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Can you “hack” the FRAT? Of course. It won’t stop you from fudging a number here and there to get the outcome you de- sire. But its job is not to be your mother or your CFI. If you are serious about flying to the highest professional standard (and we all are, right?), you will be mercilessly honest with your- self. No fudging. No hacking.
After running our proposed flight through the FRAT, our result was yellow or Caution. After some meaningful discus- sion, we decided not to not commit to the entire trip initially: We would get underway and re-evaluate once we cleared cus- toms in Florida. Turns out the weather was mostly benign, our quick-turn in Florida was fairly quick, ATC gave us favorable routing and the trip went as planned. The only hiccup was that surface winds in Kansas City were gusting +25 kts., and not aligned with either runway. The post-frontal winds were whipping up harder than forecasted. We had a hint of what was to come by monitoring the METARs west and north of our destination, but it wasn’t something we were thrilled to take on after a 14-hour duty day.
The next morning, w•e spent some time over coffee dissect- ing our decision-making. Although the flight was completely safe and legal, it turned out to be a long day ending with a challenging landing. Perhaps next year we will stretch the trip home by an extra day...I hear there is some good baseball in Florida that time of year. T&T
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April 2018 TWIN & TURBINE • 3