Downright Scary...

Wonder if he was one of those ten-day-wonder pilots.

-c

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:JSmGc.14184$JR4.8572@attbi_s54...
Whilst supping a cold one with friends at our hangar not long ago, a
short-lived yet intense summer storm blew through. High winds, heavy
rain,
and impressive lightning caused us to lower the door a tad, but didn't
deter
us from our appointed beers.

Right as the storm passed, we watched in amazement as a Skyhawk entered
downwind for Rwy 12. We all commented how we were glad not to have been in
that poor shmuck's shoes, and then returned to our conversation.

A few minutes later our hotel courtesy van went zipping past, obviously on
the way to pick up our wayward pilot. We toasted my night manager as he
went roaring by, and did it again as he drove back with our new guests, en
route back to the hotel...

The next morning I sought out our brave and stalwart guests, and was
surprised to meet a newly minted Private Pilot, off on his first long
cross
country trip in a rented 172 with his wife. He nonchalantly mentioned the
"rough ride" into Iowa City, but soon the conversation drifted to local
attractions and our theme suites.

I then turned my attention to his wife, and asked her how she had enjoyed
the flight. She confessed that it had been pretty scary, so we started
giving her the usual pep-talk about how the bumps really aren't anything
to
worry about, and how turbulence can be bothersome but not really
dangerous.
We were pretty well along into our speechifying about how safe flying is,
when she stopped all conversation by saying "Things got pretty spooky when
we couldn't see anything....I just covered my eyes and couldn't look out!"

We kind of looked at each other, stunned, and asked her what she meant.

She went on to say that about 15 miles out, just past the nearby town (and
airport) of Tipton, IA, their windshield had gone completely white -- and
then almost immediately totally black. It was at this point where she
covered her eyes in fright, and couldn't look.

She then mentioned how her husband had called Cedar Rapids approach, and
how
they had "given them directions to Iowa City."

Uncomfortable silence followed this revelation, as we realized how close
to
dying this poor woman had come. Not wanting to scare her any more than
necessary, I asked what Cedar Rapids had done. She replied that the
controller had asked what their intentions were, since conditions were
rock-solid IFR with thunderstorms from their present position all the way
into Iowa City. She said her husband had announced his intention to land
in
Iowa City, and that the controller then gave them a vector towards the
airport.

At this point our hapless pilot piped up about how he had "flown
instruments" down the heading until they popped into the clear, pretty
much
right over the airport. This must have been when we spotted him on
downwind.

I told them both how lucky they were, and left it at that. After all,
they
were here for a good time, and it wasn't my position as innkeeper to be
lecturing my guests. In fact, I didn't even mention the "Tipton
Towers" --
twin TV transmission towers that reach some 1700 feet into the sky right
near Tipton.

However, this man's complacence in the face of stormy IFR conditions is
exactly what we all read about in the NTSB reports each month. The guy
over-flew a perfectly good airport (Tipton) in order to fly head-long into
the clouds, a thunderstorm, potential death, and (almost coincidentally)
Iowa City. He had risked his life (and his wife's life) in order to
penetrate a fast-moving, short-lived storm, just so he could get here in
time for...dinner?

God was on his side that day. Downright scary, I tell you.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I have new respect for your thunderstorms in Iowa - I was driving back from
Michigan to Colorado yesterday (jammed a throttle cable in Michigan , on
the ground during run-up ), and mid way through Iowa I hit a storm that
made me stop and pull over while I was driving. Visibility was 0 in an
absolute blackout downpour, punctuated by phenomenal lightning bursts.
Brought a whole new meaning to the "I'd rather be on the ground wishing I
was in the air..." comment.

By the way, stayed at your Inn during the trip East - once again excellent
service, great room. Thanks.

Michael

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:JSmGc.14184$JR4.8572@attbi_s54...
Whilst supping a cold one with friends at our hangar not long ago, a
short-lived yet intense summer storm blew through. High winds, heavy
rain,
and impressive lightning caused us to lower the door a tad, but didn't
deter
us from our appointed beers.

Right as the storm passed, we watched in amazement as a Skyhawk entered
downwind for Rwy 12. We all commented how we were glad not to have been in
that poor shmuck's shoes, and then returned to our conversation.

A few minutes later our hotel courtesy van went zipping past, obviously on
the way to pick up our wayward pilot. We toasted my night manager as he
went roaring by, and did it again as he drove back with our new guests, en
route back to the hotel...

The next morning I sought out our brave and stalwart guests, and was
surprised to meet a newly minted Private Pilot, off on his first long
cross
country trip in a rented 172 with his wife. He nonchalantly mentioned the
"rough ride" into Iowa City, but soon the conversation drifted to local
attractions and our theme suites.

