Your scary weather stories wanted!!

[apcooper]

Please share with us your scariest weather encounters. Stories about icing and thunderstorms will get bonus points!! Bring them on!!!

 

[VNugget]

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=44237&highlight=harris+ranch

 

[88_MALIBU]

I was trying to navigate a Malibu through a line of storms over MO and tried to penetrate some rain. (yellow shading). It has lots of red inside it and about 10 miles away, but I thought since the strike finder wasnt flairing up I would be ok. I got into it and it was so heavy it was ripping rubber of the boots and I lost my fuel pressure gauges from water ingestion. I decended to 7,000 out of the teens because thats the worst place to be in a storm. I learned alot, dont F with the weather, especially T storms. I will never forget that one, and will never repeat my decision to continue.

 

[Simon Says]

I was just taking off out of MEM on our way to EWR and the wheels were just tucked up into their wells. I got the call from ATC to turn left heading 090 and climb up to 16,000 ft. I looked out the A screen only to see severe clear and not a cloud in sight. I reached around my seat only to discover the last crew took the USA Today. I couldn't believe it! Now what was I to do for the next two hours.

NOW THAT WAS SCARY!

 

[filejw]

Simon,
Yours is perfict example of why that type of flying should be mainline.You never would make it off probation with that kind of performance.A WSJ and NYT at a minimum, plus a couple jepp revison too.

 

[Wankel7]

This one time I was at a bar....meet this girl....we left ....as we go outside I realize that I am in a raging rain storm...then I realize what a sobering effect the freezing and pounding water was having on me...then I look at the girl...

That COULD have been a scary weather story. Thankfully , I got the hell out of there

 

[mattpilot]

This one time (at pilot camp), i took off from some airport in the midwest with a ceiling of 200ft and a vis of only one mile. The airport was surrounded by thunderstorms, and the only way out was a narrow band of roughly 5 miles. The co-pilot was constantly questioning my decision to take off.... he already started on the way to the runway - what a puss. Anyhow...... the air was rough that day. Every few seconds we got jolted around... almost broke my neck. I swear i heard the FO cry... but thats a different story, which i usually refer to as the "brown pants incident" when talking to other pilots. Anyway... the temp at our cruising level was forecast to be near icing... or so i thought. Almost immediately after takeoff we started to pick up ice. No worries really - nothing the de-ice equipment couldn't handle. The FO had a lot to learn though. On our climb out i headed towards the narrow opening in the thunderstorms i talked about earlier. Well, by the time we got there, it was no longer there. We were completely surrounded by TS. The only way to go now was to head straight through it, and so we did. Immediately after entering the red cell we got a lightning strike on our left engine. A loud bang was heard and the engine suddenly quit! The FO starts yelling something about me getting him killed. But i wasn't to worried about it. I just shut down the left engine and picked out an alternate. Suddenly i said to myself in a rather quit, but still audible, voice the words 'oh shi*t'. The FO heard me and freaks out.... thats when the smell started (remember the brown pants incident?) ... he demands to know what just happened. I look at him and say.... "I think i got the hicups". Anyhow.... we diverted to the nearest field and landed safely

 

[Simon Says]

Filejw,

First of all, doing Jepp revisions in the aircraft is strictly forbiden. All of mine are safely tucked away in the trunk of my car.

Second, the WTJ is not the paper of the regional level (too many big words). Plus it may induce sleep at an inopertune time.

USA Today is the only paper that ALPA endorses.

 

[lowslow]

One time at band camp........

It was really cloudy.

 

[Wankel7]

The co-pilot was constantly questioning my decision to take off.... he already started on the way to the runway - what a puss. Anyhow......

LOL Nice one

 

[Lead Sled]

My most "intense" weather experience happened several years ago while giving some actual instrument dual in a Cessna 172. Some severe unforecast "lake effect" weather (low ceilings, visibilities, and icing conditions) developed while we were on a combination night, instrument "round-robin" XC training flight. The "out" part of the trip was uneventful - the weather was as forecast 4,000' ceilings with good visibility beneath, perfect conditions to allow an instrument student to duck up into some clouds and get his first bit of actual.

The "back" part of the trip was another story. An unforecast winter squall developed and moved across our home airport and every possible alternate for about 200 miles. Ceilings and visibilities were running around 400' and 1/2 to 1 mile in blowing snow. Additionally, there was light to moderate icing.

