The clearest path appears when you adjust your heading, not when you wait for perfect weather.

I learned that lesson years ago on a flight into Eleuthera in the Bahamas.

I was in the right seat of a Beechcraft Baron, serving as the support pilot while my friend, another experienced aviator, was PIC in the left seat. My job was to navigate, handle ATC, monitor the weather, and stay ahead of the airplane.

The Baron is a sleek, fast, and complex aircraft. There is a reason it earned the nickname “the doctor killer.” If you get behind that airplane, it can get ahead of you quickly.

We had been dealing with weather all day coming down from Charlotte. Thunderstorms, buildups, turbulence, and lightning off in the distance. Nothing severe, but enough to keep us working the entire flight.

As we approached Eleuthera, it became obvious we were not getting that easy visual arrival we had hoped for. The ceilings were low enough that we would need to fly a non-precision instrument approach. Our alternate was Nassau with a beautiful ILS approach and much better conditions.

I set up and briefed my PIC on the approach, but by that point, fatigue had entered the cockpit. In his mind, he wanted the airport to appear visually, rather than fully committing to the procedure. So each time he thought he might catch sight of the runway, he would drift away from the published approach, trying to transition visually underneath the ceiling.

The approach became sloppy. Unstable and dangerous.

I remember sitting there knowing exactly where this was heading before we ever reached minimums.

It was going to be a missed approach.

When the moment came, I called it. “Missed approach.”

My buddy immediately started the climb-out procedure, and during that climb, I calmly suggested something that changed the entire tone in the cockpit.

“Why don’t you let me shoot the next approach?”

And that is the point. Conditions never stay the same.

Weather changes. Fatigue changes. Situational awareness changes. Even experienced people can slowly drift away from discipline without realizing it. Good decision-making

is not about waiting until things fall apart completely. It is about recognizing changing conditions early enough to make a correction before the situation gets dangerous.

Hope your skies are always Blue Skies!

— Donald R. Payseur