Hi guys thanks for the replies so far. Very interesting to read, and I appreciate the efoort you take to keep up safe. Particularly interesting as i imagine this is perhaps the area of flying that is most down to judgement and interpretation of the pilots flying on the day of what they're seeing, rather than following a set procedure.
Living round Bogota I'm always amazed looking at FR24 at how the guys are still getting in and out of the airport while there's a monster thunderstorm right above me in the city - bear in mind that Bogota airport is closer to the city centre than most international airports and normal departure path would take them directly into it... Obviously they know what they're doing, but I imagine they must be seeing quite a wall of red on the radar as they climb out before turning more promtly than normal!
Out of curiousity...has anyone ever had to turn around and go back because there simply wasn't a gap? It seems the onus is on getting through, but is this ever simply not possible? Or desirable...I understand that you want to get to destination, but just as I wouldn't expect a train to carry on if it was alerted of a tree on the line ahead, I'd hope pilots are prepared to give up if it doesn't look safe. Sorry if that sounds patronising or ignorant, or is a ridiculous comparison, I'm just curious what's going through a pilot's head when faced with an unbroken storm line ahead.
Otherwise, I do always try to pick what I hope to be safer operators. Unfortunately it's really hard as SLF to know which operators genuinely operate to higher standards. It's night on impossible to know who goes the extra mile with training, who encourages regular hand flying, who has the least fatigueing rosters, who maintains their aircraft most rigerously. I have a feeling it's not always the big, traditional names that people imagine to be safest that necessarily are, for instance after what we learned about BA from the engine cowling incident. It would be nice if there was more public information about these things, for one, it would perhaps force some operators to up their game.
Last edited by neila83; 10th May 2016 at 19:24.