Initially, I wasn't too concerned, it would be a good experience for the student to see just how quickly things can go "south" on you inspite of all the planning you do. (Sometimes Mother Nature just flat refuses to read the weather forecasts.) By the time we got to our home airport, the weather had dropped below the minimums for the VOR approach so we decided to go to our alternate which had an ILS. We were starting to pick up a bit of ice, but it was only about 15 minutes to the alternate so I wasn't too concerned. Again, I felt that this could turn out to be some very good experience for the student.

As we diverted to the alternate the vacuum failure light on the instrument panel illuminated. That was not a good thing! That was precisely not the time that I wanted to have deal with a vacuum failure. The student did a good job of partial panel flying, but after several minutes he started to get vertigo and he began to lose it. At that point, I took the airplane back and was flying "cross panel" partial panel. The winds started to pick up and the ride went from occasional light chop to light to moderate turbulence. The whiskey compass was all but unusable. At that point, I declared an emergency. What had started out a routine training flight with a couple of easily handled "issues" had turned into something altogether different.

As we weighed our options, it became apparent that the weather was going to get worse before it got better and we didn't have much more than the legally required fuel - waiting out the squall line in a holding pattern wasn't an option, besides we had started to pick up a bit more ice. I decided that it would be better to get on the ground as soon as possible - the weather was at minimums for the ILS. I tried flying the first approach, but with the turbulence and the whiskey compass dancing around I couldn't keep on a heading that allowed me to track the localizer. Basically all I had was the electric turn coordinator. I missed that approach and went around for another attempt. This time we had approach vector us to the inner marker and I descended on the glideslope. Just as I was getting ready to go around the runway lights came into view and we were able to land.

That was probably the closest that I ever came to dieing in an airplane. It was also the last time that I ever flew actual IFR in a single-engine airplane. There was a time when I would fly any well maintained, legally equipped single-engine airplane about anywhere and anytime (within reason). For me, those days are gone forever. As far as single-engine IFR goes, it never used to bother me at all. Now I would never even consider it unless I had a VFR ceiling underneath me the whole time.

'Sled

 

[Flywrite]

My most "intense" weather experience happened several years ago while giving some actual instrument dual in a Cessna 172. Some severe unforecast "lake effect" weather (low ceilings, visibilities, and icing conditions) developed while we were on a combination night, instrument "round-robin" XC training flight. The "out" part of the trip was uneventful - the weather was as forecast 4,000' ceilings with good visibility beneath, perfect conditions to allow an instrument student to duck up into some clouds and get his first bit of actual.

The "back" part of the trip was another story. An unforecast winter squall developed and moved across our home airport and every possible alternate for about 200 miles. Ceilings and visibilities were running around 400' and 1/2 to 1 mile in blowing snow. Additionally, there was light to moderate icing.

Initially, I wasn't too concerned, it would be a good experience for the student to see just how quickly things can go "south" on you inspite of all the planning you do. (Sometimes Mother Nature just flat refuses to read the weather forecasts.) By the time we got to our home airport, the weather had dropped below the minimums for the VOR approach so we decided to go to our alternate which had an ILS. We were starting to pick up a bit of ice, but it was only about 15 minutes to the alternate so I wasn't too concerned. Again, I felt that this could turn out to be some very good experience for the student.

As we diverted to the alternate the vacuum failure light on the instrument panel illuminated. That was not a good thing! That was precisely not the time that I wanted to have deal with a vacuum failure. The student did a good job of partial panel flying, but after several minutes he started to get vertigo and he began to lose it. At that point, I took the airplane back and was flying "cross panel" partial panel. The winds started to pick up and the ride went from occasional light chop to light to moderate turbulence. The whiskey compass was all but unusable. At that point, I declared an emergency. What had started out a routine training flight with a couple of easily handled "issues" had turned into something altogether different.

As we weighed our options, it became apparent that the weather was going to get worse before it got better and we didn't have much more than the legally required fuel - waiting out the squall line in a holding pattern wasn't an option, besides we had started to pick up a bit more ice. I decided that it would be better to get on the ground as soon as possible - the weather was at minimums for the ILS. I tried flying the first approach, but with the turbulence and the whiskey compass dancing around I couldn't keep on a heading that allowed me to track the localizer. Basically all I had was the electric turn coordinator. I missed that approach and went around for another attempt. This time we had approach vector us to the inner marker and I descended on the glideslope. Just as I was getting ready to go around the runway lights came into view and we were able to land.

