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Many uears back, when I was still living in Nevada working for the National Wather Service in Winnemucca, I had a fellow come into the office during the graveyard shift, so darn drunk he could hardly walk. Now the weather was totally crappy with fog and the weather term used in the hourly reports was W0X0F. which mean ceiling zero due to total obscuration with zero visibilty in fog. The guy wants a weather briefing to Reno Nevada. Reno is also W0X0F as it Lovelock, the only other reporting station between WMC and RNO. Occifially, I cannot tell him he cannot take off even if the field is closed and as WMC is an uncontrolled airport, it technically can't be closed. Well, I brief him and strongly advise that he wait for the wather to clear later that day. he goes out, gets in gthe plane, takes off and disappears into the worst conditions possible, literally never to be heard from again until roughly ten years later when the wreckage of his plane was found on Mount Rode west of Reno a few hundred yards off the Mount Rose highway. I still to this day can't believe that considering the weather conditions, snow, fog and heavy icing that he made it past Reno only to end up smashed against a mountain.
After he took off, I filed a report of the briefing and attached copies of the weather data as strictly a CYA thing. I still feel bad about the fact that I just could not convince him to stay on the ground. As drunk as he was, I'm surprised he did not crash on take off.
In 33 years of doing the weather thing, 20 of which involved briefing pilots of weather conditions, he is only one of two who refused to listen when I suggested they wait for better weather. The other survived only to return to WMC and tell me he should have listened. I always sweated blood every time I gave a briefing into marginal conditions and that drunk made my ulcers hurt something bad.
Paul B.
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