Go or No Go?

Wednesday, November 25, 2020 at 01:15 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Pilots often face marginal go/no-go decisions due to weather or mechanical issues, and the author emphasizes the importance of making conservative choices for safety.
The author provides personal examples where he opted not to fly, such as with a failed vacuum pump or an unexplained feathered prop, despite inconvenience.
He observes that low-time and high-time pilots tend to be conservative, while mid-time pilots might be more prone to push the envelope and stretch go decisions.
To enforce his own "no-go" decisions and avoid second-guessing, the author developed a unique method of having a beer, thus making the decision final and unchangeable.

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Every pilot has been faced with a marginal go/no-go decision. Sometimes it’s marginal weather that, if it gets no worse, is a go. But, if it gets even a little worse, it’d be no-go. And, sometimes it’s a mechanical issue that might not quite rise to the level of being unairworthy. But it could.

For me, there have been times when I wanted to go, was tempted to go, and probably could have gone with no trouble, but being conservative, I didn’t go.