I know, I only say what I do because for most people out there "being prepared" means having a cel phone with them. I always even find myself saying "here take these gloves and this toque with you, you'll thank me if you need them" I can tell they think I'm nuts, but I know that they underestimate how cold this damn country gets. Notably since the sun went down tonight, the temperature has decreased about 10 degrees, so someone is going to encounter somewhat worse conditions when they get back than maybe when they departed in the day light. The point being as well that things have an incredible propensity to not go as planned in the dark. A fuel pump you were planning to top up with may not be working. You may find a bit of snow that you get a wheel stuck in. You freeze up a brake by accident. You find that the building is locked that you were planning to wait for your ride in, and someone has changed the code from the "last three digits of the emergency frequency". All sorts of incredibly fun things. God help you if you manage to hurt yourself.PilotDAR wrote: Yup! I carry a lot of stuff in the plane, in case of that! I look at the photo of the munched 150, I think, if they had survived, would they have been prepared for a cold overnight stay, even uninjured? People laugh at the load of stuff I carry around, but it sure is reassuring.
I think there was a kid around Moncton who went down in the dark a year or so ago and survived it, but just about froze to death since it didn't look like he had anything but his official flight school uniform and prerequisite leather jacket with him. A DA-20 of course doesn't give you a lot of room to bring prepared stuff though.
I digress.