Best Storm Stories

As I don't fly powered aircraft, I can only mentioned three commercial flights with storminess. BTW, I always want a window seat.
1. 1974, DC-10 going into Chicago through big summer cells. First time I'd seen wing tip deflections of ten's of feet.
2. February 1974, 707 inbound American Samoa on edge of typhoon passage. Landed in 50kt crosswinds following an amazingly bouncy approach. Tense PAX and much applause after landing. PanAm had lost one inbound there in January 1974.
3. Early 1990's 767 night flight from Seattle to London. Aurora was on both sides of aircraft. Absolutely beautiful. Solar storm;^)

Frank Whiteley

Flew an SR-20 Cirrus from Fargo to Miles City Montana (no de-ice on the SR-20). Intended destination was Billings. Cruising at 6000 IMC with a forecast freezing level of 8000. 40 miles east of Miles City I started to ice up, climbed to warmer temps (3C) at 7000. Closest IFR approach was Miles City. ATC restricted my altitude at 7000 and as I descended with a load of ice I considered the parachute (ballistic chutes are installed on Cirrus aircraft). Controls got jammed with ice and as I pulled the elevator free, the plan snapped into a spin. I lost about 3000 feet in 45 seconds as I tried to get the aircraft flying again. Power idle, mixture cut-off, hand moving to pull the chute, when I drop into VFR and the ice started to fly off. Got the dirty side down, put the mixture to full, added power and flew to Miles City VFR. Sat there for two days for the weather to improve before flying on to Portlans OR.

On Monday, February 9, 2015 at 12:21:03 PM UTC-5, JJ Sinclair wrote:
With storms pounding both coasts, I thought it would be fun to tell out best (worst) storm story. I'll kick it off with my favorite. 1950's, old JJ was a boom operator on a tanker crew and we were on a refueling mission over Colorado. There was a big thunderstorm between us and the rendezvous point. The newly formed USAF was not to be stopped by any weather, latter on LeMay decreed that "No peacetime mission required penetrating a thunderstorm", but in 1953 we charged right on in! The cloud turned a pale green, except when lightning struck, then everything turned red! Vertical gusts were unreal, everyone tightened up their straps and hung on. As the props de-iced, some of it would hit the fuselage and it was like being inside a drum with someone beating on it with a bat! After about 5 minutes of this, the AC screamed; Navigator, should we keep going or turn around? In a calm voice, the Navigator replied, I don't know, sir, the hail just knocked out my radar!
I believe the Navigator was the only one on the crew that wasn't scared ****less!
We finally flew out the other side and then made a precautionary landing at Denver. I can still see the big hole in the ray dome and a good 10 inches of ice built up on the little stub antennas.
OK, Who's next?
JJ

I think JJ wins with thread killer story.
I'll tell my story of bad judgement anyway.
Last day of Std Nats at Mifflin in 1993. We're on an AT coming back from the south and it is pretty dark under big cloud.
About 20 out a bunch of us punch under the edge of a big black line that is across the course line. There were 3 ridge sets to cross to get home.
I got a very strong climb well up toward cloud base and moved forward to try to find a way through the storm.
Lightning from 10:00 to 2:00.
There's a gap slightly clearer that looks like a way through. Lightning just struck there so it "should be OK for a short while".
TB called Carol and said he didn't think he'd find a way through and hook up.
Bong! Visions of a gold medal sprang into my head(I'm in 3rd, a couple hundred points back)and the dreaded red mist took over.
I climbed as high as I dared and punched ahead trying to get over a triple ridge to the next safe valley.
Sink was off the clock and I could visually see that, from 4000 feet or so that I would not make the valley. My glide angle was maybe 8 to 1.
It was going to be terrible going back and landing in the storm so I gave myself 3 more seconds to see if it got less bad.
The sink dropped off to about 8 knots down and I could see that I would make the valley ahead by a bit, so I pressed on.
I cleared the hills and, at about 1500 found 12 knots back to cloud base in more benign conditions.
From there it was an easy safe glide home to be the first(maybe only?) one back.
SM, who HATES lightning, went left to end run the storm. He ended up stuck low and had a low forming cloud and rain cut off his visual to his field as he was in the pattern. He flew his final visual to the pond at the end of the field and managed to land safely. He said he used up 3 or 4 of his lives with that one.
So class, what was the end result?
TB found a way through and got back a good while after I did and still won the contest.
I took a huge risk, learned a great deal about how I could be tempted, got 3rd anyway, big deal, and resolved NEVER to succumb to such a temptation again.
UH

Bruce Laxalt told me about getting caught under a big towering cumulus. He kept flying faster and faster, but the lift was too strong and just before he went IFR, he pulled the spoilers out! The wings of his ASW-20B bowed like a banana, but stayed on and he didn't go into the clouds. Once clear of the cloud, he tried to close his spoilers, but they wouldn't close! The spoilers had bent back because he deployed them above maneuvering speed. Luckily, Lee Vining Airport was very close and he landed without incident.

