Flight to Las Vegas Pirep -- Part I

I would think that when you are flying IFR and you are worried that the IFR
rated pilot is about to be incapacitated and the co-pilot is VFR only, it's
time to call it a day. Breaking the landing gear is just confirmation that
this flight should have been cancelled earlier.

After Hutchinson, we were flying IFR in VFR conditions. We had a $20K,
altitude holding, S-tec autopilot, and, as a 1000+ hour pilot, I've been
very close to taking my instrument check-ride. I'm confident that, had the
pilot keeled over, I would have been able to land the Aztec. I was keeping a
close eye on conditions -- as should any co-pilot -- but that turned out to
be unnecessary -- Jim never skipped a beat.

There was no bad judgment here, and to imply otherwise is a misreading of
the situation. Had Jim felt like he was in any danger of becoming
incapacitated, we would not have departed Hutchinson. There were three
pilots on that airplane, and we all got back in that plane at Hutchinson
without a second thought. If any of us had felt threatened or endangered,
we would have spoken up.

Should we have spent the night in HUT? With 20/20 hindsight, sure -- but
for comfort reasons, not aviation safety reasons. Conditions were severe
clear VFR, and we knew we could stop at any of half a dozen airports along
the way -- but none of us knew that the turbulence would be unrelenting.
The fact that the wind came up higher than predicted was just bad luck, and
Jim's skill salvaged what might have been a far worse situation.

We would do that flight again today, under the identical conditions. Mary
and I have analyzed the flight from every angle, and at every step of the
way Jim's flight planning and decision-making process was sound. At no
point was there an obvious "no-go" condition that we missed, nor was there
any pressure to actually get anywhere in particular that day -- a fact I
think I made clear. "Get-there-itis" was NOT a factor at all.

It was just an exciting flight, which is something that occasionally happens
if you actually use GA aircraft for long cross-country flights.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"