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.

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

"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.

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"

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)

This sounds like the type of person who ends up killing her passengers or
people on the ground, walks away unscathed, and then gets rich by sueing the
aircraft manufacturer.

Larry aka: "Mr Optimism"
"Get off a fast first shot...Make the second one count!"
TIGER

In a previous article, (LF TIGER) said:
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)

This sounds like the type of person who ends up killing her passengers or
people on the ground, walks away unscathed, and then gets rich by sueing the
aircraft manufacturer.

Oh, you mean Steve Wozniak?


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish. And if he can't
be bothered to learn to fish and starves to death, that's a good enough
outcome for me. -- Steve VanDevender

"Viperdoc" wrote in message
...

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

Incidents and pilots like this are unfortunately not uncommon at all in
aviation. I've seen this from the lowest levels of aviation to the
highest levels. You learn after a while in this business that all you
can do is make an attempt to keep someone like this from killing
themselves...and that's all you can do.
In the end, flying is a lot like being alone with yourself on the golf
course. If you cheat, you're only cheating yourself. The only difference
is that if you cheat at flying you can kill other people as well as
yourself.
Flying, and the responsibility that goes with it is one of the most
intensive self motivating endeavors I can imagine. The laws are the
established laws of physics and aerodynamics that govern the environment
we have chosen to live in up there. The rules have been placed there by
us, for us to follow so that we have a fair chance to survive our use of
the laws. The problem is that unfortunately there are those among us,
and always will be those among us, who not only bend the rules, but bend
the laws as well.
You generally don't make it through the entire way to a natural death by
doing this.
So where does this leave us as pilots when we are witness to some idiot
hell bent on bending the rules and defying the laws? If we're decent
people, and most of us are, we make an attempt, directly or indirectly,
to help straighten someone out; but basic intelligence should tell us
that this is the extent of what we can do. If the idiot can't see the
problem as self correct, it's a fool's burden to carry the weight of
their failure on our shoulders.
You do what you can to make people safer as you pass through, but you
can't pick up their failure to comply as a failure by you to change them
if this isn't possible.
Trust me on this one. I have first hand experience!
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/ CFI Retired
For personal email, please replace
the z's with e's.
dhenriquesATzarthlinkDOTnzt

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...

Oh, you mean Steve Wozniak?


How many times did Wozniak crash?

Woz managed to make a little money from Apple as well.

Michael


"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
This sounds like the type of person who ends up killing her passengers or
people on the ground, walks away unscathed, and then gets rich by sueing
the
aircraft manufacturer.

Oh, you mean Steve Wozniak?