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!!!

 

[JetBlast2000]

Flying out of NH to northern Main. Racing to load up and get the hell out of there due to the first Nor Easter was in full effect. It had just started snowing about 1 hour prior to departure. Not too bad. It was my first real snowstorm of my career and the first Nor Easter of the year.
No problem on t/o. Hit about 7000 feet and boom! Let there be ICE. For those who have flown a Caravan, you know that they SUCK in ice. I didn’t even bother to level off, just kept requesting higher. As the ice mounted the plane shook more and more. I Varied the prop RPM to try and shake off the ice. Didn’t help… At about 10K feet I lost about 25kts of a/s and was climbing at 300 Ft/min. So I was looking to divert, and ready for it. But I was still climbing.. Hit 14K and I was down to 110KTS (105KTS min in icing) and about 100 ft/min with some real nice vibration. At that point, the boots were doing nothing. And the heat was barely able to keep up. I’m about to divert and a break out to nothing but blue skies…! It was a good feeling. Landed about 20 min later and had so much ice on the plane that it took me about ½ hour to knock it off before I could finish my last leg…
Good times… Good times…

 

[Crosswind79]

Not one to be a downer, but posted bad experiences on the internet is just asking for an LOI or a 609 ride.....

 

[Heyya]

Not one to be a downer, but posted bad experiences on the internet is just asking for an LOI or a 609 ride.....

You really think that an anonymous post on Flight Info is grounds for some sort of certificate action? And do you really believe that the FAA needs to troll on Flight Info to find work? Some of these posts give other pilots great information they might not otherwise get…

 

[Vik]

Its very easy to be anonymous on the Internet. The FAA doesn't waste their time patroling message boards b/c they know its full of bullsh*t and lies anyway. Pilots exaggerate a mole hill into a mountain to feed their egos? .. NEVER!

 

[CRJ Driver]

Not one to be a downer, but posted bad experiences on the internet is just asking for an LOI or a 609 ride.....

Your speaking from your Inexperience,try flying across the rocks from DEN to GJT in winter weather. And 7-8 legs a day, oh and approachs at both ends.

 

[Crosswind79]

I must have forgotten....This is the forum where nobody has any **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**ing common sense...Or a sense of humor for that matter......

 

[Cat Driver]

Or try flying old piston engine Warbirds VFR across the North Atlantic via Iceland and Greenland.

Or the same aircraft across the South Atlantic.

Or the same aircraft across the Saharah Desert during the sand storm season ( Harmatten Winds )

Or the same aircraft through the ICTZ when it is active....Or...Or..

 

[avbug]

Not one to be a downer, but posted bad experiences on the internet is just asking for an LOI or a 609 ride.....

It's a 709 ride now.

I went into a cloud once, and it was really scary. Dark. Rainy. Loud. And the mountain goat made an angry face at me.

 

[Crosswind79]

At least Avbug has a sense of humor.....And can spot the difference between a serious post and a joking one

 

[buffdriver]

So there I was...

A young CFI ferrying a Cherokee six from SMO (Santa Monica) to SBA (Santa Barbara). They told me "Don't fly it IFR, the instruments aren't reliable." Ok, I can live with that. Oh yeah, it was 2500 OVC and raining at SMO, and about the same at SBA, so I'll just fly it up the coast, no problem I said. 25 miles SE of Pt Mugu NAS, the clouds drop down to 1500 AGL/ASL. No problem I said. 15 nm SE of Mugu, the clouds dropped down to 500 AGL/ASL. No problem I said. I need the flight time, ya know? And then all at once, I'm IMC, over the ocean, next to a 3000 foot mountain range. It was raining pretty good, so I couldn't really see the cloud coming in the 1 SM visibility. Exactly 1 SM inspector, I measured it. So after I'm in the cloud for an eternity (15 seconds or so) I said a quick prayer. "Lord Jesus, please don't let me die for being stupid." And then, there it was, clear as day. A hole in the cloud, big enough for a Cherokee Six to be sure, but bright runway lights on the highest setting like a miracle from God (this miracle was known as Runway 24 at Pt Mugu NAS). By this time I was well within the Class D at Pt Mugu, and had been monitoring their freq for a while. I might have requested a transition, I don't remember.

"Mugu tower, Cherokee XXX, I need to land."
"Cherokee XXX, are you declaring an emergency?"
"No, but I need to land right now!"
"Cherokee XXX, cleared to land any runway, wind blah, blah, blah."

Everything he said after that went in one ear and out the other. This was pre-Sept 11 kids, so no one shot at me. Nice landing, like I remember that. Anyway, they had the Ventura county Sheriff come out and let their drug dog sniff the plane. They took me to base ops and started to ask a lot of questions. At some point in the conversation, it was revealed that I was a card-carrying military member. Long story short, some PPR paperwork was done and I took off the next morning for SBA after a well-needed night sleep in the BOQ.

 

[Heyya]

At least Avbug has a sense of humor.....And can spot the difference between a serious post and a joking one

ohh yeah... a joke. I remember those...

When there funny...