Speed limits on freeway

Originally posted by StephenH Instead, since I was towing the legal speed, the accident was written up as "unavoidable."

Originally posted by EchoGale +1 to Pod Geek. Many of us have noted in the past that while the state highways seem like they'll take longer, if you are slowing to the recommended 60-65 in practice they don't.

I went to that thread and kinda scanned thru it......mainly reading your posts....seems like you should name your r-pod, 'Phoenix'...and that trip back home could be called the Flight of the Phoenix.

The official aviation term is "continuation bias", a form of cognitive bias to continue with the plan despite changing conditions. It is quite hard for type A personalities to overcome, they have learned to have life success by by being aggressive and willful. As most pilots are in this category (or they wouldn't be able to either afford an airplane or the training, often military) continuation bias is at least a partial cause of the majority of aviation accidents. In my personal flying experience I know its hard to overcome, especially flying IFR where air traffic control expects you to follow the clearance you've been given all the way to the destination and you have to request and be approved for any changes. Now you have both your own gethomeitis and the federal government's (FAA's) dowhatyou'resposedtodoitis to overcome. 

We tow a 179 with a Lexus GX470 - as far as I know,  pretty much the same V8 and tranny as your rig. You're from the west so you know about mountain driving. We live in Colorado. I would say we average 60. On long, straight stretches (think utah and wyoming) closer to 65 cruising, but try not to go above that. Take our time on hills. If its windy, especially if a headwind,  we notch it down. With a good WDH and  sway control, its pretty darn stable. Really important to keep your speed under control going downhill - make  sure that your brake controller is properly adjusted so that your vehicle brakes arent doing all of the work.