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Bell is a guy we ALL can
learn from! He has a priceless quality not vouchsafed to any but a very
few aviators: he admits his mistakes and catalogs them in detail!
You are a better aviator than I, sir because I would have looked for a plausible
excuse. I salute you.
How many of the rest of us
can do what Bell has done? How many of the rest of us would make
excuses? Let's look carefully at what he's said because this man has Been
There And Lived, to a place where we all might go someday.
Bell admits he freaked
out. So who among us wouldn't? But he kept his cool. This
is the Single Most Important Act you can do when you fly into a
cloud. Keep your cool. As Skyport said, the Ercoupe wants to fly; if
you're level and above stall, you'll stay that way for at least a minute or
two. Use that minute to gather yourself and to decide to
live.
Bell disregarded an adverse
weather briefing? How many of us have consulted AIRMETS, SIGMETS,
FSS...and then said, F**K it; I'm gonna live forever, let's fly! I
have. Have you? ....Naahhhhh!
Look carefully
at Bell's thought processes:
. I was just wondering why the heck I was so stupid to be there in the first place and then I was busy not to freak out. So I kept checking altitude and airspeed to keep calm. As long as I stay high enough , I won't hit anything was my thought and stalling the plane had to be avoided. That the plane was turning came not to my mind..He reacted EXACTLY the RIGHT WAY! He got his holyshit over with in a few seconds and then went on to try to save his life. He reduced his options to the basic minimum: "I kept checking my altitude and airspeed to keep calm...I have to "stay high enough". Exactly right. Now, if he HADN'T had a broken cover where he could find a hole, he would have had three options, and on the evidence of his performance in this dire strait, I'm betting he would have picked the right one. What do you think?Ny view? A real aviator, folks, and no mistake.Dr. Robert BeemanAnd I looked out of the window in search for my little road that I just second ago had in sight with cars on it.Thanks to the turn, the sight changed in front and the central valley light carpet was showing me where to go next immediately. The plane was banked alright and I know that I could not have circled there much longer without getting into real trouble.What went wrong?1.I did not listen to my friend Maynard Smith who told me about the front coming in. I was arrogant, thinking: What the heck is he talking about , I just came from San Francisco 3 hours ago - there was blue sky as far as one could see.2.I poorly navigated myself through the area loosing valuable time that way( My GPS was in my flight bag with empty batteries as was my flashlight)Third when I came into the dark, I was constantly comparing the maps with my altitude - just wanted to be on the safe side. For that I had to use the little floodlight that was mainly used to illuminate the otherwise not illuminated instruments(T&B and Compass). I turned the light around, read the map and 5 seconds later looked out front just to be in total darkness.And there I was, stunned that the road disappeared, blank in my brain.... darkness around me.Sure I could have just turned my floodlight back to the instruments to see whether I was turning. But I didn't. I was frozen and TRIED to think.Not much came out of that. It might have been only seconds in the darkness. My memory tells me minutes - a long time - to long.What did I do as corrective measures?1. I try listen to my friends.2. Get weather information when flying x-country at night. Be it the local TV Station. Anything is better than thinking the blue sky will last.3. I carry an extra set of batteries for the GPS plus 2 means of getting power from the plane for it (cable and adapter) plus at least two flashlights.Finally, I installed lights for all my instruments. Compass, T&B, Altimeter, Airspeed and VSI are all having lights now.I still love to fly at night. I learned, that one has to be prepared for that. Equipment wise and mentally.That revises my first posts about the necessity of an artificial horizon. In certain circumstances, it is a good instrument to have. Make sure it's illuminated.Hartmut----- Original Message -----From: A J DeMarzoSent: Friday, April 15, 2005 12:46 AMSubject: Re: [COUPERS-TECH] AH----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]----Good post. The most important thing when you think you're losing control is to STOP THE TURN. When all else has gone to shit, look at the trusty old whiskey compass. If it's moving, you're turning. Then you want to be sure you're flying level, so look at the altimeter and back it up with the airspeed indicator, both instruments using no gyros. Get your composure back and fly on to grandma's, hoping for a hole. After that, if you can't handle it any longer, the market for Ercoupes is pretty high right now, give it up and buy a new Corvette! ;-)Nothing like losing a horizon to get the old juiced flowing. I sure dampened my share of flight suits over the years. For a VFR pilot losing the horizon is probably the ultimate gut-wrencher. I suspect that's what happened to that Kennedy kid a few years ago - encountered haze climbing out after takeoff and couldn't make the instant instrument transition required to keep from augering in.When your horizon disappears you have essentially three options: 1] give yourself up for dead and put the nose down to make it quick and painless; 2[ give