By Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

We all have so-called “personal rules” we use to help us make decisions when everyday challenges arise. In aviation, they are sometimes called personal minimums and are used to help us decide whether this morning’s low visibility and cloud cover—even if legal VFR—will prevent us from getting that $100 hamburger.

Having flown my share of low-powered fixed-gear airplanes on long-distance flights, I’ve developed a few such rules, most of them as a result of getting myself into one “situation” or another. For example, I don’t care what the legal alternate might be after a long IFR flight; I’ll file legally but I really care about the weather…