On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 14:30:18 +1300, "Cockpit Colin"
wrote:

"In any situation if you can choose to do something 2 ways - one being more
safe - the other being less safe - then why on earth wouldn't you choose the
safer one?


My opinion is that one reason is pure ignorance - not knowing or
caring which would be the better choice. Every summer like clockwork,
here in Colorado, there are the usual incidents of pilots splattering
their machinery due to a lack of respect for that *minor* concept of
density altitude. Pilots attempt to take off at 2 pm, when the temp
is 92F and the density altitude is somewhere around 9000' with their
C172 loaded past the weight limit. Jeez, I wonder why they barely
managed to lift off and then slammed into the field at the end of the
runway - if they even managed to reach the end of the runway.