Almost saw someone crash

Yesterday the weather was miserable. There were low ceilings and a line of
strong thunderstorms that ran diagonally across the state. The preflight
briefing and a look at the radar indicated that an early departure would get
me to the destination ahead of the storms. I took my Baron (radar and
stormscope equipped) to a nearby airport for some maintenance, and needed to
get a clearance enroute due to low ceilings. There was lightning to the west
and both the radar and stormscope showed a lot of activity. I landed just as
the rain started.

As we worked on the plane the rain became a downpour, and the sky was very
dark with low clouds and ceilings. The wind was howling, and there was a lof
of thunder and lightning. The hangar was shaking from the winds, and the
lights went out for a few minutes from a lightning strike.

After about fifteen minutes of this, we all heard a plane do a low approach
over the airport, and we ran to the window to take a look. At this point it
was clearly lower than the published minimums for the lowest approach, and
we were all concerned about a pilot flying around in such terrible weather.
We got a glimpse of a Bonanza, which then disappeared. I tuned 121.5 on my
radios as well as the CTAF, and heard the FBO call the pilot and ask if they
needed assistance. There were no calls or answers from the Bonanza, and we
feared the worst, waiting for an ELT signal. However, after a few minutes
the plane noises returned and the Bonanza landed and taxied to the FBO.

We later met the pilot during a coffee break, who said she was going from a
nearby metropolitan area to some property diagonally across the state (a
route that clearly put her in the path of the long line of thunderstorms.)
She said the weather was so bad that she couldn't even dial the GPS map to
find the nearest airport, and her plan was to put the plane down in a field
when she came across the airport! I asked myself why anyone would want to
scud run ( it was lower than localizer approach minimums) across an entire
state and try to fly through a line of thunderstorms enroute. Why not turn
around and head east away from the storms when the weather went bad (she
said she had hours worth of gas)?

If this had happened to most people they would likely have been pretty
scared and humbled by the experience, but she was very happy and chatty with
the folks at the FBO, as if flying through thunderstorms, scud running,
flying in IMC without a clearance, and contemplating a precautionary landing
in a field were routine events. She did not seem at all concerned with how
close she had come to a serious event, and in fact was very upbeat and
carried on a number of light conversations.

I departed IFR back to my local airport, and had to shoot an approach to ILS
minimums due to some residual low clouds, and I later learned that as she
prepared to depart she noticed that a wingtip and leading edge were damaged.
Apparently she had struck a tree during her scud running, but had not
noticed!

Obviously, this episode showed a lot of poor judgment, like lack of
preflight planning, as well as poor decision making in continuing on in IMC
conditions through thunderstorms rather than turning around. (she was VFR).

Amway, she clearly understood the possible implications of her actions, but
was either obvlious or did not care how close she came to getting killed
yesterday. As a fellow pilot, I was struck by how cavalier an attitude she
had toward flying, and how close she had come to crashing.

Would anyone have said anything further to her? She already had stated she
knew about the weather but had decided to continue VFR, so what else could
we do to help her without sounding critical? She clearly wasn't shaken or
asking for any help or advice, so what more could be done?

It was a very frustrating situation- she had nearly killed herself,
apparently knew why it had happened, and seemed to think this was a normal
activity of flying (let alone damaging her 1997 Bonanza A-36)

I'd be interested in hearing how the group would have reacted to this
situation.

It may seem odd, but this is how people often react when they have been
badly frightened. You would be amazed at how chatty and oblivious soldiers
can seem to be immediately after a fight, for example. It sounds to me like
she was still on an adrenalin high when you talked to her.

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...
It may seem odd, but this is how people often react when they have been
badly frightened.

I bet she wasn't frightened. I know two people on my field who are exactly
the same way, always have been.

"Newps" wrote in message
...

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...
It may seem odd, but this is how people often react when they have been
badly frightened.

I bet she wasn't frightened. I know two people on my field who are
exactly
the same way, always have been.


We have one in Minden too.

Mike
MU-2

On Sat, 22 May 2004 08:30:10 -0600, "Newps"
wrote:


"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...
It may seem odd, but this is how people often react when they have been
badly frightened.

