ByGlennPatterson

CHANCE FAVORS THE PREPARED MIND Get Top Retail for Your Aircraft

By Glenn Patterson

Louis Pasteur’s quote, “Chance favors the prepared mind” means that the better prepared and more knowledgeable you are, the more you’ll be able to take advantage of any chance opportunities or observations. Louis Pasteur was a French microbiologist and chemist. He is best known for discovering microbial fermentation, pasteurization, and vaccination.

I have often used this phrase because it seems so very appropriate for aviation, all kinds of aviation. By being mindful of things that can go wrong on a flight and having some preparation made before taking off, chance and most likely a positive outcome will certainly favor us. While the subject of this article mainly describes cross-country flights and preparedness, proper planning in other areas of our lives can also favor positive outcomes. As a flight instructor, I feel it’s part of my job to mentor young pilots who don’t have a vast amount of experience, and to sometimes remind more experienced pilots of small things they need reminding of. Sometimes, we all need reminders.

Over my 30-plus years of flying helicopters and airplanes, I can certainly count numerous flights where I was not that well prepared for the unexpected. It sounds so simple to stop and plan for the unexpected engine out, a broken engine part, and even bad weather, that could stop the flight short of the intended destination, yet many aviators just don’t plan for those unfortunate and disruptive events. Do you even have the basics to last one full night in the desert, forest, or plains? Water seems to be the most obvious, as our body can fast for several weeks needing only water, unless one has other medical conditions. If you fly a small plane, maybe a case of bottled water is too much extra weight you would rather not carry. A water filter would be great, as long as you have a somewhat clean water source to use it with. That weather diversion you might have to make enroute at a small-town airport might not have that old Crown Vic retired police car at the city FBO for your ride to a hotel. Perhaps a sleeping bag and some food you packed would surely come in handy as you sleep in the aircraft.

We certainly live in a wonderful technological age of GPS and SAT phones where rescue may not be too far away and take very long to reach us. But have we really planned for such an event? SAT phone monthly plans are somewhat expensive, and when did we really need one in the past anyway? Products like the Garmin inReach Mini are great tools to have if we have them readily available. While cell phone service continues to improve all over our great nation, it is still sparce in many rural areas, especially out West. Having a real survival bag that is conducive to the area of travel, like mountains, desert or plains could mean the difference between life and death based on current weather conditions should you find yourself making an emergency landing. Hypothermia is a real thing. This is yet another reason to always file a flight plan on cross-country flights.

There have been many articles written about survival bags and what to have in them. Whether you are a professional commercial pilot, a weekend worrier or fall somewhere in between, we should at least carry the basic survival bag, should the time come when we need it. If you mentally prepare for a problem, you are far more likely to prevent that problem from overwhelming you, and you may find that chance or luck favors you because of your preparation.

Before starting the engine, note preflight checklists carefully. (David Tulis / Courtesy AOPA)

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