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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 9, 2013 23:32:49 GMT 12
A question for the pilots here, what is the worst weather you have found yourself flying in, what were the circumstances, was it unexpected, and what did you learn from it that you can pass onto others here?
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Post by DragonflyDH90 on Jun 10, 2013 8:22:24 GMT 12
Snow storms (more individual snow cells) whilst flying visual flight rules (VFR) in Central Otago. What I learned from it.....don't do it again and if you do get caught out accidentally you had better know the area reeeeaaaallly well.
The worst thing with snow storms (cells) is they are generally fast moving so can sometimes be difficult to dodge. One good thing is they usually have defined edges so often you can dodge them or fly around them, except when there are lots and they are moving real fast. Visibility within is essentially zero which isn't great in the mountains.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 10, 2013 12:41:16 GMT 12
Yikes, were you in an open cockpit de Havilland type?
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Post by Peter Lewis on Jun 10, 2013 12:51:25 GMT 12
Heading north to New Plymouth, returning from a trip to Westport.
Low cloud, couldn't get through the Stratford gap so went around the coast.
Somewhere, over the water west of Mt Egmont, we needed to go lower and lower to remain clear of cloud.
Looking to the right, found I was looking up at the coastal cliffs.
(Hanging on to the thought: at least there are no mountains in the ocean).
What did I learn?
In times like that the best option is to turn to the very experienced instructor sitting beside you and say "You have control".
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Post by baz62 on Jun 10, 2013 12:59:40 GMT 12
Flying a Cherokee 181 Christchurch to Dunedin in 1983(I think it was might have been 84) Only had just over 65 hours, forecast was a southerly but when I got to Ashburton I was advised there was moderate to severe turbulance from about Timaru on. I carried on eyeing up the weather ahead and landed at Oamaru at which time there were a few bumps but nothing over the top. Well climbed to 4500 and got about 50Km and I found out what severe meant. The Cherokee pitched rolled yawed dropped down 100 feet slammed up again it was a hell ofa ride. This was outside my experience but battled on concentrating on maintaining height as best I could. Got to Dunedin and landed only to find I had to go back to Tairei as there was no where to hide from the wind (I had forgotten to check the tiedowns were onboard had visions of wind flipping her in the night!)
Two of my passengers went to get a rental car and my brother (Obiwan27) flew to Tairei still getting bashed around. We found a nice space between two hangars out of the wind.
The lesson for me was should have slowed up and got down a lot lower which probably would have helped with the bumps. Even so it took us nearly 3 hours to get to Dunedin but man only 90 minutes going home with the southerly behind us.
I also think I was fixated on getting to my destination with my passengers for the Air Show whereas if it was just me I might have landed somewhere and spoken to someone with a lot more experince than me. Oh and tiedowns! Never forgot to check them again!
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Post by conman on Jun 10, 2013 13:01:11 GMT 12
Flying in rotor conditions in the Mt Cook national park trying to move into the upper wave system in a glider, smashed about at 12'000ft trying to maintain control and separation from the other glider I was flying with, straps fully tight still hitting head on canopy, items flying around cockpit, the noise of carbon fibre creaking, the estimated wind speed was 70kts at that altitude , finally broke through the rotor and ascended in silky smooth wave lift to 24,000ft directly over Mt Cook, rotor was expected but not that violent , a blue day with no visable rotor cloud, the lesson was keep straps extra tight in mountain conditions and don't have too much stuff in the side pockets !
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Post by flyinkiwi on Jun 10, 2013 13:19:51 GMT 12
I am a fair weather pilot Dave, so if it looks even slightly bad I won't bother driving out to the airport. I do recall one occasion where we (fortunately I was with an instructor) pushed it and had to tuck tail and head for home.
We were trying to get from Hamilton to New Plymouth so I could sit my PPL checkride. Bad weather had curtailed two previous attempts and the get-there-itis bug was beginning to bite everyone at the club. So an instructor, another prospective PPL candidate and I piled into a 172 (I was in the left seat) and tried the coastal route via Pirongia and Kawhia Harbour. The weather at Hamilton was pretty good, but the enroute weather said overcast at 2500 and few (defined as 1-2 eighths of cloud) at 1500. All was dandy till we got as far as Taharoa, when we saw a wall of cloud from sea level up into the overcast stretching from a long way offshore inland as far as we could see from 2500 feet. Listening out on the Christchurch Information frequency we heard a CTC aircraft call that they were enroute to NZNP via Taumarunui. At this stage I would have turned back, but the instructor said to turn inland and try the CTC route as maybe the wall was not as big as we thought. As we headed inland the few became scattered and the terrain started to rise up to meet us. We eventually spotted the main trunk line and turned to follow it south. By this time visibility had reduced to about 5km and we were dodging cloud and terrain trying to follow the railway south. The irony here was that although it was cloudy, there was almost no wind and the flight was more or less millpond smooth. At a point I would estimate as being about 2 miles north of Taumarunui we saw the cloud wall in front of us and to my immense relief the instructor announced we were diverting and returning to NZHN. About a minute after I called Chch Info and told them we were returning to Hamilton the CTC aircraft followed suit. As we proceeded north the visibility and ceiling improved until we broke into sunshine just north of Otorohanga.
