As Ed mentioned, how about on a moonless night (widely scattered clouds), or
MVFR weather conditions with a solid gay over cast, flying with scattered
clouds above & below, scattered rain showers, and hazy / marginal
visibilities....? Is that a gray cloud ahead or just more gray skies...?
Seems to me it hasn't always been quite that clear cut.
I've flown in both and managed to avoid flying into clouds however; it isn't
always easy or as definitive as one would think in certain conditions. It's
always critical to have an 'out' / airport to return to safely.
Dan Hall
N3968H
CNO
(Instrument rated)
----- Original Message -----
From: Ed Burkhead
To: ety
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 7:23 PM
Subject: RE: [ercoupe-tech] desperation GPS or magnetic compass as emergency
blind fly...
Roy wrote:
* The key here is to not put oneself in the position of having
to attempt this 'last' ditch maneuver.
* If the aircraft and/or pilot are not IFR certified and current
then one should not put oneself in this position. I know this
sounds simple and self-evident, but the accident statistics
prove otherwise.
* If conditions change from when the flight is planned
then turn around or find a place to land in plenty of time to
avoid IMC.
* There is no such thing, IMHO, as accidently flying into a cloud.
John wrote:
> Efforts to learn unproven procedures to keep the belly
> down would better be spent learning to stay VFR -
> basic training applies forever.
Roy and John,
I agree with you with intensity.
More important than just basic training is having good judgment and
pre-decided rules and stick with them.
The best ways to avoid entering those clouds, IMHO, includes (and is not
limited to):
1.. Resolve to never "go take a look" in marginal conditions. Go by the
rule that it's got to be solid VFR where you are before you'll look at any
weather and you'll never leave the solid VFR zone to "see how it looks." By
solid VFR, I'm thinking 3 miles visibility and conditions where clouds cannot
be obscured in the haze.
2.. Don't fly in even legal hazy conditions if there is any chance puffy
clouds are embedded in the haze.
3.. For night flying, my rule is: "I don't fly at night if there are any
clouds in the state of __________ (wherever I am).
Other suggested rules?
Observations:
In my younger days,
1. I flew from Illinois to Locke Haven, PA, for the EOC National Convention
in 5 mile haze with a clear blue sky above. There were no clouds anywhere
along the route and no convective activity. But, due to the haze, there was no
horizon at 7,500' and the only ground we could see was angled about 20°-30°
down from the theoretical horizon. We were flying in a legal VFR manner with
good visibility of nothingness.
It was scary and I did a lot of cross-referencing to the instruments and
checking the appearance of the sliver of ground I could see between my wing and
the nose. That was about five hours of IFR flying in legal VFR conditions.
That was a low-attendance National Convention due to the haze. Would I make
that trip in those conditions now? Well, probably not. If I didn't cancel
out, I'd probably stay down at 1,000' at least and be hyper-eyeballs between
the chart's obstructions markers and out the front window.
2. Once on a short semi-local flight, returning home in the haze, I found
those white puffy clouds embedded in the haze. I knew the weather front was up
ahead of me, around that specific area, and I was just going to go take a look.
Bad idea! That time I made a successful 180° turn in my Coupe on the
instruments.
3. On another trip, it was severe clear most of the way to my destination
but there was a low cloud layer 20 miles or so from the target field. I
dropped down through a big hole to "just take a look" and found the clouds were
down to nearly the ground. Then I found I couldn't climb through a hole that I
could descend through - not without going through the clouds on the edge of the
hole. Level the wings, hold attitude via the artificial horizon and hope.
Going down through a hole in the clouds to take a look - that's another bad
idea!
This business of "just going to go take a look" has been scared right out of
my repertoire. Stopping short or going back has proved to be a way happier
experience than those flights.
Ed
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