A Careful Pilot

Anne used to fly a charter plane when she owned her own local airline. She once had a group of six clients who wanted to fly down to Las Vegas for the weekend, and chartered her plane with her as the pilot. She, along with her son Paul, flew them down for the weekend.

However, when she went to set up their return flight, the weather was less than favorable. She was flying a Cessna, which is lightweight and has wings which will accumulate ice quickly in cold temperatures and high altitudes – which in turn will freeze up the wingflaps. Rather than risk it, she convinced her clients to take a commercial flight back, though they didn’t want to and insisted everything would be just fine.

She and Paul took it slow and careful when flying the Cessna back by themselves. Sure enough, when they reached the airport and did the post flight checks, there was water dripping off the wings and the beginning of ice crystals forming. If she had opted to cave in and fly back with all eight passengers, she most likely would have lost control of the plane and possibly crashed.