Personal Minimums

It's been a frustrating month. I've had more cancellations then Castlegar (CYCG aka "Cancelgar") sees in an average December. If it wasn't the winds it was the rain. If it wasn't the rain it was the ceiling. If it wasn't the ceiling it was the aircraft. If it wasn't the aircraft it was something on my end that didn't work - usually a relative visiting.. from my wife's side of the family ;)

I5 and I had already gone through multiple briefings, requests about flying instrument time in the sim (no thanks), and today we were actually going to fly.

After the runup was complete I went through the standard safety briefing and moved on to our planned soft field takeoff and landings. When I was done I5 started to speak about the cells that were moving around the field and said that it was important to set personal minimums while on the ground - preferably not even while in the aircraft.

I didn't require any explanation. I had recently read a number of articles and threads about personal minimums in terms of weather, currency, and health. The concepts are quite simple - you need to be realistic about what you are and what you are not capable of handling. These minimums are not static and are in fact a constantly moving target. Just as the weather changes all the time, so does the way you feel, the amount of sleep you have, and the amount of time you last handled a specific scenario (landing on a short field in a cross wind at high altitude at night with your significant other in the aircraft - ok that's probably taking it too far, but I make my point).

I5 talked about what we would do if we encountered rain (lower RPM's and then decide if we should land) and what would happen if we spotted lightning (land). Once I understood we held short and soon were cleared for takeoff.

I kept the stick back all the way as we took the runway, careful not to hit the brakes or lose momentum as we turned the corner. I brought the throttle to full and called the engine power ok, oil ok, and airspeed alive. It felt pretty weird having the stick all the way back like this. The concept was to get the nose wheel slightly off the ground and let the aircraft just "take off" in the ground effect -then stay in it until reaching the target speed.

Unfortunately for me - the procedure calls for slightly decreased back pressure as the nose wheel starts to come off the ground. I kept it all the way back and that image I had of "cowling just below the far end of the runway" turned into "pretend you are a space shuttle trying to takeoff". I5 of course pushed the stick back forward and kept it there until he sensed me realizing the issue and holding it with the correct pressure at the correct angle. We took to the air slightly above our stall speed and I continued to push the stick forward in ground effect until we reached 68 and zoomed off.

(Again - ground effect is soooo cool).

On the downwind we talked about what went wrong on the takeoff and what I would do on the next one. I wrote it off as a complete brain fart but it also has been nearly 4 weeks since my last flight - perhaps I was rusty. Soon after I called on the downwind for the touch and go we spotted a flash of lightning at our 3 O'Clock. I5 asked "did you see that?" to which I replied with "yep, let's stick with the plan". I5 keyed the mike and said "Actually tower, we'll make it a full stop". I did a soft field landing and kept it on the roll until tower needed us to get off. During the remainder of the downwind we heard 4-5 other's change their minds for the full stop and eventually the tower started telling people about lightning.

On the way back to the club, the one thing I was really wondering was why I5 didn't say something more like "Actually tower, we'll make it a full stop BECAUSE WE SPOTTED LIGHTNING TO THE EAST SOUTH EAST". I'm sure they saw it themselves - but I'd assume that telling them something like that would be a great example of good airmanship. When I relayed this to I5 he did tell me that it was a good plan and got an amused look on his face.

The bad: Didn't really get to fly. Pooched the soft field departure.

The good: Learned a valuable lesson about personal minimums. Also didn't have to pay for the airtime of the aircraft since it was so small.