Aborted XC

BobDDuck

BobDDuck

Island Bus Driver
VFR question for you all. I attempted my first XC solo today. The FSS briefer said I would be better off staying near my home airport as mountain obscurations (however you spell it), rain and icing were predicted later on along my route. My instructor, who had just gotten back from flying down there said to go ahead and give it a try and to turn around if things got bad. So anyhow I went ahead and got about 20 miles out and decided to come home. So my question is this. How do you know when it is time to throw in the towle. I mean, there are all the hard figure distances to VFR (1 mile here and 3 miles there and 500 feet from clouds etc) but when you are at 2500 feet and it starts to rain and you can't see more then one range of mountains/hills in front of you... I guess I am just wondering if I made the right choice to abort. Obviously I am the only one who knows what the conditions actually were like so nobody can really say yes I made a good choice, or no I made a bad one. I feel confident that I did make the right choice, as I got home safely and I can try again tomorrow. But on the other hand, I'm not sure that if an experienced VFR pilot had been sitting in the right seat they wouldn't have said "are you kidding, this is fine. Keep going." Have any of you had similar experiences where you don't really know if it was just your lack of experience or it was a good decision (with xc solos or otherwise)? Sorry for the run on post here. It just sort of shook me up a bit.

Ethan
 
You made the right choice! There will be much better days then the one you described. Flying should be fun and why risk it! I think the most important personality trait for any pilot is the ability to take off, and have enough humility to turn back around, terminate the flight, and land if something doesn't feel right. I would even argue that such humility takes more courage than to just keep going and fly fat, dumb, and happy. If you ever feel the flight is beyond your personal limits you shouldn't go. You definitely did the right thing. Good job!
 
If you're not comfortable with the situation, don't sit there and continue to accept it! You were the PIC and you made a judgment call that it wasn't good enough to continue. If I'd been there I might have continued, or I might have aborted, hard to say. But it wasn't my decision, it was yours. And if you weren't comfortable going, then turning around was definitely the right thing to do. Good work.
 
When you don't feel comfortable flying, then don't fly. That's something I'm going to keep thinking no matter how far up the ladder I get.
 
the old adage

It is better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, then to be in the air wishing you were on the ground.

rings especially true in your situation.
 
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But on the other hand, I'm not sure that if an experienced VFR pilot had been sitting in the right seat they wouldn't have said "are you kidding, this is fine. Keep going."

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That's just it, an experienced VFR pilot would know their limitations and know if they can handle the conditions. Once you gain experience, you'll know what you are in for up ahead of you and know if it is safe to continue. Since you lack experience it is good that you are weary if you are unsure. Its better to be on the ground wishing you were up there, than up there wishing you were on the ground. I don't have much more experience than you. I'm just finishing my private. But whenever I hear a briefer say those magic words "VFR Flight Not Recommended" anywhere along my route, I don't even take off on a solo flight. My instructor tells me that many times the area forcasts are a little overly conservative, and we have been up together in the "VFR Not Recommended" conditions and had no problems, but if we do encounter IFR or MVFR conditions, he is able to fly us out of it. I cannot do that by myself. It is frustrating looking back on a flight that you canceled that you find out later could have been made safely, but it would be a whole lot more frustrating if we decide to make the flight and end up in conditions that we can't handle. You're in the judgement building game. You and I both have a long way to go, but this is the time in our flying careers where it does not hurt to be conservative and play it safe.
 
I can relate. On my long solo xc I had to turn around ten miles from my first destination due to low clouds over the airport and surrounding area. I weighed my options and turned back. I am glad I did this for many reasons. The most important being that flying is just a constant series of decisions, and a good pilot will need to make the right ones. One can do this by using common sense, training and experience. You are well on your way

btw..I second what flyguy is saying and could not agree more.
 
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