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Utilizing Personal Minimums

ByPedro Vargas-Lebron

The FAA defines personal minimums “as an individual pilot’s set of procedures, rules, criteria, and guidelines for deciding whether and under what conditions to operate (or continue operating) in the National Airspace System.” Have you actually given thought as to why we choose the personal minimums we do? From the beginning of initial pilot training, weather minimums were established for day-to-day training and during solo flight. I didn’t realize it at first, but I later learned these limits were not just an insurance mandate, but these minimums were set at the time to safely operate an aircraft based on my “then” current experience.

So here’s the question: what are your personal minimums and WHY do YOU have them? Do you ever lower or raise your minimums? Are your minimums based solely on your overall experience level or do they take into account other variables such as advanced avionics? For pilots that fly multiple aircraft like I do, can and do your minimums change in regard to category or type of aircraft you are flying? It’s a judgment decision on how you chose your minimums. However, it’s important that time is taken before you strap into the cockpit for each flight to critically think about the different risk factors and variables which may affect your decision for the minimums you choose.

To guide us, let’s try briefly apply the FAA’s Personal Minimums Checklist to see how risk factors might shape what personal minimums or decisions we make for the day. Remember, just because you have been flying with a certain set of minimums one day, doesn’t mean you can’t adjust your minimums to a higher value given an ever-changing situation.

The acronym most pilots have heard is PAVE:

Pilot– We all should be familiar with the acronym IMSAFE associated with this. It addresses variables such as Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, and Emotion. But how do you adjust your personal minimums using this guideline? Have you ever thought about raising your minimums for a training flight if you only got 4-6 hours of sleep, instead of 8? Or if you anticipate a hard IFR flight with a long day, maybe taking a safety pilot to mitigate the chance of a mistake if you’re forecasting having to shoot an approach to your weather planning minimums.

Aircraft– Personally, this is a really important factor for me when deciding what minimums to apply. I often spend a large majority of my time asking myself; is this aircraft properly equipped for the flight? This question goes beyond just looking at the logbook for a properly equipped and legal aircraft. A professional pilot should think further. Am I flying a traditional 6-pack “steam gauge” layout, non-slaved compass card, with a separate OBS gauge for course guidance? What if the aircraft doesn’t have an auto-pilot? What if I’m flying an aircraft equipped with a dual auto-pilot, dual GPS with an integrated glass cockpit? I can comfortably say my personal minimums change depending on the equipment I have available.

A pilot should also look at his/her recency with the aircraft. For example, if you are qualified to fly both airplanes and helicopters, maybe you should choose to have higher personal minimums in one particular airframe or if you haven’t flown that airframe within 30, 60 or 90 days. This is a very important factor for the owner/pilot.

EnVironment– Most of the time, when we think of environment, we ask ourselves, is the weather legal for me to take off and, more importantly, can I conduct this flight safely? Basic flight planning should have taught us to take into consideration crosswind limits, day versus night, and the type of airspace the flight is conducted in. Thought should also be given to how you set your personal minimums in regards to the particular type of environment you might rarely encounter. Flying an approach to your minimums in the flat plains of Texas during the day is one thing, but how would you adjust your weather minimums flying to a new airport, at night, with no moon illumination, in the mountains of Colorado? Could you reduce the risk and adjust your minimums in this scenario with two pilots?

External Pressures – What external pressures are affecting your flight? Passengers, the owner, “get-there-it is”, the desire to impress someone? Although external pressures should never be a factor when conducting a flight, they almost always play a role in your decision whether to conduct the flight or not. For example, a professional pilot gets hired to do a flight and the weather is below their personal minimums. The pilot could be tempted to lower their minimums by 100 feet to take the flight for a paying customer. This scenario plays out every day across the country whether it’s a professional pilot or owner/pilot. It would be foolish not to consider this type of pressure. Always make sure you have a plan if and when you encounter this situation. Planning your flight and having a plan to deal with these potential scenarios ahead of time ensures you stick to your minimums. It can be as simple as telling your passengers, or the owner, well ahead of your flight what your personal minimums are to accept the flight, and to ensure they, or you, have a back-up plan!

