Risk Management Magazine

Growing up in an aviation family, most of my dad’s stories tended to start with, “No kidding — there I was, inverted in my Huey. I could tell I was inverted because my Air Medals were dangling in my face.” Back then, I used to just laugh at his tales because I had no real experience in aviation. Several years later, I was in a flight of four aircraft that almost went inadvertent instrument meteoritical conditions (IIMC) while trying to return to Fort Drum, New York. The concept of going inverted and not realizing it made a lot more sense at that point.

This less-than-stellar moment in my career happened many years ago. Back then, I knew that not clearing the windows was a stupid move, but I still felt I was incredibly unlucky that someone left a forklift in the road. Then I read a newspaper article that changed my belief that I was simply a victim of bad luck.

I arrived several hours early to ensure all the paperwork, planning and details were taken care of. Even though the forecast was VFR throughout our time of flight, I decided to plan an IFR flight as well, just in case. The radar was making me second guess the forecast, and I didn’t want to be unprepared should weather come in sooner than expected.