Another friend was doing the same thing, but he did get sucked into the CB. He turned loose of the controls and prayed! After about 5 minutes, he flew out the side of the cloud, but the ship didn't feel right. An inch of ice had formed on the wings. The ice not only added considerable weight, but it destroyed the airfoil and he was dropping like a smooth stone! It looked like he was going to land in the sagebrush, but the warmer temperature at lower altitude allowed the ice to melt off and he made it to Hawthorne Airport.

I was flying a Cessna 340 out of North Las Vegas during a winter storm, filed IFR for San Diego (KSEE). The controllers were very busy and I was given an initial altitude that put me 1,500 into the clouds. I noticed my weather radar (older black and white one) was painting all white ahead (big cell with lots of moisture). I kept trying to call control for a heading change, but they would not respond. I just knew the cell would be full of ice, hail, and hell so I repeatedly to pushed the ident button on my transponder and started to turn away from the cell. Soon control came on and said, "62C I see you are turning away from that level 4 cell", I thought yeah, thanks for the help and obviously you were going to let my flying into that!. I immediately asked for 2,000 ft lower and told them If I could get that I would cancel IFR, request immediately granted.

I have, a weather story, not really a storm story. Glider pilots really are the best (next to helicopter pilots ! I was flying a Cessna 340 out of South Tahoe. Was awoken early on a Sunday morning by the sounds of aircraft taking off. Usually I could not hear the airport but it was early and almost no background noise. I wondered why so many were leaving early on a spring Sunday morning. Checked weather and found an air mass was moving from east to west across the Sierras setting up wave and a rotor close to the South Lake airport. Decided it was time to load the dogs and wife and get an early start for home. Take off direction was east (toward the mountains). While listening to the radio, it was obvious many of these pilots should not be flying in the mountains, or even flying). I heard one "pilot" screaming on the radio his auto-pilot would not stay on because it was too rough. Many would take off and wanted to fly toward the mountains until they got to 1,000 ft before turning downwind (not a good idea if you are flying into rotor or the down part of the wave). As we are taught flying gliders, have a plan before you depart. I had planned to get as much speed as possible, suck the gear up as soon as I had a positive rate and as soon as the rate of climb started to diminish, turn down wind (at any altitude). Plan worked great. Usually in a 340 as soon as you leave the ground you turn on the yaw damper, it was so rough I made two attempts, could not get my finger on the toggle, so I went back to flying. My climb rate started to deminish when I had about 300 ft, turned downwind, over the lake I hit the up part of the wave, turned parallel to the mountains, climbed in the laminar air to 17,500 while thanking my glider instructors. Had a beautiful flight home, little rough on the take off and initial turn downwind, but really uneventful. I think, all power pilots should be required to take mountain flying classes and spin training. Nothing beats real world training! The other lesson Learned early in my flight training. I want to learn from the guy with grey hair, not a young guy. Experience, beats youth.

Best storm story:
The forecast was terrible and when I got to the gliderport it really looked bad so I went home.

On Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 1:58:46 PM UTC-8, Tom (2NO) wrote:
Best storm story:
The forecast was terrible and when I got to the gliderport it really looked bad so I went home.

Actually, one year I had much time to go gliding and I made it a point to launch whatever the weather. I learned a lot about flying. I even had one rainy day with lots of lift (not sure how that happened) and enough rain to be running through the rotor side wall vent. Had another great flight were I rode the front of a T-Storm for 150 miles. We fly on the power of weather, not all "bad" weather is bad.

OK...

Enjoying the smooth lift under the leading edge of a thunderstorm along
the ramparts of the Rockies until the static of lightening came across
the radio. I decided that sitting in the center of a carbon lightning
rod was not the best place to be so I headed back to Black Forest.
While enroute, I saw the dust front from the downburst which had begun
so I sped up to get home before the storm.

Too high and fast, I overflew the airport and turned back for a right
base entry but the gust was upon the airport. I kept speeding up until
reaching the top of the white arc (84 KIAS, IIRC for the LS-6a), maximum
airspeed with gear and flaps extended. My ground speed was extremely
low but I had no GPS to get an exact number and, due to the high wind, I
elected to land across the 36 foot wide runway. I touched down on the
runway, crossed it, the grass, the gravel taxiway, the grass, and rolled
to a stop 10 feet outside the gaping hangar door where a dozen or so
members were standing out of the rain and watching.

I flew the glider on the ground until the wind and rain let up and got
out to get help moving the ship into the hangar to wait for the storm to
end. Someone said that he didn't think I'd make it to the airport
because I was flying so slowly on base. Eighty-four knots! Yup, slow...

On 3/9/2015 8:40 PM, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
On Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 1:58:46 PM UTC-8, Tom (2NO) wrote:
Best storm story:
The forecast was terrible and when I got to the gliderport it really looked bad so I went home.
Actually, one year I had much time to go gliding and I made it a point to launch whatever the weather. I learned a lot about flying. I even had one rainy day with lots of lift (not sure how that happened) and enough rain to be running through the rotor side wall vent. Had another great flight were I rode the front of a T-Storm for 150 miles. We fly on the power of weather, not all "bad" weather is bad.

--
Dan Marotta

On Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 4:58:46 PM UTC-5, Tom (2NO) wrote:
Best storm story:
The forecast was terrible and when I got to the gliderport it really looked bad so I went home.

you're awesome.