What are your minimums...

chrisreedrules said:
I should clarify... My original post was meant to be a little more like this: if you are looking at the weather before you go flying what are your minimums? Mine are usually around 500ft if I have to go some place and the airport has an operating ILS or 700ft if it has an NPA. If I'm already flying I would of course shoot the approach to minimums if need be. It doesn't make me uncomfortable in the least bit. I've been shooting approaches to minimums is old beat up 172s with no GPS for a while now.
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It really depends. Look up the previous metars and such. If the airport has been sitting at 200 OVC and 2 miles all day it wouldn't hurt to launch if the forecast reads the same or better. If the past metars show the low ceiling and visibility alternating between mins and below mins you may want to wait it out a bit. The key is to make sure your backup plan is good. It really doesn't hurt to fly over, listen to the ATIS and realize it is a bit low and then jump over to a good alternate.
 
Ian J said:
I thought personal minimums were used as go/no-go decision making criteria during pre-mission planning.
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That is what they were intended to be, but many schools (mine included) treat personal mins as approach mins.

I don't agree with it, and if I ever find myself flying to an airport with weather worse than forecast but above the mins on the chart I will be using my PIC authority to get my plane on the ground with as much gas remaining as possible.
 
TallFlyer said:
Just to pick on you a bit but for a 121 or 135 carrier if we don't have the mins we can't just "go down and take a look." 91 on the other hand you can shoot approaches all day long at 0/0.
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What?! We can't?;)
 
chrisreedrules said:
Shot an ILS to minimums the other day when the METAR was reporting 800 BKN. Got me to thinking about my personal Part 91 (as in... I'm flying for fun or with a student... not for a 135 or 121 carrier in which case I figure it is pretty much always going to be a case of go down and take a look) approach minimums should be. I'm thinking 700 for non-precision and 500 for precision. In my experience thus far the ceiling is usually lower than what is being reported. What are your minimums?
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1) What's on the chart. 2) Any special circumstance that would require me to change that higher. While I was doing my ATP with you guys @ CRG we did an ILS to SGJ that was well below minimums, but we shot it just for the sake of trying the approach and getting a real missed.
 
Piston single = VFR or not far from it.
Turbine anything = What ever is printed in the appropriate box.
 
Maurus said:
I understand personal mins for private pilots but the second you step into a pilot job your mins go to published. The last thing my boss wants to hear is that I am unwilling to launch because it is 300 OVC.

If you are teaching personal mins to your students you should stress that the only mins at a professional pilot job (under normal conditions) is what is published.
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Or company policy.
 
I don't believe in hard personal minimums. I believe in evaluating each flight as a different flight and making a decision based on the given conditions. People who say stuff like, "I need at least a 500 foot ceiling for the approach even though the plate says I can take it down to 300." or, "I won't try to land in anything more than a 10 kt crosswind." may very well find themselves SOL at their destination airport. I know what I'm comfortable doing, but I don't subject it to arbitrary, black and white numbers. Each situation is different and should be treated as such.
 
For example, I'm not going to do a 0/0 takeoff in a ratty old 172 even though it's perfectly legal under part 91, but I may do it in a King Air if the conditions call for it.
 
I'm going to go ahead and assume that you are using the phrase zero/zero in a non-literal fashion. ;)
 
Sure. Lots of discussions about what is legal versus what is safe or prudent or even possible use 0/0 take-offs as an example.
 
I think the only time I've literally been 0/0 was when I accidentally discharged a fire extinguisher in my boat going 45 knots. Couldn't even see the instrument panel.
 
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