DO YOU HAVE A SET OF PERSONAL MINS?
How, where, and when we operate our personal aircraft has as much to do with preserving the value of those expensive assets as do our maintenance and storage practices. We’ve all seen it before; the guy who decks out his plane with the latest and greatest gizmos only to make a series of bad decisions that culminates in bent metal…or worse.
My background is 35+ years of professional flying, both for the military and the airlines, but it all began at age 15 when I started taking flying lessons. (Yikes, that’s over 40 years of active flying which makes me sound, fortunately, a lot older than I feel!) Over those 4+ decades and 18,000 hours aloft there has been a lot to learn. Hopefully, there is a lot of time left for more learning. It’s when the learning stops, or the hubris takes over, that things start to get interesting. I’ve been there, done that, and don’t want to fall victim to that mindset again.
I firmly believe in the adage, “there are no experts in aviation, only those who refuse to quit learning.” Frankly, experts scare me. That’s why it’s incumbent on those of us who are ambassadors in general aviation to exercise discretion before we strap on our airplane of choice and start slipping the surly bonds. And, make no mistake, we are all ambassadors. Some of us just give the rest notoriety that we’d rather not have. That’s why I employ a set of personal minimums when I fly GA. A set of boundaries, if you will, that reduce the likelihood of making a bad decision or ending up in a bad situation. If you don’t already employ personal mins I challenge you to come up with a set of your own.
These are mine:
No planned flying after 11 pm (I’m a morning person, and anything later than 11 pm is well beyond my normal bed time.)
A maximum of 9 total hours of flying in a 24 hour period.
A minimum 10 hour break between flying periods (to give me 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep opportunity).
Winds not to exceed 30 knots and crosswinds not to exceed 20 knots, including gusts.
Minimum 1 hour fuel reserve at destination (or alternate).
Forecast basic VFR weather minimums (1000/3) or better at time of departure and arrival.
Runway length is at least 50% greater than book numbers for takeoff and landing.
Operate no closer than 20 nm from convective activity.
No forecast or reported icing (my airplane does not have de-ice capability).
No operations with windshear reported at the time of departure or forecast for arrival.
1000/3 circling minimums. No night circling.
No night flying in mountainous or unfamiliar terrain.
No flying higher than 10,000 ft without supplemental oxygen.
At least 12 hours between bottle to throttle.
Anytime the airplane is in motion below top-of-climb or top-of-descent, no activity that’s not directly related to that flight, including texting/checking emails/making phone calls.
No non-essential conversations for the first and last 10 minutes of the flight.
If flying IFR, a working autopilot.
It seems the older I get the more I add to this list, often from something I wish I would have learned about rather than have experienced first hand.
Naturally, the expectation is also to fly with current databases, recency requirements met, an airworthy airplane, and adequate nutrition/hydration. As I get older, I’m really seeing the effects of inadequate hydration and the impact of flying over 10,000’ without oxygen. My airplane is also equipped with a radar altimeter so, unless I have it set for an approach, I keep it set at 500 in mountainous/hilly terrain and 200 feet elsewhere. The horn alerts me to terrain threats below and also prompts me to do one last gear check.
Based on the airplane you fly, your experience, and level of skill, some of these may work for you; some not. You may even disagree with a few and have some that are better than these. If so, I’d like to know why because, as I heard someone say recently, “if you’re not learning, you’re toast!”
If you ever fly with me and see me violating one of my self-imposed rules, call it out, because a little well-meaning accountability between pilots goes a long way towards making us a safer community and protecting the value of our planes and the invaluable assets inside them.
What are your thoughts? Please share below.