Most pilots will never break a hard limitation such as an airframe cross wind limitation, or engine limit, but the chances of breaking a personal minimum are realistic. Think about the last time you went on a diet and broke your plan because you were tempted by your friends or family during an outing. Self-imposed personal minimums can be hard to enforce and we need to acknowledge this as humans. Here are a few techniques that you can use to assist in making a decision using personal minimums and help reduce the influence of external pressures.

Step 1: Sit down with your CFI/CFII and fill out a personal minimums worksheet. Filling one out by yourself is a good start but having an outside objective view will help in making sure your personal minimums are realistic. Remember, it is easy to convince ourselves that we can do something even though we have set personal minimums. Talk with other pilots to see if you have set realistic expectations.

Step 2: Preflight planning must start a few days in advanced. It can be as easy as checking what the forecast might be and looking at the projected route, near-by alternate airports, and various approaches. This can be done quickly and will give you a heads up on whether the flight can be safely conducted or not. By alerting the passengers or owner early enough, alternate plans can be developed. An extra pilot can be added, the passengers can fly commercial, bring along a CFI, or cancel the trip altogether and seek alternate transportation. The main point is the decision was made well ahead of the flight when conditions didn’t look favorable. This helps in removing external pressures and ensures you don’t go below your personal minimums.

Step 3: Never be afraid to ask for a second opinion. Part 135 operators have set procedures for conducting flights which assist the pilots in making decisions. These set procedures help remove external pressures by allowing the pilot to say, “The rules don’t allow for this, or this is how we will conduct the flight!” However, under Part 91, the pilot has to take ownership for all phases of the flight. This is where talking it out with another pilot helps with mitigating external factors and the environment. Ideally, this person should have more experience and be able to talk through the situation. For instance, if I’m flying to a new destination, I often seek the advice from another pilot who’s familiar with the area. They may have key insights into weather patterns, preferred approaches, or hazards to avoid. In certain situations, asking for another pilot’s opinion might be what influences your go/no-go decision! You’ll be amazed how much you can learn just from talking to other pilots.

Step 4: Continue to build your experience and knowledge base. Building experience requires us to push our abilities, and sometimes this may be to the limit. However, this can be done in a controlled training environment or just going out and experiencing it. Get a new license, fly regularly with a CFI/CFII, and always try and take advantage of training opportunities. For example on your next flight from point A to point B, practice hand flying an approach, do a short field landing, a quick steep turn, etc. Quality flight time is always better than quantity. Continue to challenge yourself and try not to become complacent.

Personal minimums are a tool to assist in every pilot’s aeronautical decision making process. Use your personal minimums to guide your final go/no-go decision and remember to stick to the plan. I encourage you to review the FAA’s Risk Management Handbook (FAA-H-8083-2). Appendix B has Sample Risk Management Scenarios and reviewing them will give a better understanding how to apply the techniques discussed to your everyday flying.

Pedro Vargas-Lebron is a King Air 200 and uH-60 Blackhawk Instructor pilot with the Texas Army National Guard. Pedro is a CFI/CFII/MEI both in airplanes and helicopters with over 4000 hours of flight time, half as an instructor pilot.

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    Diamond DA62 twin-engine aircraft parked on the ramp, a Cirrus SR22T alternative offered by Texas Top Aviation

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    190 ktDA62 Cruise
    762 lbFull-Fuel Payload
    648 nmRange, 4 Adults + Bags
    1 WeekTraining, No Travel

    What the Cirrus SR22T Gets Right

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    The conversation changes when the mission grows.

    Cirrus SR22T vs. Diamond DA62: The Numbers Side by Side

    Diamond DA62 on the hangar ramp, the twin-engine alternative pilots shopping a Cirrus SR22T rarely consider

    The Diamond DA62 is a seven-seat, twin-engine, Jet-A-burning composite airplane that most Cirrus shoppers have never sat in — usually because it simply never came up in the search. Here is how the two line up on the numbers that matter.

