VNugget
suck squeeze bang blow
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2002
- Posts
- 809
My real-life lesson from this Sunday
Well, I and a couple of other planes went down for a flyi-in/$100 hamurger. It was really hazy, but more than good enough to fly. So we did. My (and everyone else's) biggest mistake in planning was to waste time before we LEFT till it got really late, let alone how much time we spent at the restaurant before we RETURNED.
Sure enough it was getting dark when we started getting ready to leave, and it was almost completely dark within several minutes of us being wheels-up. The thick haze, combined with the high overcast layer, completley obliterated the ground, the stars, and most importantly, the horizon. All you could see was just pure brown... in other words, the exact conditions that new private pilots blast off into and get killed in at the highest rate.
All the weather sources in the area reported no clouds aside from the aforementioned high overcast layer, but if there were any clouds I would probably not be able to see them before I entered them.
I was ready to turn back around and overnight it at the restaurant, or call for an IFR pilot to come down and pick us up. Fortunately, I was following a freeway, and some lights in the rural area to the East lit up, which formed enough of a visual ground plane to let me continue. I pictured what it would look like without the freeway and the lights, and I would have been purely on instruments.
For those familiar with Northern California, the flight was from Harris Ranch to Reid Hillview. I followed Highway 5 to St. Luis Reservoir, from where I followed Highway 152 across the pass to the Hollister/South County valley, which was completely lit up, and which I followed the rest of the way home.
There were no ground lights other than the road across the pass, but moonlight had formed a horizon against a distant cloud bank (and it agreed with my artifical horizon). Plus there was a disant city-glow which was a visual reference. If those were not there, I would have continued up to the Livermore area, which is well-lit.
I was accompanied by another non-instrument rated private pilot who backed me up with things like getting cross-radials to confirm positions, scanning for traffic, etc.
Terrain was not a factor, since the highest peak in the area is at around 4200 feet, and I was cruising at 8500.
This was a really strong learning experience, for several reasons. My biggest lesson is to start being conscios of the time span in planning, considering its outcomes, and sticking to my plan. I had obviously failed to do so in this case. Additionally, I got to see first-hand what everyone is talking about when talking about IMC, and especially IMC where you wouldn't expect it to be. (Once again, I wasn't IN IMC, but just noting that it would have been so, save for the ground lighting.) I shouldn't have gotten in that situation to begin with, however. Also, even though we have all promised ourselves we won't fly into IMC, I got to personally experience one of the roads you can go down which can lead to such an encounter, which comes from the aforementioned failure in planning, which I will not repeat.
I decided to post this so that those with low experience like me can hopefully learn from it as I did, and those with more experience can give any comments on my decision making. Aside from the obvious, is there anywhere else I went wrong? Is there any place in my course of action I could have improved?
Well, I and a couple of other planes went down for a flyi-in/$100 hamurger. It was really hazy, but more than good enough to fly. So we did. My (and everyone else's) biggest mistake in planning was to waste time before we LEFT till it got really late, let alone how much time we spent at the restaurant before we RETURNED.
Sure enough it was getting dark when we started getting ready to leave, and it was almost completely dark within several minutes of us being wheels-up. The thick haze, combined with the high overcast layer, completley obliterated the ground, the stars, and most importantly, the horizon. All you could see was just pure brown... in other words, the exact conditions that new private pilots blast off into and get killed in at the highest rate.
All the weather sources in the area reported no clouds aside from the aforementioned high overcast layer, but if there were any clouds I would probably not be able to see them before I entered them.
I was ready to turn back around and overnight it at the restaurant, or call for an IFR pilot to come down and pick us up. Fortunately, I was following a freeway, and some lights in the rural area to the East lit up, which formed enough of a visual ground plane to let me continue. I pictured what it would look like without the freeway and the lights, and I would have been purely on instruments.
For those familiar with Northern California, the flight was from Harris Ranch to Reid Hillview. I followed Highway 5 to St. Luis Reservoir, from where I followed Highway 152 across the pass to the Hollister/South County valley, which was completely lit up, and which I followed the rest of the way home.
There were no ground lights other than the road across the pass, but moonlight had formed a horizon against a distant cloud bank (and it agreed with my artifical horizon). Plus there was a disant city-glow which was a visual reference. If those were not there, I would have continued up to the Livermore area, which is well-lit.
I was accompanied by another non-instrument rated private pilot who backed me up with things like getting cross-radials to confirm positions, scanning for traffic, etc.
Terrain was not a factor, since the highest peak in the area is at around 4200 feet, and I was cruising at 8500.
This was a really strong learning experience, for several reasons. My biggest lesson is to start being conscios of the time span in planning, considering its outcomes, and sticking to my plan. I had obviously failed to do so in this case. Additionally, I got to see first-hand what everyone is talking about when talking about IMC, and especially IMC where you wouldn't expect it to be. (Once again, I wasn't IN IMC, but just noting that it would have been so, save for the ground lighting.) I shouldn't have gotten in that situation to begin with, however. Also, even though we have all promised ourselves we won't fly into IMC, I got to personally experience one of the roads you can go down which can lead to such an encounter, which comes from the aforementioned failure in planning, which I will not repeat.
I decided to post this so that those with low experience like me can hopefully learn from it as I did, and those with more experience can give any comments on my decision making. Aside from the obvious, is there anywhere else I went wrong? Is there any place in my course of action I could have improved?
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