WOW!! You must be one of the guys that flies over the lake at 10K or goes around it...but for what reason??
Yep...or higher, but sucking on O2 sucks.
Depending on what the best option is, I may ask for a route starting "around" the lake and when I get high enough then I'll cross. Depends on what the winds/weather is. I have no problem taking the caravan into the 20s if it's the best thing for the operation and have done so in the past.
Obviously I don't want to run too late, but I also realize that late is better than never and not ops nor the customer has to deal with ditching if something goes wrong...only me.
How do you do this job with those kind of fears? Being beyond power off gliding distance in SE airplanes is the last thing going through my head while I'm flying, too many other important things
I'm not sure what you're asking or saying. With what kind of fears? I do y best to get the work from A to B as early or as close to on-time as possible within the bounds of legality and safety. To me, there's
nothing on my mind more important than safety of flight.
Realizing that my chances of surviving in the lake are far less than surviving in some field or a highway or a runway is not a fear, IMO. The airplane has limitations, some are stated in the AFM and some are just limitations. One of those limitations is that it's a single engine airplane and I treat it as such.
Make no mistake, I have no fear of swimming or water...quite a decent swimmer actually.
One thing I do have is a
respect for hypothermia. The lakes never really get warm enough to survive in for very long and in the winter you've got what 5 minutes? That's not only outside my comfort level, but something I'd consider "stupid". I won't condemn pilots that go across the lake at 3,000 because obviously that's within their comfort zone and they've considered the factors for themselves. I've had just enough problems in single engine airplanes to make me realize it isn't something I'm willing to do or negotiate on.
[/quote]...and I fly the caravan every single night over the mountains. Gotta watch out for the crazy mountain people!![/quote]
I've done some of that flying the van around the mountains out west. I'd rather do that than go over the lake and a lot of times that run can be done VFR so you can save some time going direct and see/avoid everything. Always have a landing site picked out just in case. The roads out there are excellent choices. Plus, I watch the rivers. Water flows down hill...which is good to know in single engine airplanes.
Which by the way how do you like the caravan? besides it having an uncomfortable seat...
I think it would be a kick-@$$ airplane for day VFR operations....like flying jumpers. It's got some capabilities but some limitations too. Like I said, I treat it like a single engine airplane. For me that means not flying it IMC when I don't have to and staying over land (or at least gliding distance) at all times. One thing it's taught me is to have a good command of the word "unable".
It isn't
as bad as I thought it would be (and I'm not afraid to admit that), but I'm still not 100% crazy about it.
-mini
anic:. The PT6A series has an In Flight Shutdown rate of 1/every 100K flight hours. I like those odds. Unfortunatly Airnet seems to be on the short end of the stick in that department.