IFR rating?

"Roger Halstead" wrote in message
...
I would not say it's more complicated although there are more things
to consider.

IMHO that's exactly why it's more complicated. "More things to consider"
directly translates into "more complicated".

Maybe other people have a different definition of "complicated", but for me,
the conclusion comes directly from my own definition of "complicated".
Having more things to consider, by definition, means that the decision
making is more complicated.

Pete

I would not say it's more complicated although there are more things
to consider.

IMHO that's exactly why it's more complicated. "More things to consider"
directly translates into "more complicated".

Maybe other people have a different definition of "complicated", but for me,
the conclusion comes directly from my own definition of "complicated".
Having more things to consider, by definition, means that the decision
making is more complicated.

Pete

I suppose one could look at it that way. The problem I had for the 200 hours I
was not rated for IFR was trying to guess weather the weather guessers were
right when they promised 3000 feet and 5 miles for the next couple of days
before I'd start out on a weekend trip. The 'window of opportunity' for making
a flight has been much wider the 3300 hours I've logged since then. FWIF, I
log about 150 hours a year, and a buddy and I do an hour's profiencey check
every two or three months to each other (those are brutal: "It's your
airplane" we tell each other after doing everything we can to screw up the
other's inner ear while wearing a hood, he pilot has his head down.)

That may be the difference between my attitude and some others: I get to fly a
high performance airplane, a Mooney 201, that I know very well, and I do it
fairly often. It (and my bladder) has long legs: I usually file 5.5 hours of
fuel on board and 150 kts. My log book shows about 20% of my flight time is
actual IMC, and that's probably typical for someone who flys 80% of his time on
business and is based on the east coast.

It also probably means my definition of 'complicated' may be different than
yours. I usually have a reasonable sense of weather conditions for the eastern
third of the country where I do most of my flying. I'll have gotten a weather
briefing the night before a planned trip, and another before I file: life gets
complicated for me if the initial weather forecast is better than my personal
equirements and the later one shows the system is getting more intense than
initially forecast.

I'm lucky in that I get to fly quite a lot -- most of it paid for by my
company. I remember having to fly actual missed approaches only 5 times
because conditions dropped below my personal minimums, so I may be more
conservative than my contributions to this thread suggest.

On Sun, 2 May 2004 22:48:52 -0700, "Peter Duniho"
wrote:

"Roger Halstead" wrote in message
.. .
I would not say it's more complicated although there are more things
to consider.

IMHO that's exactly why it's more complicated. "More things to consider"
directly translates into "more complicated".

To me that's why the "decision is more simple.

Maybe other people have a different definition of "complicated", but for me,
the conclusion comes directly from my own definition of "complicated".
Having more things to consider, by definition, means that the decision
making is more complicated.

To me making a decision on 6 clear cut definitions is much more simple
than on 3 or 4 that tend to get into gray areas (although they
shouldn't)

Each to me are strictly go/no go decisions.

The question was on making the go/no go decision.




Pete


Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

"Roger Halstead" wrote in message
...
[...]
To me making a decision on 6 clear cut definitions is much more simple
than on 3 or 4 that tend to get into gray areas (although they
shouldn't)

I'm not familiar with the "6 clear cut definitions" of which you speak.
When I make go/no-go decisions, whether for IFR or VFR, there are always
gray areas. The only time the decision making is trivial is when the
weather is perfectly beautiful, or when the weather is absolutely
horrendous. There's a lot of room in between for IFR and VFR flight both.

Pete