My thoughts today are on making the GO NO GO decision. With the number of recent general aviation accidents and incidents that I am aware of, there are several questions that have arisen in my mind about many of them.

The first and most pressing is what lead up to the pilot making the decision to go? Before each flight we should all be making a flight plan and a backup. We should be taking into consideration our personal minimums. We should be asking ourselves can I make this flight safely?

I find that many of these incidents and accidents can be avoided by breaking a link in the accident chain. In most cases that chain can be broken prior to the airplane ever leaving the ground.

The first thing I think we need to mention here is personal minimums. Each of us should know our personal limitations when flying. Can I take off and land in a cross wind? If so, what is the personal maximum that we are comfortable with? Am I comfortable flying at night? Am I familiar with the area in which I am flying? Am I comfortable flying IFR? How about single pilot IFR?

We also need to keep in mind that these minimums are not set in stone. These numbers shift with currency. If you have not flown in 2 weeks, they may drop off slightly. If you have not flown in two months, you should probably cut them in half.

Next is weather. Most of us commit to a GO decision before we ever head to the airport. We look outside and check our weather sources and decide that we are going to fly. Being here in Michigan we all know the only job that you can keep when you are wrong every day is being a weatherman (Or Person).

My thoughts on making a Go decision on weather very throughout the year and sometimes by the time of day. I like to think that I am a fairly good judge of what the weather is going to do, but I occasionally find myself questioning my own prediction. In these cases, I like to take a couple of steps.

First if I am expecting the weather to change shortly after I leave the airport I will delay my takeoff by an hour or so to make sure it is going to trend in the direction I was expecting. On longer flights I will keep an eye on the trend on my iPad and many times I will land and take a second look while on the ground to make sure I have a complete picture of what is going on while giving myself yet another chance to make a better decision and break the possible accident chain.

A 30 minute delay is much better than forever in a box.

Second I make a call to a fellow pilot to get their opinion. A lot of us being alpha male pilots have a lot of pride and this call is hard to make. I go back to my long sales career. In the sales process we always like to have a second set of eyes on a deal to make sure we are making the best decision. Maybe the other guys sees a trend that you do not. Maybe the other guy is more familiar with the weather patterns. Maybe the other guy’s knee is more reliable than NEWS8’s hour by hour forecast. And hopefully if you have talked yourself into making a possibly fatal decision the other guy or gal will talk you out of it.

In the cockpit we rely on Aeronautical Decision Making by using all tools and resources available to us. So, extend that ADM process outside of the cockpit and use it in your flight preparation. The vast majority of aviation incidents and accidents can be avoided by simply making a better-informed decision.

Nick Sanderson is a Commercial Instrument rated pilot. Nick is a representative of the FAA’s FAASTeam.

The above article contains only the opinions of the author and is not to be considered flight instruction, nor the opinion of the FAA or any other organization.

For more information on the FAASTeam and Wings Program please visit www.faasafety.gov