That was probably the closest that I ever came to dieing in an airplane. It was also the last time that I ever flew actual IFR in a single-engine airplane. There was a time when I would fly any well maintained, legally equipped single-engine airplane about anywhere and anytime (within reason). For me, those days are gone forever. As far as single-engine IFR goes, it never used to bother me at all. Now I would never even consider it unless I had a VFR ceiling underneath me the whole time.

'Sled

Good example of how things can go wrong in a hurry and of how the whole "accident chain" thing works. I do wonder though why you didn't declare an emergency as soon as you lost the vacuum system. Considering the weather that seems like it would have been a good call.

Anyway, good job and good story!

 

[Lead Sled]

Good example of how things can go wrong in a hurry and of how the whole "accident chain" thing works. I do wonder though why you didn't declare an emergency as soon as you lost the vacuum system. Considering the weather that seems like it would have been a good call.

It wouldn't have gotten us to the alternate any quicker and I was busy flying the airplane. The emergency was declared when things were under control and I would have time to answer the controler's questions. As it was, we were being given appropriate handling.

'Sled

 

[Dr Pokenhiemer]

There I was......

 

[146guy]

oops, misread it. Nice story.

 

[Cat Driver]

Nothing is worse than flying in the Sahara Desert during the Harmatten sand storms, it is far more dangerous than even the T. storms in the ITCZ.

Which flight should I tell you guys about?

Cat Driver:

 

[fokkers&beer]

Not really scary, but kind of cool. One November night we blasted out of OAK right at gross enroute to YVR in an F27. Started picking up ice south of Red Bluff through 10k, really nasty stuff that only a pineapple express can bring to the West Coast. The boots come on and the A/C cant climb past 14,000', even with max enroute power. The OAT is only like -8 so I figure that the underpowered old turboprop is just going to hang there at 14 and when I cross OED I will drop down to 8000 and shed the ice. When we cross Rogue Valley, we started heading down. The unfortunate thing is so did the freezing level. We were never really able to shake the ice untill the descent down to YVR.
The really cool thing is the F27 has a red line of 223, and that is attainable under 10k. We were at 8000 feet and could only get about 155 out of her. Now thats a lot of ice. I would have liked to have seen what the outside of it looked like. From the front looking out, the side windows had ice adhering to them (something I had never seen in 3000 hours of flying an F down the West Coast, and in SE Alaska) and the leading edges just had big gnarls of ice where the landing lights were. The poor A/C had ice sticking to it wherever it possibly could. It was totally cool, and could only happen in an old airplane like an F27, and that night I gained a whole new respect for the old girl.

 

[minitour]

Yesterday was kinda scarry...winds were up and gusty but nothing I haven't flown in before...

So we decided we were going to fly out for lunch later on in the day (after we had already gone up and done local stuff). Winds were 210@13 and we got a 152 (joy)...the taxi was interesting and that should have been an indication...

Then we were cleared for takeoff and started the takeoff roll...had full deflection in and there was no way I could keep it on the centerline...

Finally aborted the takeoff (after about 600 feet) and taxi'd in...even the taxi in was interesting...as we were taxiing in, the guy on local told us "yeah, I wasn't sure if you guys would get off or not, when I cleared you the winds had just changed to [email protected] almost sharted in the plane...not something I want to do again...

Makes you really appreciate the flight control wind corrections they teach you when you taxi...

Oh well, lesson learned...no metal bent and now I know how much of a P.I.T.A. ...

Be Safe

-mini

 

[Vik]

What was the runway heading / runway number you were using?

Yesterday was kinda scarry...winds were up and gusty but nothing I haven't flown in before...

So we decided we were going to fly out for lunch later on in the day (after we had already gone up and done local stuff). Winds were 210@13 and we got a 152 (joy)...the taxi was interesting and that should have been an indication...

Then we were cleared for takeoff and started the takeoff roll...had full deflection in and there was no way I could keep it on the centerline...

Finally aborted the takeoff (after about 600 feet) and taxi'd in...even the taxi in was interesting...as we were taxiing in, the guy on local told us "yeah, I wasn't sure if you guys would get off or not, when I cleared you the winds had just changed to [email protected] almost sharted in the plane...not something I want to do again...

Makes you really appreciate the flight control wind corrections they teach you when you taxi...

Oh well, lesson learned...no metal bent and now I know how much of a P.I.T.A. ...

Be Safe

-mini