yourself up for dead and try to fly out of it by the seat of your pants [this will prolong things a little, but not by much]; 3] INSTANTLY renounce EVERYTHING outside your canopy: INSTANTLY!. Say to yourself, there's NOTHING out there but NOTHING,You'll perk right up at this because this is immediately verifiable by sneaking a peek out at the gloom, and you'll feel better for realizing you're right. Now do whatever it is you usually do to focus your concentration: I always like to wring my hands a little and moan piteously at the thought of never seeing my grandkids again...but do whatever works.All of the above should have occupied about one-half second. The next half-second of your Involuntary Instrument Experience [IIV] should be taken up by shifting your eyes to your dual-axis gyro horizon, which, after Bell's absorbing and quite frightening story, you ordered from WAG Aero for seven hundred bucks and installed right away. [YOu didn't? Hmmm. OK, then instead you'll have to use your turn-and-bank indicator for wings-level, and your altimeter as your primary pitch indicator. Not as easy, but do-able particularly if the alternative is Greasespotville.]However, we'll assume you Did The Right Thing and have a dual-axis horizon on your panel. >From now on until you get your horizon back, you have three instruments on that panel and only three. Your dual-axis, your airspeed indicator, and your altimeter. Heres how you fly this:Your primary instrument is your dual-axis gryo horizon. Use it to confirm level flight, Chances are reasonable that you were in level flight when you flew into this mess, but if you weren't, glance at your airspeed indicator to insure that when you bring your aircraft to level as smoothly as you can, you'll be well above stall. Then glance for a half-second at your altimeter and RIGHT BACK to your horizon. Register your altitiude and stay on it. Glance at your airspeed indicator, then RIGHT BACK. Don't worry about maintaining a specific airspeed, just compare your airspeed to your stall speed. Are you fast enough to be comfortable? Then back to your horizon with this information and make an adjustment if you need to. Then back to your altimeter. Are you climging, descending? Back to your horizon to correct it to level flight. Back to your ASI. Is your airspeed SAFE? Are you at approximately cruise airspeed? If so, whatever it is stay with it. Gradually put in full power. If you're near stall, back to your horizon and nudge down a notch of pitch. NOT MUCH. Just a very little bit. To your altimeter for a glance check.... and so on. This ain't easy but it will keep you alive. Keep doing this for awhile until you discover that your ASI-glance isn't scaring you, and your altimeter-glance isn't requiring any pitch input. Of course, your wings have been level all along by your gyro, right? Right.This entire process is designed to do two things: First, to place your aircraft in level flight well above stall; second, to calm you down. Both of these objectives MUST be achieved before you move on. How do you know when you're calm? Do the above until you start getting bored with it and begin wondering how the hell you're going to get out of this. At that moment you'll know you're calm enough to take the next step, Extraction Of Your Carcass >From The Gloom Without Bending Anything. For this next step you have, of course, three options....Robert BeemanGuys. I just checked my logbook. I have logged only 65 hours night flying time.However, good vis provided, I found it very easy to adjust for the lack of daylight. I experienced only ones a "black hole" but that was when I carelessly flew over mountainous terrain into a weather front.For a minute or so, I had only black around me. Black in every direction and my T&B was not an illuminated instrument, so it was black also. I have to admit that I was a little stiff at that moment and did look at the panel just ones to check the airspeed and altitude, otherwise carefully scanned the arounds for a light to make up a horizon. But this is an extreme where one should not be as a VFR Pilot.I am not sure whether more instruments would have helped back then. I need to see something out there.However, I understand that one feels a bit safer having a gyro in his panel when flying at night .I never needed a HG when flying in California, and I was always astounded how the whole central valley was basically one carpet of light.Flying at night in the mountains over sparse populated terrain is a different beast.I have to admit that when I bought my Coupe, I discussed the installation of the whole enchilada of instruments with my instructor.He told me not to pursue such ideas because I would surely fly into IMC weather because I would think , I have the instruments for it. Of course he was right.Hartmut----- Original Message -----From: Ed ClavelSent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 4:22 PMSubject: [COUPERS-TECH] AH----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]----Just thought it would be handy for locating a horizon at night.EdN3396H============================================================================== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm Search the archives on http://escribe.com/aviation/coupers-tech/============================================================================== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm Search the archives on http://escribe.com/aviation/coupers-tech/
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