There must be at least two of you to make sky-genii. You're a single sky-genius.

I don't really care too much about this debate, in the sense that every crew makes individual decisions about what to accept, or what to refuse. In my opinion, if you're doing something tougher than the Boeing test pilots and engineers put in the book, you should do it with a good reason.

I only got into this discussion because I am familiar with a crew that found out the hard way that "declaring" doesn't trump all the cards that the FAA has in their hand. The deck is stacked, and it is a costly experience to try to extricate oneself from the game, once the Feds decide they must not lose. And, for reasons that are not entirely clear to me, they really, really, really hate to lose even on a two-week suspension. Which is why I added to the discussion the notion that the actual block-in fuel will get just a leeeetle bit more scrutiny than normal in this case. I don't have any interest in discussing the wind/runway: if they felt they had to have 31R, I don't question their judgment.

Regards,

Sink r8