and airframe icing, still among the major cause of accidents in GA, most accidents
are avoidable and only occur because the pilot misjudged their ability, too often tragically, the wrong way.
In addition to understanding the weather, factors like your health and stress levels, knowledge of your aircraft type and your recency can affect how you feel and perform on your upcoming flight.
In cases of uncertainty, it helps to have a checklist to which you may refer. Based on self-knowledge, recency, aircraft familiarity and environmental factors, it is possible to create your own personal minimums check list. Particularly useful on days of ambiguous weather, or in a change of circumstance such as swapping aircraft types or a need to land at a different airport, a
