Originally Posted by
freezingflyboy
Very good point. I was riding the jumpseat on a 737 that had to divert due to destination weather. Our original alternate was fine to land at but would not have allowed us to take off with the very full load we had. Long story short, the decision was made to divert to a different airport that would not have required the crew to leave payload behind.
Unfortunately, this common sense thinking is not that prevalent. Knowing what is in the book is important, but knowing what works is more important. Just proves that old adage: Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.