Originally Posted by
junior.VH-LFA
Not if you're going coastal to stay in glide range of land while you do your admin. Tracking coastal you'd have to keep trucking PAST EN/ML to get to Avalon. On Flight aware data you can see him decelerating to a speed not much higher than his later approach speed while tracking coastal, quite possibly doing that admin prior to making a decision.
You need to get out a ruler. They were so close to half way across the bay that it offered far better options to the west and the flight would have been over far less water than the eastern side.
If the wind was close to 17 as PC says it was, then YMAV looks more attractive yet again versus 26.
There’s no doubt it was a better option, but other factors took over, as you would reasonably expect them to. The biggest surprise to me is they didn’t climb to give more options.