I bet she wasn't frightened. I know two people on my field who are exactly
the same way, always have been.

I guess that's the way I was after totaling my Trans Am. Kid pulled
out and I took the GMC Jimmy broad side. I never was scared. I
didn't have time to be. He came shooting out, I hit the brakes and we
hit. I heard the bang from the airbags and the next thing I knew I
could feel the car spinning. Couldn't see a thing for all the smoke
and dust from the powder in the airbags.

I never was scared nor did I get the shakes afterwards, but man was I
punchy.

As far as the talkativeness, I've always been that way so no one would
know the difference.

When the Deb's engine quit on climbout I went on autopilot. Mine, not
the airplanes. I certainly had a heightened sense of awareness, but I
don't think fear played much of a part.

What I don't understand is why some one would be frustrated seeing
some one else doing something foolish.

Every day I see people not eating right, eating too much, and not
exercising which is probably just as dangerous as scud running and I'm
not condoning either one. I just don't get excited until the dirt and
parts start flying. Then it bothers me more to see some ones else in
a wreck than when it was me. I was busy helping on the scene when
some one happened to ask, "Man, Who was in that car?". I raised my
had and said "here". One paramedic immediately asked me what day is
it? I replied, "How the hell would I know? I'm retired!". He said,
"You're OK".

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

"Roger Halstead" wrote in message
...
[...]
What I don't understand is why some one would be frustrated seeing
some one else doing something foolish.

Every day I see people not eating right, eating too much, and not
exercising which is probably just as dangerous as scud running and I'm
not condoning either one.

The difference being that they are much less likely to kill someone else
while engaging in those dangerous activities, and they won't be used against
the rest of us pilots to "prove" to the public that flying is too dangerous
to be allowed to happen without even more regulation.

Pete

On Sat, 22 May 2004 12:49:50 GMT, "Viperdoc"
wrote:

Yesterday the weather was miserable. There were low ceilings and a line of
strong thunderstorms that ran diagonally across the state. The preflight
briefing and a look at the radar indicated that an early departure would get
me to the destination ahead of the storms. I took my Baron (radar and
stormscope equipped) to a nearby airport for some maintenance, and needed to
get a clearance enroute due to low ceilings. There was lightning to the west
and both the radar and stormscope showed a lot of activity. I landed just as
the rain started.

As we worked on the plane the rain became a downpour, and the sky was very
dark with low clouds and ceilings. The wind was howling, and there was a lof
of thunder and lightning. The hangar was shaking from the winds, and the
lights went out for a few minutes from a lightning strike.

After about fifteen minutes of this, we all heard a plane do a low approach
over the airport, and we ran to the window to take a look. At this point it
was clearly lower than the published minimums for the lowest approach, and
we were all concerned about a pilot flying around in such terrible weather.
We got a glimpse of a Bonanza, which then disappeared. I tuned 121.5 on my
radios as well as the CTAF, and heard the FBO call the pilot and ask if they
needed assistance. There were no calls or answers from the Bonanza, and we
feared the worst, waiting for an ELT signal. However, after a few minutes
the plane noises returned and the Bonanza landed and taxied to the FBO.

We later met the pilot during a coffee break, who said she was going from a
nearby metropolitan area to some property diagonally across the state (a
route that clearly put her in the path of the long line of thunderstorms.)
She said the weather was so bad that she couldn't even dial the GPS map to
find the nearest airport, and her plan was to put the plane down in a field
when she came across the airport! I asked myself why anyone would want to
scud run ( it was lower than localizer approach minimums) across an entire
state and try to fly through a line of thunderstorms enroute. Why not turn
around and head east away from the storms when the weather went bad (she
said she had hours worth of gas)?

If this had happened to most people they would likely have been pretty
scared and humbled by the experience, but she was very happy and chatty with
the folks at the FBO, as if flying through thunderstorms, scud running,
flying in IMC without a clearance, and contemplating a precautionary landing
in a field were routine events. She did not seem at all concerned with how
close she had come to a serious event, and in fact was very upbeat and
carried on a number of light conversations.

