Downright Scary...

On Tue, 6 Jul 2004 15:04:56 -0500, "Dan Luke"
wrote:

Neither of my primary instructors ever said anything to me about
t'storms. The first one reviewed VFR weather requirements with me to be
sure I was ready for the knowledge test, but that was it.

I used the Cessna training manual "Cleared for takeoff". It described
thunderstorms in great detail and also mentioned staying away well
away from them. The instructor really did not have to cover the
subject, and didn't, because it's in the manual which I was supposed
to be reading, as well as the CD-ROM's that went with it. When we met
for lessons, the instructor took the floppy on which my progress was
logged from the CD-ROM and downloaded the information to my progress
chart. So he knew I was plowing through the material, I had to in
order to proceed.

Distances are pretty tough for newbies to judge, or at least they are
for me. I could probably tell approximately how close I was to a
thunderstorm by judging what landmark it covers and noting that
distance from me on the sectional or GPS. But just being in the air
and flying around near clouds, it's very hard for me to judge exactly
how close I am to them.

When flying out to Oshkosh in '95, I was in the front seat of a Waco
UPF-7. We were just south of Chicago heading west and waiting to
clear their class B space so we could make our right turn and head
north up Wisconsin.

There was an enormous single cell thunderstorm dumping directly on top
of downtown Chicogo. The enormous white column of rain totally
obliterated the entire downtown area. It looked like Niagra Falls was
pouring down. The anvil top spread out over our line of flight
blocking out the sun. As we looked north at the storm, the sky around
the enormous white column of rain was a dark angry green color and
bolts of lighting were striking the ground all around the center
column of rain every couple of seconds. We just trundled along to the
south watching the show, thinking we were far enough away that we were
safe. Where we were, it wasn't raining, and we were experiencing no
turbulence, for a while. Suddenly the airplane was swatted by a 2.5 G
negative blast that dropped the right wing. The pilot let out a yell
and immediately turned south putting more room between us and the
storm.

These days I would give it more room than that, but I am still not
certain exactly how close we were. I'll just remember what the storm
looked like and how close it seemed and will put the airplane far
enough away to make that picture seem smaller.

We were well under the anvil so perhaps that could be another method
to use: avoid flying under the anvil.

I want to stress that this was an isolated cell, all around the storm
the sky was clear, it wasn't like we were threading our way through a
line of thunderstorms. When we did have a line of storms to
penetrate, we landed and sat them out with the airplane in a
conveniantly empty hangar.

Corky Scott

wrote in message
...
[...]
We were well under the anvil so perhaps that could be another method
to use: avoid flying under the anvil.

That's definitely a good rule to include in one's thunderstorm avoidance
protocols.

Even ignoring wind shear, the other problem with flying under or near the
anvil is that that's downwind from the thunderstorm, and frequently that's
where the hail is found, having been blown out the top of the thunderstorm.

Basically, one needs to avoid *all* components of the thunderstorm, not just
the rain.

Pete

wrote in message
...
We were well under the anvil so perhaps that could be another method
to use: avoid flying under the anvil.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?I286220C8

Paul

In article , Dan Luke wrote:
This is my pet peeve about flight instruction as I see it being
practiced: at least around here, it's all about the checkride. The
practical day-to-day business of safe flying, i.e. what pilots really
should and should not do to get where they're going alive, gets left
out.

Of course it does -- especially if the instructors concerned are the
time-building type because *this is all they know*. Think how much real
experience an instructor who is on a mission for the airlines -
collecting ratings in the minimum times.

--
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"

In article uXMGc.14340$z81.10547@fed1read01, Jay Beckman wrote:
The Cessna Pilot Course (CPC) which John and Martha King produce reccomends
20+ miles as an "away from/get around" figure and 40+ miles between cells if
you plan to go between (but the suggetion is pretty obvious that they do not
think this would be a good idea.)

Whilst that's very good general advice, you'd probably never fly on a
summer afternoon in Houston applying that standard (or Florida). Some
danger also lies that way too - those who are used to the Gulf Coast
airmass storms might be lulled into not treating the mid-West monsters
with the extreme caution they deserve.

Here, though, we get about 1 thunderstorm every 18 months.

--
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"

"Dylan Smith" wrote in message
...
Here, though, we get about 1 thunderstorm every 18 months.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man

Ick. We've had three in two weeks here. Was driving up the M3 last week
with lightning flashing all around me. Day before yesterday was fairly bad,
yesterday was also bad. Quite a lot of torrential rain with yesterday's,
virtually all day! Evening was nice but I didn't go flying as the plane
might
have sunk into the runway...

Paul

"Paul Sengupta" wrote:
Here, though, we get about 1 thunderstorm every 18 months.

Ick. We've had three in two weeks here.

Tee-hee! We had three between lunch and dinner yesterday here, as
usual.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

"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"