The lessons here:
Know your minimums and stick to them
Always have a way out
PS. The cloud in the South Waikato/King Country stuck around for quite a while, an instructor flew 3 of us PPL hopefuls down IFR a few days later. We penetrated the ceiling shortly after takeoff and popped out on top at about 5000 feet. Fortunately the weather at NZNP was good enough for a visual approach, and all 3 of us subsequently passed our checkrides.
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Post by corsair67 on Jun 10, 2013 14:12:55 GMT 12
Some amazing stories there guys - and good lessons for all aviators out there.
Baz, you made a very interesting point there too - that if you'd been on your own, you wouldn't have pushed on like you did. That has been a common theme in many accident/incident reports I have read over the years, where pilots have often pushed on because of the expectation of passengers and/or seemingly important scheduled appointments or events, even though they were way out of their personal comfort/experienze zone.
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Post by rbwannabe on Jun 10, 2013 16:39:38 GMT 12
I've had my share of weather, (tropical monsoons, snow and ice etc) but this was one day at the office that stood out  The cockpit was not much better!   |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 10, 2013 16:48:15 GMT 12
Shit! Turbulance??
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Post by rbwannabe on Jun 10, 2013 16:56:29 GMT 12
Yeap, on the way back from Ozzie.
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Post by baz62 on Jun 10, 2013 17:15:05 GMT 12
Some amazing stories there guys - and good lessons for all aviators out there. Baz, you made a very interesting point there too - that if you'd been on your own, you wouldn't have pushed on like you did. That has been a common theme in many accident/incident reports I have read over the years, where pilots have often pushed on because of the expectation of passengers and/or seemingly important scheduled appointments or events, even though they were way out of their personal comfort/experienze zone. Yep and now I don't care if people are meeting God, if i don't think I like the look of things I'm scuttling away (and believe me I can scuttle fast!) |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 10, 2013 17:46:29 GMT 12
I'd love to have seen the cleaners' faces when they entered that aircraft Richard, haha.
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Post by rbwannabe on Jun 10, 2013 17:59:30 GMT 12
Yeah they weren't too happy, sadly three of the crew ended up in hospital, one put her head through the roof lining! And has never returned to work.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 10, 2013 18:15:46 GMT 12
Wow, sad.
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Post by Dave.K on Jun 17, 2013 8:41:00 GMT 12
A few years ago at the SAA flyin at Ashburton, sunday morning the weather was closing in so a fello aviator from Wanaka and I decided to make a run for sunny Central Otago. I was NORDO, so the only contact once airborne was hand signals. as we followed the rail-line down the coast I would make the gesture thumbs up, forward or go back, he gave the OK, so we carried on.We went around Timaru following the coast and as we got south of that it slowly cleared up and we flew up the Waitaki valley and over the Lindas, waved goodbye and went to Wanaka and Cromwell respectively. A couple of months past before we spoke again, I said "if you weren't with me I would have turned back" and he said "I was thinking the same."
Lesson learned...Sort out a plan while still on the ground, and don't get pressured into carrying on.
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Post by general on Jun 22, 2013 12:55:43 GMT 12
I was doing PPL while based in Woodie, 1985. A high-time PPL mate, 200+ hr, wanted to do a navex to WGN one w/e and invited me along for company. MET looked fine for the afternoon but a squall was moving up the S. I.
Wasn't too concerned since he'd done a lot of X-country flying and I felt safe enough.
He aimed to t/o about noon but events transpired we got off 20 mins early. Launched out of Omaka for the 30 or so mins to WGN in a Cherokee in 3/8 cloud and 5km viz, 10kt gusting 15.
By the time we were 5 mins out from approach we were tooling along under 1500 ft ceiling of 7/8 cloud, watching this dark, solid bank of grey approaching from the left. WGN Info was busy with calls from three or four planes in traffic when we piped up to request wind.
"If you can expedite you're No 2 in the pattern".
Those were the most tense moments I've had in the front seat. My mate made a straight-in approach, dancing and skating around over the water and plopped the Cherokee down well past the keys in the 'brisk breeze'. I think he said "20kt, gusting" but memory's scarce on that.
Not 5 mins after we were at the hangar and tied-down the place was a monsoon. Needless to say we o/nighted.
It wasn't so much a 'what-did-I-learn' moreso a thanks be to God we had that 20 minute window. Once we were under shelter and thinking calmly again we mulled over what our Plan B (or C) would've been, cos no way would we rtb in that clag. Might have made the alternate at Paraparaumu if we'd put hammer down.
Some time later I was in a Link Metroliner coming into WGN at night in driving rain, felt like King Kong was using us as a throw-toy. Lap belts are all well and good but times like that I'd have preferred a 5-point harness.
Regards
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The cockpit was not much better!
