I dutifully prepared for my flight this weekend, but it never materialized. Because of the FAA requirement, we have to do the flight in the late afternoon so we can log day and night time. That's a problem down here in the lovely tropical weather since summer afternoons characterized by isolated and embedded thunderstorms. It was no different on Sunday. The radar was showing lots of green surrounding different intensities of yellow, orange, red and some purple.
As if that wasn't enough, small abnormalities kept popping up. I had to get new charts, do a rushed VFR flight log, then switch planes to something I'd rather not fly. When I got to the plane, the landing light was inop, and we needed fuel. The fuel truck wouldn't come to us in the drizzle, and it was getting so late we had started to rush. Too many holes in the cheese; besides that, it just didn't "feel" right. I spoke to my instructor and he agreed that he could also see some links starting to form in the error chain.
I was proud of myself. That's what being a pilot is all about- making decisions. The first command decision to be made on any flight is whether or not it's going to happen, and I'm glad my instructor agreed with my assessment. We both were eager to get this flight done, but good sense and airmanship prevailed, and we stayed on the ground. We're scheduled to try again this week, but the weather still looks uncooperative- we'll see.
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