I then turned my attention to his wife, and asked her how she had enjoyed
the flight. She confessed that it had been pretty scary, so we started
giving her the usual pep-talk about how the bumps really aren't anything
to
worry about, and how turbulence can be bothersome but not really
dangerous.
We were pretty well along into our speechifying about how safe flying is,
when she stopped all conversation by saying "Things got pretty spooky when
we couldn't see anything....I just covered my eyes and couldn't look out!"

We kind of looked at each other, stunned, and asked her what she meant.

She went on to say that about 15 miles out, just past the nearby town (and
airport) of Tipton, IA, their windshield had gone completely white -- and
then almost immediately totally black. It was at this point where she
covered her eyes in fright, and couldn't look.

She then mentioned how her husband had called Cedar Rapids approach, and
how
they had "given them directions to Iowa City."

Uncomfortable silence followed this revelation, as we realized how close
to
dying this poor woman had come. Not wanting to scare her any more than
necessary, I asked what Cedar Rapids had done. She replied that the
controller had asked what their intentions were, since conditions were
rock-solid IFR with thunderstorms from their present position all the way
into Iowa City. She said her husband had announced his intention to land
in
Iowa City, and that the controller then gave them a vector towards the
airport.

At this point our hapless pilot piped up about how he had "flown
instruments" down the heading until they popped into the clear, pretty
much
right over the airport. This must have been when we spotted him on
downwind.

I told them both how lucky they were, and left it at that. After all,
they
were here for a good time, and it wasn't my position as innkeeper to be
lecturing my guests. In fact, I didn't even mention the "Tipton
Towers" --
twin TV transmission towers that reach some 1700 feet into the sky right
near Tipton.

However, this man's complacence in the face of stormy IFR conditions is
exactly what we all read about in the NTSB reports each month. The guy
over-flew a perfectly good airport (Tipton) in order to fly head-long into
the clouds, a thunderstorm, potential death, and (almost coincidentally)
Iowa City. He had risked his life (and his wife's life) in order to
penetrate a fast-moving, short-lived storm, just so he could get here in
time for...dinner?

God was on his side that day. Downright scary, I tell you.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I have new respect for your thunderstorms in Iowa - I was driving back
from
Michigan to Colorado yesterday (jammed a throttle cable in Michigan ,
on
the ground during run-up ), and mid way through Iowa I hit a storm
that
made me stop and pull over while I was driving. Visibility was 0 in an
absolute blackout downpour, punctuated by phenomenal lightning bursts.

And this has been a surprisingly quiet spring and summer, weather-wise.
We've had lots of rain, but little convective activity.

We haven't had a tornado warning yet -- which is very unusual.

By the way, stayed at your Inn during the trip East - once again excellent
service, great room. Thanks.

Cool -- great to hear!

Hopefully it wasn't while the pool was closed? (Some dolt let their kid
swim wearing a full diaper! Needless to say, we had to shut the pool
immediately, the chemistry went crazy, the water turned a beautiful emerald
green, and there wasn't enough chlorine and clarifier in the world to fix
it. It took us three days -- right in the middle of the holiday weekend --
to get it right again...)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:7lTGc.6680$WX.4072@attbi_s51...
Hopefully it wasn't while the pool was closed? (Some dolt let their kid
swim wearing a full diaper!

Why on earth do people do stuff like that? I bet you even have swim
diapers available at cost at the desk, or would give people the wheels
to run into town and buy some.

Bugs me at our local pool. There are big signs posted everywhere
about wearing clean swim diapers in the pool and swimsuits, not
street clothes. But all the time I see kids in regular diapers,
which soak up a couple pounds of water and sag at the legs and
pull the closures loose.

The lifeguards must see it too, but no one says "go get a swim diaper
or get out".

Anyway, hope the rest of your guests this summer have more sense.

Best,
Sydney

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:JSmGc.14184$JR4.8572@attbi_s54...
She went on to say that about 15 miles out, just past the nearby town (and
airport) of Tipton, IA, their windshield had gone completely white -- and
then almost immediately totally black. It was at this point where she
covered her eyes in fright, and couldn't look.
...
Uncomfortable silence followed this revelation, as we realized how close to
dying this poor woman had come. Not wanting to scare her any more than
necessary, I asked what Cedar Rapids had done. She replied that the
controller had asked what their intentions were, since conditions were
rock-solid IFR with thunderstorms from their present position all the way
into Iowa City. She said her husband had announced his intention to land in
Iowa City, and that the controller then gave them a vector towards the
airport.
...
I told them both how lucky they were, and left it at that. After all, they
were here for a good time, and it wasn't my position as innkeeper to be
lecturing my guests. In fact, I didn't even mention the "Tipton Towers" --
twin TV transmission towers that reach some 1700 feet into the sky right
near Tipton.

