This reminds me of a flight I did a few years ago on Thanksgiving.
I took my father on a flight in a Cessna 150 from Falcon Field,AZ to
Payson in the morning to "keep out of the way" of mom. A few high clouds
when we took off, nothing too interesting. There is a range of mountains
between here and there called 4 Peaks. After getting some breakfast and
looking around the ramp at Payson I looked at 4 Peaks in the distance
and the clouds had decended below the peaks. I told my dad we'd have to
wait until the clouds lifted. He told me how mad mom would be if we
didn't make it back on time for Thanksgiving, I mentioned how unhappy
she'd be if we never made it back. I also mentioned that if worse came
to worse we could get a rental car to get back. (It was a 45 minute
flight but would take 2+ hours by car to get back.)

Long story short, we waited 3 or 4 hours until the clouds were about
1500ft above the peaks and made it back for a later than normal
Thanksgiving dinner.

We just need to remember that we are in charge of safety here and not to
allow others to influence our decisions. After hearing many storys like
"Jeans" it only reinforces my decision that day.

Fly safe.
--
Bart D. Hull

Tempe, Arizona

Check http://www.inficad.com/~bdhull/engine.html
for my Subaru Engine Conversion
Check http://www.inficad.com/~bdhull/fuselage.html
for Tango II I'm building.

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PaulaJay1 wrote:
In article .net, "Terry"
writes:


How does something like this happen? Was it the pressure of not wanting to
deprive the young girl of her Christmas present? Not having to say come back
another time? Perhaps thinking she could maintain visual contact with the
ground and just to some touch and go's? Some way, some how, she "psyched"
herself into doing something that ended in a horrible tragedy.

This in a way is written for "Jean" the pilot and the two passengers that
died needlessly so that perhaps all of us can learn something. Pilots must
never give in to the pressures that be. We have our lives and the lives of
others in our hands. We will always make safety our top priority, know
ourselves, our limits.

I don't have the answers but I needed to write this...


Thanks for the info on the crash. I read about it in the paper but didn't know
the details. Very sad but a lesson for us all !!

I still remember a couple of years ago when I said no to a "first flight" with
thunder storms in the distance. The storms didn't hit but I keep remembering
that my decision before the fact was correct. SWometimes it is not easy but it
is correct.

Chuck