    SpecificationCirrus SR22TDiamond DA62
    Cruise speed184 KTAS @ 85% power / 10,000 ft190 KTAS @ 90% power / 10,000 ft
    Fuel burn18.3 GPH @ 85% (16.4 GPH @ 75%)19 GPH total (9.5 GPH per engine)
    Fuel type100LL AvGasJet-A (~$1.75/gal cheaper)
    Seats / rows5 seats, 2 rows7 seats, 3 rows
    Useful load~1,125 lb (3,600 lb MTOW)1,341 lb (5,071 lb MTOW)
    Full-fuel payload~575 lb762 lb
    Range, 4 adults + 75 lb bags (835 lb)~320–350 nm~648 nm (45-min reserve)
    Takeoff over 50-ft obstacle2,080 ft1,575 ft
    Landing over 50-ft obstacle2,535 ft1,447 ft
    Single-engine service ceiling—11,000 ft
    Engine-out redundancyCAPS parachuteSecond engine
    Recurring safety-system cost~$20,000 CAPS repack / 10 yrNone
    Rating requiredHigh-performance endorsementMulti-engine (~1 week, at home)

    Cirrus SR22T figures are taken from the Cirrus SR22T G6 Pilot’s Operating Handbook (P/N 13772-007, Reissue A): cruise at ISA and 3,400 lb, takeoff and landing over a 50-ft obstacle at sea level, ISA and 3,600 lb max gross.

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    Four Adults, Bags, and the Range That Actually Matters

    Spec sheets get written for two people. Real trips are not flown that way.

    Load four adults and 75 pounds of luggage — call it 835 pounds — and the SR22T has to leave fuel on the ramp. On a typical G6 empty weight that leaves room for roughly 48 of its 92 usable gallons, and realistic range lands around 320 to 350 nautical miles with IFR reserves. Put that same 835 pounds into a DA62 and you are looking at roughly 648 nautical miles with a 45-minute reserve.

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    Diamond DA62 cabin interior showing the second and third row seating that gives it a 762 lb full-fuel payload

    About the Cirrus Vision Jet G1

    If your search has moved from the SR22T up to the Vision Jet, that airplane deserves real credit too. Cirrus did something nobody else managed: a single-pilot personal jet, with CAPS, delivered in volume, flown successfully by owner-operators. That is a genuine achievement in this industry, and we teach Cirrus Vision Jet training ourselves.

    The G1 specifically, though, asks for a level of commitment that surprises a lot of first-time jet buyers.

    Cirrus Vision Jet G1: What Ownership Actually Asks Of You

    • Acquisition: approximately $1.8 million.
    • Fuel burn: 60–70 GPH of Jet-A.
    • Full-fuel payload: only 300–400 lb — roughly two adults and a soft bag.
    • Range: about 800 nm on paper, but heavily payload-limited in practice.
    • Type rating: a full FAA type rating is required — roughly two weeks of initial training in Knoxville, Tennessee.
    • Insurance dual: 25+ hours of additional dual instruction beyond the type rating.
    • Recurrent: annual simulator recurrent training back in Knoxville, at $15,000–$25,000 per year, every year.
    • Runway: 3,192 ft takeoff / 3,011 ft landing over a 50-ft obstacle.
    • Climb: drops to 1,100–1,200 fpm at heavier weights, and loses thrust at high density altitude airports — exactly where you want margin.
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    Runway Numbers Open Up the Map

    Diamond DA62 on a short field runway, clearing a 50-foot obstacle in about 1,575 feet on takeoff

    Performance over a 50-foot obstacle is where your airport list gets long or short. The DA62 clears it in about 1,575 feet on takeoff and 1,447 feet on landing. The SR22T needs 2,080 and 2,535 feet. The Vision Jet G1 needs 3,192 and 3,011 feet.

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    The Parachute and the Second Engine

    CAPS is a real safety system and we will not say otherwise. It has saved lives, and it deserves the respect it gets. It also carries a cost most buyers do not budget for: the rocket and canopy repack runs about $20,000 every ten years, and it is not optional.

    The DA62 answers the same question a different way. Lose an engine and you still have one making power, turning counter-rotating props, managed by a FADEC that keeps it to a single lever per side. One number to know either way: the DA62 single-engine service ceiling is 11,000 feet, so on one engine it will hold altitude over most terrain but not over the high country. Neither answer is wrong — they are two philosophies about the same risk. The DA62 version just does not come with a recurring five-figure bill.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Is the Diamond DA62 faster than a Cirrus SR22T?