I departed IFR back to my local airport, and had to shoot an approach to ILS
minimums due to some residual low clouds, and I later learned that as she
prepared to depart she noticed that a wingtip and leading edge were damaged.
Apparently she had struck a tree during her scud running, but had not
noticed!

Obviously, this episode showed a lot of poor judgment, like lack of
preflight planning, as well as poor decision making in continuing on in IMC
conditions through thunderstorms rather than turning around. (she was VFR).

Amway, she clearly understood the possible implications of her actions, but
was either obvlious or did not care how close she came to getting killed
yesterday. As a fellow pilot, I was struck by how cavalier an attitude she
had toward flying, and how close she had come to crashing.

Would anyone have said anything further to her? She already had stated she
knew about the weather but had decided to continue VFR, so what else could
we do to help her without sounding critical? She clearly wasn't shaken or
asking for any help or advice, so what more could be done?

It was a very frustrating situation- she had nearly killed herself,
apparently knew why it had happened, and seemed to think this was a normal
activity of flying (let alone damaging her 1997 Bonanza A-36)

I'd be interested in hearing how the group would have reacted to this
situation.

Well, if she wasn't rattled, she's probably been doing this for a
while and built confidence to the point where she does not see
anything wrong with it. I doubt anything an unknown bystander would
say would influence her.

Not good flying weather in N. Illinois / S. Wisconsin lately. Looks
like it will continue through the weekend

-Nathan

It was a very frustrating situation- she had nearly killed herself,
apparently knew why it had happened, and seemed to think this was a normal
activity of flying (let alone damaging her 1997 Bonanza A-36)

Last week, on another aviation forum, a new pilot was happily relating his
first successful cross country flight with his family -- a 500 mile trip
that took him into some complex airspace on the East coast of the U.S.

As I was reading along, filled with the glow of remembering *my* first long
trip, I was astounded to read that he had run a fuel tank dry on final
approach! Almost in passing he casually mentioned that he was forced to
quickly switch to the fullest tank, and the engine re-started. He landed
normally.

I couldn't believe that anyone could treat a complete engine failure on
final with such utter disdain, but this very low-time pilot spoke of it as
if this sort of thing were normal and an expected part of flying. It was no
greater part of his story than his description of the FBO's on-field
restaurant.

I guess some people are just less risk averse than others?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article zAJrc.95938$iF6.8453194@attbi_s02, Jay Honeck wrote:
As I was reading along, filled with the glow of remembering *my* first long
trip, I was astounded to read that he had run a fuel tank dry on final
approach! Almost in passing he casually mentioned that he was forced to
quickly switch to the fullest tank, and the engine re-started. He landed
normally.

I couldn't believe that anyone could treat a complete engine failure on
final with such utter disdain, but this very low-time pilot spoke of it as
if this sort of thing were normal and an expected part of flying.

In writing, you can't really gain the insights you get from speaking to
someone in person (inflection, body language).

I have a confession to make - I've been there and done that, and worse
still, I was deliberately running a tank fairly low. The trouble with
the fuel tanks in my aircraft is they have a "No takeoff" zone below a
quarter of a tank. Quarter of each tank must be considered unusable for
a go-around - that's quite a lot of fuel. So on longer trips, I'd run
one tank quite low to ensure I had well over the "no takeoff" zone in
the other in case a go-around was necessary.

Well guess what, it was a nice day, and I was pretty relaxed on downwind
and ommitted to check "Select fullest tank", to switch to the other 3/4
full fuel tank. I did a touch and go. At about 150' agl on the climbout,
the fuel unported from the other tank, which was in the "No takeoff
zone". You wouldn't believe how quickly you can run an engine failure
checklist when it really happens, especially when you already have a
pretty good idea what checklist item you missed on downwind... The
engine of course came to life immediately. It was a not-so-subtle
reminder about downwind checklists even in simple planes - but from my
writing, do you get any feeling of the adrenaline rush you get when the
fan stops at 150' agl? No you don't. You have to be a fairly skilled
writer to get that across.

I expect the incident did teach the pilot a lesson (if he's normal) and
I bet his downwind checks are a lot better now.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

I expect the incident did teach the pilot a lesson (if he's normal) and
I bet his downwind checks are a lot better now.

I surely hope so.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"