What do you do when, trying to go flying on a drizzly overcast day, the briefer suggests it is VFR conditions everywhere, you launch, and you later find the ceilings dropping on you in increasingly heavy rain?
If you're a pro pilot, like one of our recent renters, you check your ego at the door, and you get the system working for you. A quick call to ATC on any of their frequencies, including 121.5, will get you priority, assistance, and the best possible odds of success. In this case, it was vectors to Ontario, and a choice of runways while other traffic was managed. An uneventful landing later, and our pilot is sipping hot cocoa at an FBO, waiting for a lift back to Corona. Nice.
A lot of attention is spent on pilots who get themselves out of tough situations intact, and a lot of pilot bravado and hangar stories revolve around the macho "by the skin of my teeth" stories, but I think it is far more impressive for a pilot to use all available resources immediately, including ATC, to get the job done. Why wait until all of the doors slam shut, if your situation is deteriorating? Why try to scud run in heavy rain, not knowing where that next radio tower is? We've all read those reports. They're chilling. Let's not add to them.
Kudos to our recent flyer who put the plane down at KONT, rather than wander around in the scuzz waiting for options to run out. We will *never* consider this the wrong choice, and we will gladly dispatch someone to retrieve you, however far away, and the plane if necessary. Planes are replaceable, pilots are not.
Bravo.
(Sully would be proud. :) )
In some other news,
Cessna 1ES completed her Annual inspection. She also has a new tail skid. Ahem.
Cessna 739 continues her wing work.
We should know this week about 25R's future.
Not much else going on. Soggy forecasts, and chilling weather. Please check freezing levels -- the only ice you should make belongs in a frosty arnold palmer. Mmm.
Warm cocoa, check those heaters!
- Mike
