Decisions
 

I had to make one of those tough go/no-go decisions today. All pilots know the ones I'm talking about - where the margins seem blurred and we may second-guess our training, but where the right choice is often staring us in the face.
I was with a student who was ready to go up in the pattern at night. A convective SIGMET was active for our area, but the TAF didn't forecast any convective activity until 3 in the morning - more than enough time to get my student night current and excited about night flying.
There were close to a dozen airplanes in line - 2 already doing their stop-and-goes in the pattern - and we were #1 short of the runway. We had just completed our checks and were ready to go. The pitch black skies to the west caught my attention, and as I looked out at the inky blackness, I saw a huge lightning strike maybe 10 miles to the north of the airport. My student asked me what we were going to do.
It took me 5 seconds of thinking to realize that there was really only one decision to make here and that it should have been instantaneous. I swallowed the lump in my throat, threw pride out the window, and told tower we wanted to head back to the ramp. They obliged, and expressed their approval of our decision as they handed us off to ground. As we taxied back to the ramp, all but 1 of the airplanes turned around.

Just a friendly reminder that if we find ourselves entertaining an alternative course of action - whether it is in the form of a go-around, turning back to the ramp, or diverting to an alternate – it is more prudent to listen to that little voice nagging us from the back of our head than to just wing it. Break the accident chain and enjoy being on solid ground again.

Who doesn't enjoy reading or telling a good story? Post any tales with a good safety-related decision(s) you've had to make from over the years in this thread. We can all benefit from them.

Fly safe.

Awesome decision.

I have almost the same story except it was a cross country and I was already on the way to the destination with a pvt. There was a airmet, either about to start or almost over for turbulence. I kept in touch with flight watch and approach on whether they were any pireps or any updates. No bumps at all going to the airport and the ATIS didn't have anything unusual. While on a extended final, a PA-28 reported to me(in a C-152) that there is strong turbulence on final. A few seconds past and all of a sudden I'm looking at my student holding onto me and his door, bracing himself. Out of his door about 200ft AGL was the mother earth, we were 90ish banking on final. I upper cut the yoke(seriously) and perform a go around. I decided we were done and headed back home.

Student learned not to chance anything and always fly the plane(I made sure he understood that).

Well done. Remember its always better to be on the ground wishing you were flying than flying and wishing you were on the ground.