Originally Posted by
prior121
I applaud your maturity. Trust me, the last place you want to be is left seat landing at YYZ at mins in a
snowstorm with a 20 knot crosswind with
braking action reported as poor with a terrified FO who just got done telling you this is his first trip off IOE and he has exactly 1000 hours with a R-ATP and has never flown outside of SoCal.....
Originally Posted by
iFlyRC
Maybe because I grew up in the North East, and got tons of experience driving in the snow, that I personally do not think that winter operations are really that big of a deal. Follow the procedures, be smart about taxiing on slippery area's, and give yourself more than enough room. During my CA IOE, I got to fly out of CLT and in the middle of winter operations. I am grateful for that experience, but I really gotta tell you, I think it requires much more thinking, planning, and being on top of your game dodging summer thunderstorms in and around DFW. Especially with fuel loads, and re-routes. You really need to be thinking like a captain to avoid fuel emergencies. ALWAYS contact dispatch if you get a reroute while taxiing to the runway. I'd say that it is much easier to find yourself in a hole with summer flying than in winter flying.
By no means take this as advice on holding off from upgrading. Do what you feel is best for you.
Prior, you make a good point, but would you really be landing in this type of situation to begin with, or are you just throwing it in for the "drama"?
I tend to agree with iFly in that thunderstorms, etc are where the experience matters. The snow storm in YYZ is something you know is going on before you leave your departure airport and you can get a pretty good idea of the conditions you are going into via PIREPS, etc. And chances are with "poor" BA reports and crosswinds forecasted as you suggest, enough fuel will be boarded so that if those conditions actually exist at the time of arrival its an easy divert. (pretty sure those flip cards would say "no bueno" in those conditions)
A Spring dry line in Texas on the other hand is much less predictable. You could be on short final thinking you've beaten it in only to see the field slowly disappear as the gust front moves in, your airspeed jumps 25-30 knots (what goes up must come down). Windshear missed to a divert, that'll get the blood pressure up!
I'll take the blizzard over the +TSRA any time.