Figures everywhere
As pilots, our activity is full of figures. Speeds, altitudes, times, headings, power settings, and so on… We have to manage and know all of them. Some deserve more respects than others. This is even more true for IFR pilots.

I mentionned some above, but two of the most important ones are not in the list: time and money. These two deserve much more attention than the others, in different ways.

Don’t respect timing
One of the best way pilots have to put themselves under pressure is self-imposed timing. It is not because you have a flight plan with an EOBT that you have to rush through your checks. A slot is not a valid reason to take-off within a thunderstorm (don’t smile, this happend more than you think). If all conditions for a safe departure are not met, ask ATC for a delay.

An additional contributing factor in incident is the presence of passengers paying part of the flight costs. Some pilots feel that as the passengers pay, they HAVE to transport them as promised. This lead them to fly in less than marginal conditions.

Ok, your passengers will be upset if you delay or even cancel the flight. But what about killing them in an accident ?

Respect your money
Don’t say I’m crazy. I did not say to rush to shorten your flight in order to save money. I’m sometimes schyzophrenic, but not that much !

The money issue is exactly opposite as time. As soon as money becomes a factor, you should think changing your kind of operation. If your budget is so tight that you need a direct through an hostile region, or that you know you can’t afford the cost of a go arround, you should envisage a shorter flight.

At some points in my flying years, I changed my type of operations. A good exampel is the year I got my IR rating. I had to fly an expensive plane for 30 hours of instruction. After that my budget was quite shorter. So instead of flying long IR legs with a single approach at the end, I went for much shorter legs with one or two approaches. Dois so I got more approaches for my money.

It was certainly less appealing, but my currency and proficiency were much better. Later on, when I had more money available, I started long flights again.

Be adaptative
The keyword here is again to adapt what you do to the circumstances. You have low time and money ? Fly circuits ! That’s the best way to remain current. You flew less last year ? Don’t throw yourself in a long cross-country flight.

Budget is back ? Treat you with some instruction to get that rusty bits off safely. There is no shame in that, but so much in a serious and unexplanable incident.