cancelled looooong XC

killbilly

Vocals, Lyrics, Triangle, Washboard, Kittens
Too many factors making it difficult...

Wx wasn't/isn't looking great for that area (MEM)...it was potentially navigable, but what concerned me was that I had to be back in Austin on Sunday because I had an early business trip to OKC on Monday...couldn't get stuck waiting out weather to get home. But all that changed an hour ago...

The business trip has now been moved up to Sunday, so I'm pretty much hosed for making the trip. Gotta work today, and it doesn't make sense for me right now to fly up Friday and come back on Saturday.

Next time, I suppose.
 
Smart man! All those factors WOULD make it tough. I always figure that Murphy (you know that Murphy's Law Guy) has my phone number on his speed dial. He is ALWAYS giving me crap!!! :)

There is always next time.
 
Thanks, guys.

On paper, I could do it. And maybe in a bit of real-world, I could do it. But I have read too many stories of get-there-itis causing major problems for pilots. Ostensibly these have been reasonably smart people in circumstances where better judgment was eclipsed by external pressures. I'm not immune to those things.

Better to remove temptation at this stage of the game.

In the earlier thread I'd posted about this trip, Boris did make some good points about getting at least near/around some rain and stuff and getting some experience. I think that's wholly valuable, and I'd like to do that, but when I do so, I'd like to have total control of the schedule so that diversions won't impact me adversely and cause get-there-itis.
 
Forgive me if I expound unnecessarily, because everything you say is exactly right, and I think you've got the balance down unusually well for someone so new to the Ways of The Force ;)

But while I stand by the notion that you should get your feet wet (so to speak), it's absolutely paramount that you don't get in the habit of doing dumb stuff because you want to see what happens or you think you're invincible. Because of course the insidious thing about that mindset is every time you don't die, you're proven right. I started out that way, miraculously survived, and I still find myself fighting it even when the argument is something like "penetrate the level 4 or take 5 minutes to go around". You get away with it too much (and you WILL get away with it, 99% of the time) and you can't help but think you're God's Gift, and you somehow don't remember the headstones that suggest otherwise.

Even in my new, more adult version, I still er on the side of "don't be a wuss", but now it's flavored with some experience of being places I didn't want to be. Better to er on the side of caution...there will always be plenty of pressure to do it, but in the end you're the only person who can exert pressure not to. A lot of times saying "no f'ing way" is actually a lot more ballsy than saying "kick em and light em".

PS. I just remembered my favorite anecdote on this subject. If you haven't read "Fate is the Hunter", you should. If you have, I thought Gann's exposition on the transport command pilot who talked a big game but turned around and ran when the going got tough was brilliant. He didn't excoriate the guy (he's already done that to himself, I guess), but he admired the sort of brass ones it took to tuck tail and run when the guy knew he'd be judged for it for the rest of his career. That's not, obviously, to intimate that you'll be judged for not wanting to take a long trip under VFR in bad weather, killbilly, just a little more mouth-flapping on the nature of "courage" and what it means. My God, I can be a high-falutin SOB.
 
I agree with you Boris. All it takes is getting yourself in one good TS and that will serve as an effective wake-up call. By just removing yourself from the possibilty of "maybe" having to dodge weather is good thinking. What do they call that? Oh yeah, ADM...:)

I will NEVER forget the Waco controller back in the day "Oh it's just a couple of level 3s, nothing too bad...."

Yeah, so you know how that went...:mad:
 
Too many factors making it difficult...

Wx wasn't/isn't looking great for that area (MEM)...it was potentially navigable, but what concerned me was that I had to be back in Austin on Sunday because I had an early business trip to OKC on Monday...couldn't get stuck waiting out weather to get home. But all that changed an hour ago...

The business trip has now been moved up to Sunday, so I'm pretty much hosed for making the trip. Gotta work today, and it doesn't make sense for me right now to fly up Friday and come back on Saturday.

Next time, I suppose.

There'll be sunny days ahead...its Texas after all :)
 
GalaxyIFE said:
All it takes is getting yourself in one good TS and that will serve as an effective wake-up call.

Well, if you're young, dumb, and full of uh, spunk, it might take more like 20. That said, there's bad and then there's the "•'s prayer" type of bad (it goes "dear Lord, I know I don't believe in you, but if you get me out of this, I will never, never take your name in vain again). It only takes one or maybe two of the later and you're all about Clean Living for life. Word. At least until the next time...
 
Heh. The whole argument was rendered moot about four hours after the original post.

I have to catch an early flight tomorrow undo a 4-alarm cluster-you-know-what that my company has caused for one of our customers. I'll be working all weekend. After that, I'm going to line up a number of my software engineers against a wall and shoot them in the head, one by one.

And Boris - I know you weren't being high and mighty or telling me not to be a wuss. I'm 34 years old and I'm immune at this point in my life to pressure like that. I am far more vulnerable to pressures of my own ego, which, left unchecked, would apply for its own zip code, possibly statehood. :)

If I wasn't going on this stupid biz trip, I'd reconsidered taking the plane down to Port Aransas or Galveston by myself and sitting on the beach for a couple days. Alas...it's not to be. :mad:
 
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