The Scariest Thing I've Ever Seen

This guy was definitely not having fun... Sounds like he "went missed" then
saw the runways and circled to land on 30. BUT if he was right over your
head when he added power, he was a bit off course for 25 and get this...
www.flightaware.com doesn't list any incoming IFR 182's yesterday! Was this
guy trying it VFR? or maybe he was on a local IFR with CID and flightaware
didn't pick it up? Just glad he made it down ok. He's lucky he didn't clip
any of those cranes you've got sticking up in the air around there!

When I saw him go over in near knife-edge flight, he was heading EAST.
He clearly wasn't lined up for anything.

My guess is that he flew the VOR 36 approach, accidentally over-flew
the airport (cuz he couldn't see it), spotted it at the northeast edge
of the airport property (where we are), racked it around to keep the
runway environment in sight (which is when I spotted him), lost the
airport again, and just kinda did a "fly out for 30 seconds, do a
tear-drop 180 degree turn, fly the reciprocal heading for 30 seconds,
and hope for the best" approach.

It worked, but only just barely.

And Roger is right. Without GPS, I'll bet he wouldn't have found the
airport again.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Nicely written.

We will be stopping in to see you on our way to FTG. Looks like we will be
there on the 23rd. maybe the 22nd.

Bill Snow, Plymouth, MA

"William Snow" wrote in message
. ..
Nicely written.

We will be stopping in to see you on our way to FTG. Looks like we will be
there on the 23rd. maybe the 22nd.

Bill Snow, Plymouth, MA

More Snow coming???

;-)

On Fri, 9 Dec 2005 09:51:17 -0600, "Jim Burns"
wrote in
::

get this...www.flightaware.com doesn't list any incoming IFR 182's yesterday!

You're right about that; in fact it doesn't even show any singles at
all:

Arrivals: Iowa City Municipal Airport (Iowa City, IA) [KIOW]

Ident Type Origin Departure Time Arrival Time
N586TC BE9L Palwaukee Municipal [KPWK] Fri 09:19AM CST Fri 10:18AM
CST
N586BC BE20 Des Moines Int'l [KDSM] Thu 09:41PM CST Thu 10:08PM CST
N401WD C401 Minneapolis St Paul Int'l [KMSP] Thu 02:33PM CST Thu
03:48PM CST
N904US BE90 L O Simenstad Municipal [KOEO] Thu 12:33PM CST Thu
01:46PM CST
N558TH BE58 Huntsville Int'l Carl T Jones Field [KHSV] Wed 03:47PM
CST Wed 06:21PM CST
N447J C303 Waukesha Co [KUES] Wed 02:29PM CST Wed 03:31PM CST
N421DB C421 Waukegan Regional [KUGN] Wed 01:44PM CST Wed 02:48PM CST
N350J B350 Lewis University [KLOT] Wed 01:25PM CST Wed 02:07PM CST
N904US BE90 Anoka Co Blaine [KANE] Wed 12:16PM CST Wed 01:25PM CST
N9164N BE55 Mason Co [KLDM] Wed 07:24AM EST Wed 07:56AM

Jay Honeck wrote:

How he managed to do this in the failing light, in a driving snow-storm
and near-zero visibility is beyond me.

I've only flown through snow once, and the visibility wasn't as bad as this
case, but I found that I could see down *much* better than I could see ahead. I
expect he had a much better view of the airport than you did of anything.

That said, from your description he certainly seemed desperate to keep the
airport in sight. His visibility couldn't have been very good.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

My guess is that he flew the VOR 36 approach,

THAT explains a LOT more! I didn't know he was headed east when you
heard him. Definitely sounds like he missed on 36, and from a guy who flew
that approach at night in pounding rain between thunderstorms, he's lucky.
The final approach path comes in from the 019 radial of IOW, almost 20
degrees off the runway heading. Those med intensity lights blend right into
the surroundings on that approach because you can't pick out any distinct
lines and the lack of a PAPI/VASI or REILs on 36 doesn't give you any help
squaring you up. We flew the final approach for what seemed like forever
down at the minimum altitude, the only thing we would make out was the
beacon. Finally we saw the runway illuminated by the landing light, broke
right then back left and put her down. At dusk, in blinding snow, and with
everything else being white around him, it's no wonder he didn't see it.

An extended approach following the 019 radial of IOW may have shot him out
near the end of 25 and behind your airport building, but by that time he
should have gone missed. Sounds like he caught a glimpse and circled but it
also sounds like he was below mins to do that. Lucky guy.

Jim

On 9 Dec 2005 07:35:00 -0800, "Jay Honeck" wrote:

How he managed to do this in the failing light, in a driving snow-storm
and near-zero visibility is beyond me. He's one lucky SOB.

Jay, not sure about your term "driving snow-storm". Your first
description of the situation was that luckily, there was little to no
wind although lots of snow was falling.

Using the descriptor "driving" makes it sound like there was wind.

Thanks, Corky

How he managed to do this in the failing light, in a driving snow-storm
and near-zero visibility is beyond me. He's one lucky SOB.

Jay, not sure about your term "driving snow-storm". Your first
description of the situation was that luckily, there was little to no
wind although lots of snow was falling.

Using the descriptor "driving" makes it sound like there was wind.

Sorry. I guess it was only a "coasting" snow storm... Or, perhaps,
"running"?

"Walking"?

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

You should carry your Icom to listen to see if the pilot was saying anything
on Unicom, center, FSS, etc.

Now that's the kind of suggestion I'd expect to hear from a guy that
lives in Hawaii, or Phoenix, or someplace that doesn't get winter. Is
a guy from *Minnesota* really suggesting that I should carry a scanner
while I'm shoveling snow, with the temperature around minus 1 F?

Heck, if I could even find a place to hang the danged thing, I wouldn't
be able to hear it, underneath the 13 layers of clothing I was wearing!


:-)

We do play Unicom all the time in the lobby; I just happened to be
outside when this guy flew over...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Man,what a story!

Only flew in snow once, with my CFI. Started to snow a bit on our way
back from the practice area. Fairly light snow, but it was just like I
read about...lower horizontal visibility, but still pretty good vertically.

I haven't flow in over a month now, cause my schedule and the weather
didn't cooperate.

John