"Sunday was an interesting day. Runway wet and rather slippery, reports of bad weather in PE and so started our day of lets go, or maybe not. Talk about misinformation. I think that just about each one of the pilots had spoken to someone in PE and had been given a totally different scenario, from fogbound conditions, to blue skies. Even two ATC’s gave us contradictory reports within half an hour of each other. My choice after some hours of listening to all this ‘hanna-hanna-sex’, was to remove all indecision about going, so I had a beer – flight closed and time to relax. After listening to Johan’s flight back, I think it turned out to be the right decision for me. Mike and Chris joined me in closing their flight plans with the indecision tool – a beer!!
Another day in the Karoo, a few more beers, and spending some time on the Kingwill’s farm was a far better option than being at work on the Monday morning anyway. Luckily I have an understanding boss.
Monday morning we were greeted by clear blue skies and reports of fantastic weather in PE. All was looking good.
Airborne at the Kingwill’s and onto FAGR before setting course for PE. We found some low (about 1000’ AGL) 8/8 cloud that started at Graaf Reinett and stretched east to west as far as you could see. We managed to avoid the cloud by flying NE a few miles of the direct track, up until just short of Darlington Dam, to get back to PE. On the other side of the mountains absolute blue skies again.
To summarise the lessons I learnt:
Do not be tempted to be part of a group decision when assessing flying conditions and whether YOU should fly.
If in doubt – drink a beer.
It DOES rain in the Karroo
Shepherds do have mountain huts
Don’t let Johan lock you in the Motel room
This (aircraft) is not a tractor"
This took me back to day two of the trip to Namibia that Blue Max, Bugwar and myself were attempting. I posted a you-tube clip of that frustrating day in April, a month or so ago - purely for fun. I now look at that "groundclip" and my hair stand up in my neck. We almost fell into the trap of taking of in very KAK weather. We would have run into serious shit.. look and listen to the group dynamics at work..
We were on a tight schedule, and this was only day two. But we are so consumed with the desire to go on that we:
1. Try and convince each other that the weather will clear (at numerous pounts);
2. Start to really contemplate taking off (in shit scary weather);
3. Waste a whole morning sitting on a godforsaken field, whilst we could just as easily have made the call early, secured the trikes and went to DRINK A BEER;
4. End up very wet and miserable in any event, and then spend another night in very comfortable surroundings, and go on with the trip the next day.
"Press-on-itis". Look at the group dynamics at work here.. it is EASY to fall into this Fatal Flying Trap. Luckily we did NOT take of (because of the rain, NOT necessarily because common sense prevailed..)
LESSONS learned:
1. You can NOT change the weather with mindpower;
2. You can easily convince yourself that it is not "that bad"; - we only had 25 miles to fly to Eagle Flight Academy - tempting - hangarage, etc..
3. You can waste valuable drinking time waiting for the weather to clear;
4.You can have LOADS of fun and jokes on a deserted runway with the right friends;
5. Asterix is a d@@s; (nice guys come last..)
6. When in doubt - DRINK A BEER! (Or Rum and Coke if you are wet and freezing..!)
7. TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY! (If you are still alive....
)http://www.youtube.com/user/VultureSqua ... h_C5LD1l24