Jay,

I understand your reluctance to 'lecture', but I think a comment or two
about a similar situation you were in and what you did, can sometimes
provide large amounts of "positive reinforcement" to do the right thing
next time.

ie, something like "yes, a couple months back there were some fast
moving summer thunderstorms over Iowa City at the end of a trip. It
was frustrating to all of us to land at Tipton and wait it out, but
these kind of storms normally move through pretty fast and we were
able to get back in the plane and press on in about half-an-hour. I
have about 2000 hrs in the air, and a half-an-hour wait is worth it
to me to stay safe for the next 2000"

I think sometimes new pilots run into a few pilots who land under
a tstorm (or for all we know, have a CFI who did something like that
as a 'lesson', but who took the wrong message from it) or do other
risky things, and they think they need to get into a macho cult where
"real pilots" don't worry about pesky things like tstorms (low weather,
icing, you name it).

I think there's a big difference between lecturing and just recounting
your own experiences. I know I've learned a lot sometimes from a
clearly more experienced pilot's calm "well, something like that happened
to me, and this is what I did..."

Best,
Sydney
(who spent 2 hrs sitting in the airport lobby in company with about
10,000 hrs of experience Monday am, while Mother Nature ran the
deluge system)

I understand your reluctance to 'lecture', but I think a comment or two
about a similar situation you were in and what you did, can sometimes
provide large amounts of "positive reinforcement" to do the right thing
next time.
[...]
I know I've learned a lot sometimes from a
clearly more experienced pilot's calm "well, something like that happened
to me, and this is what I did..."


I fully agree. Else what is hangar flying for?

Jose

--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

I fully agree. Else what is hangar flying for?

Yep -- hangar flying is where we learn from our gray-headed elders.

Both good and bad things, sometimes, though...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:NgJHc.59969$Oq2.53111@attbi_s52...
I fully agree. Else what is hangar flying for?

Yep -- hangar flying is where we learn from our gray-headed elders.

Both good and bad things, sometimes, though...

Sometimes the most important thing you learn from listening to someone
is that they don't know what they are talking about.
There are lessons to be learned on BOTH sides of the "listening coin"
:-))

Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/ CFI Retired
For personal email, please replace
the z's with e's.
dhenriquesATzarthlinkDOTnzt

In article .net, Dudley Henriques wrote:

Sometimes the most important thing you learn from listening to someone
is that they don't know what they are talking about.
There are lessons to be learned on BOTH sides of the "listening coin"

Yeah, but sometimes it isn't immediately obvious who's who. I've been
wrong dissmissing people who turned out not to be idiots, and wrong
taking the word of people who turned out to be. In the end, time does
tell, though.


Morris

In article JSmGc.14184$JR4.8572@attbi_s54, Jay Honeck wrote:
Whilst supping a cold one with friends at our hangar not long ago, a
short-lived yet intense summer storm blew through. High winds, heavy rain,
and impressive lightning caused us to lower the door a tad, but didn't deter
us from our appointed beers.

Right as the storm passed, we watched in amazement as a Skyhawk entered
downwind for Rwy 12. We all commented how we were glad not to have been in
that poor shmuck's shoes, and then returned to our conversation.
[snip]

By coincidence, Jay, you posted this the day I was on my way to your
hotel. We had stopped in South Bend for lunch, and I was looking at
the weather radar. There was a nice curling line of yellow forming
just around Iowa City. It looked like I could fly South around the
line and still get to the night's destination.

Tina's Weather Advice: whenever you're not sure what the weather's
doing, grab a local who seems to have more experience and ask them. So,
I grabbed a corporate pilot we'd been chatting with earlier. He said it
looked like the line would probably extend along the curving track
(rotating around a low, moving NE). Suggested we try going to Peoria
instead (well short of the line) and then getting a weather update
there. That suggestion immediately felt right.

We hung around a little longer. Sure enough, the storm seemed to be
developing the way he was saying. We launched for Peoria, landed there
and got the update. Then stayed there for the night, after a very
smooth ride and only one deviation around a nasty-looking cloud.

I've always felt you can't teach good judgement, but in this case I've
been fortunate enough to have some people point out the general
direction.

I've valued the good avice I've gotten. I think it's worth the effort
to *tactfully* point out a newbie pilot's flawed reasoning. Maybe he
didn't know better, maybe he did but got in over his head and didn't
want to admit it. It's still worth discussing.


Morris (hoping to stop by on the return trip next week)