    Only down low, and only slightly. At 10,000 feet the Diamond DA62 cruises at 190 KTAS at 90% power on 19 GPH of Jet-A total, while the Cirrus SR22T G6 POH shows 184 KTAS at 85% power on 18.3 GPH of 100LL. Higher up the SR22T is the faster airplane — its turbo-normalized engine holds 198 KTAS at 18,000 feet on the same fuel flow. The DA62 advantage is fuel cost, payload and runway, not raw speed.

    How much can a Diamond DA62 carry compared to a Cirrus SR22T?

    The DA62 carries a 762 lb full-fuel payload across seven seats in three rows. The Cirrus SR22T has a useful load of about 1,125 lb and a full-fuel payload of roughly 575 lb. Loaded with four adults and 75 lb of bags — 835 lb total — the DA62 flies about 648 nm with a 45-minute reserve, while the SR22T is closer to 350 nm.

    What training does a Cirrus Vision Jet G1 require compared to a Diamond DA62?

    The Vision Jet G1 requires a full FAA type rating: about two weeks of initial training in Knoxville, Tennessee, plus 25+ hours of additional dual for insurance, plus annual simulator recurrent back in Knoxville that runs $15,000–$25,000 per year on an ongoing basis. The Diamond DA62 requires only a multi-engine rating — about one week, usually at your home airport, with no travel.

    Can a Diamond DA62 use shorter runways than a Cirrus SR22T or Vision Jet?

    Yes. Over a 50-foot obstacle the DA62 takes off in about 1,575 ft and lands in about 1,447 ft. The Cirrus SR22T needs about 2,080 ft and 2,535 ft, and the Cirrus Vision Jet G1 needs about 3,192 ft and 3,011 ft. The Vision Jet G1 also sees climb rate fall to 1,100–1,200 fpm at heavier weights and loses thrust at higher density altitude airports.

    Does the Diamond DA62 have a whole-airframe parachute like Cirrus CAPS?

    No. The DA62 redundancy is a second engine rather than a parachute. One practical difference in ownership cost: the Cirrus CAPS repack runs about $20,000 every ten years and is mandatory, while the DA62 has no equivalent recurring safety-system expense.

    Current Diamond DA62 market listings are aggregated on Controller: browse the Diamond DA62 inventory.

    DA62 Questions?

    Contact Us Today!

    Contact Texas Top Aviation•(512) 270-1298•Contact@txtopaviation.com

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    ByHank Gibson

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    For hiking, you have a myriad of options, from the Cathedral Rock, to the Oak Creek Canyon, to the Devil’s Bridge Trail, all are beautiful, though most are not for the faint of heart (especially the Devil’s Bridge).  Even though the fall is cooler, make sure you pack plenty of water for the hikes.

    Sedona

    Want something to do in the evening?  Go up to the Chapel of the Holy Cross to watch the sunset.  After the sun goes down, go do some stargazing.  You’ll get to take a tour of the stars at the Sedona Star Gazing location in Oak Creek.  You are shown all the constellations and stars by professional astronomers, and blankets and chairs are provided.

    Art connoisseur?  You’ll find plenty of art galleries around town with a ton of beautiful, original artwork.  There are also several theaters and golf courses around Sedona, giving everyone a little bit of everything.

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  • Selecting the Proper Altitude

    ByHank Gibson

    One of the first questions a student pilot asks me when starting the cross country portion of his or her training is, how do I know what altitude is best for my flight?  This is a good question, because without taking certain aspects of the flight into account, it’s really just a crap shoot when selecting an altitude.  Craps and flying don’t mix, so let’s take a look at a few considerations when selecting an altitude.

    Sky Coverage

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    Scattered Clouds

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    Terrain and Obstacles

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    Winds Aloft

    Winds Aloft

    Once the sky coverage and terrain have been considered, it’s time to look at the winds aloft.  Tailwinds are preferred, but, sometimes, a headwind is the only option.  After taking the clouds and terrain into account, this narrows down your altitude to a handful of options.  The winds aloft will further narrow it down.

    Aircraft Performance

    Once you have two or three altitudes in mind, taking a look at the performance charts for your airplane will help nail down that final altitude.  Pull out the POH, compare fuel burn and cruise speed, and you’ll have your altitude selected.

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