AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - June 2013 - 88

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PROFICIENCY

situation was taxing me 110 percent, and
I only had 100 to give. By the time I had it
all figured out, I was a strung-out, worried
man, with no reserves. Every jolt and bump
was like a punch. My instrument scan was
shot. The airplane corkscrewed through the
roiling night sky, barely under control.
When I finally broke out of the goo on
the descent across the Everglades, the lights
of the Miami area looked the way I imagine
the Pearly Gates will look if I ever get there.
What did I do wrong? Well, when the
autopilot packed it in, maybe I should have
turned around and aviated myself back to
Pensacola, where the weather was fine. But
I didn’t know the turbulence and ATC were
going to challenge me. Perhaps I probably
should have asked myself, what if they do?
Single-pilot night IFR without an autopilot may be OK for those lusty studs who
haul cancelled checks every night of the
week and get lots of practice, but it can be
too much for someone doing it in strange
airspace and flying strange approaches.
I got the autopilot fixed before I committed lift again.
Never fly yourself if you have a deadline. The pressure of having to get there,
when added to the demands of the flight,
is all too often the final straw. If you just
gotta get there, buy a ticket and let the pros
in the front end with experience, training,
and equipment superior to yours deliver you
while you swill a drink and read AOPA Pilot.
Never aviate unless you are mentally
and emotionally ready to devote all of your
brainpower to flying. Even safe VFR takes
all the gray cells I can muster. There are
days when I can’t let go of professional and
personal concerns, so I stay on the ground.
Never go flying unless you are willing to
park the airplane somewhere if the weather
throws you a curve. Being willing to park
the airplane and rent a car, a motel room,
or get on an airliner is a lightplane pilot’s
life insurance. I’ve left airplanes stranded
all over the United States; amazingly, they
were all still there when I went back for
them days later. And by some miracle the
weather then was always better, too. AOPA
STEPHEN COONTS is a pilot and novelist

whose latest book is Pirate Alley. Visit his
website (www.coonts.com).

88 | AOPA PILOT June 2013

http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/firc http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/firc http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/firc http://www.sigtronics.com http://www.sigtronics.com http://www.sigtronics.com http://www.aviationseminars.com/pilot http://www.coonts.com http://www.aviationseminars.com/pilot

AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - June 2013

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