Flying commercially

There are also flights from Southend to Antwerp

These have been discontinued.

My dispatch rate in the SR22T was almost 100%. I cannot outclimb frontal weather in the Cirrus as also not in the TBM or P46T but nevertheless I cannot remember having to go home from the airport not being able to depart. Maybe I had to wait a little for a thunderstorm to pass over, but other than that…

That shows that depatch rates (“go”-rates) have mostly to do with the pilot, and rather little with the aircraft.

Patrick wrote:

Sometimes I feel this forum needs the “rolling on the floor, laughing” smiley.

If you had read the forum the way you should (if you had paid attention in class), you would have known there is one

Some pilots “always fly”.

A fair number of them kill themselves and their trusting family. N2195B was a hangar neighbour of mine. Always flew and usually VFR regardless of wx.

The policy works more often than one would expect because the wx is usually better that forecast and one can assess it better from within it or above it.

In a Seneca or an Aztec such a pilot can do 99%. Until…

JasonC wrote:

I think within the possible envelope which is constrained by aircraft type and equipment that is true. The difference between a 75% dispatch rate and a 90% rate is probably sitting between the seat and the yoke. It is course does not make one rate better or worse than the other.

I think this is partly true. Part of the dispatch rate depends on how “bold” the pilot is, i.e. his evaluation of the fitness of his aircraft (appropriate performance and equipment) and his skills for the prevailing conditions. Over-confidence in his aircraft’s and his own capabilities might bring his no-go decisions close to zero, but one day he will either pay the price, or scare himself into re-adjusting his confidence level – re the killing zone.

Not being bold at all i have a “dispatch rate” of about 50 percent, flying from a VFR field in southern Germany. My typical destination is a 1800 ft glider field next to my company and i never fly there with low clouds and/or bad visibility.

It happens, sometimes, that i arrive there by car and think “damn, I could have flown”, but not very often. November to February the weather in Bavaria and Bohemia is unflyable on many days … i never fly there in the winter.

If i flew to an IFR field i guess 75 percent of all Mondays from March to October would be possible.

My personal motto is: “I’ll be dead long enough anyway”.

I did not mean to come across as negative That is why I put the term “bold” in quotes. Apart from 5, this is what I meant. But 5 is definitely a factor as well.