Scary Icing ATC tape

She got control of an airplane that sounded like it was a flying ice
cube
in IMC -- I hope I can do as well in similiar circumstances.


It sounded like she got the hell scarred out of her. Autopilot issue? Ice?
Upper level wind sheer? Caravan icing issues? Two of the four? Even one of
the four...

She fought for control, maintained the altitude where she regained
control,
disengaged the auto-pilot, quickly ran through dozens of (off radio)
checks,
activated boots and heat, then descended below the freezing level.

It sounded to me like she was using 20% of her mental capacity to
communicate with ATC, while the other 80% was still darting about,
searching
for answers - or making sure all was well.

Great job! Based on what I heard, I'd fly with her.


Same here.

Knowing when it's over isn't necessarily easy,
but she managed to do that as well.

Peter

There's no evidence she paniced. She was scared, that came through
clear enough, but she regained control of the aircraft -- that's
number one, and she communicated -- that's number two. That's what
professionals do.

She may not had read the script the way some would have liked (even on
a good day she's not going to sound like Chuck Yeager) but she
executed her job well. Good on her! I doubt many of us would reject
her from the left seat, especially after the experience she gained
from this flight.






On Feb 3, 11:34 am, Mxsmanic wrote:
Viperdoc writes:
That's easy to say if you've never been in a similar situation.

It's also easy to say because it's true.

Regardless of what you might see in the movies, real astronauts,
military pilots, test pilots, and experienced commercial pilots--as
well as controllers--remain virtually emotionless even in very dire
circumstances. That's because they know they can't afford to panic.
There will be time for sweating and throwing up later, if necessary,
but the middle of an emergency is not the time.

People who panic and wail and scream and cry in an emergency make for
good drama, but they don't usually survive to talk about it.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

What amazed me was she decided to continue the flight. I seriously
would have been looking for the nearest FBO to clean my underwear. And
she said she had something like 2.5 hours more to go.

Late at night a while back, there was this 10 minute interview with a
test pilot of military jets. The guy was completely void of all emotion.

On the otherhand, Mike Melville in the Discovery Channel SpaceShipOne
video (extremely highly recommended BTW) showed no emotion when he was
in a tail stall / spin (not sure what it was but something like that)
but on the ground seemed quite normal.

Gerald

She's a tough cookie -- I'd be landing ASAP, to change my shorts.

:-)

I'm glad she made it, but her ADM sort of came into question in my head,
when after having gone through this frightening situation, she makes the
decision to continue (400NM) even though a pirep showed freezing levels at
even lower altitudes and the controller mentioned light rain along her route
of flight. Gotta admit when I got to that part I started wondering if it
was some (unbeknownst to you) some kind of internet prank/creation.

I thought she should have landed - inspected the plane (especially after
that controller mentioned he might be having trouble hearing her because of
ice on her antennae - I would wonder more about those chunks of ice that may
have broken off when she cycled the boots, whether a piece might of flown
back and bent/partially broke off her com. antennae)?

I dunno, I say, better safer than sorry OR dead..

--
=-----
Good Flights!

Cecil E. Chapman
CFI-A, CP-ASEL-IA

Check out my personal flying adventures from my first flight to the
checkride AND the continuing adventures beyond!
Complete with pictures and text at: www.bayareapilot.com

"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -

"We who fly, do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with
this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet"
- Cecil Day Lewis -
"Jay Honeck" wrote in message

There's no evidence she paniced. She was scared, that came through
clear enough, but she regained control of the aircraft -- that's
number one, and she communicated -- that's number two. That's what
professionals do.

She may not had read the script the way some would have liked (even on
a good day she's not going to sound like Chuck Yeager) but she
executed her job well. Good on her! I doubt many of us would reject
her from the left seat, especially after the experience she gained
from this flight.


Well said. And a shame to waste it on the troll.

Mxsmanic wrote:

Viperdoc writes:

That's easy to say if you've never been in a similar situation.

It's also easy to say because it's true.

Regardless of what you might see in the movies, real astronauts,
military pilots, test pilots, and experienced commercial pilots--as
well as controllers--remain virtually emotionless even in very dire
circumstances. That's because they know they can't afford to panic.
There will be time for sweating and throwing up later, if necessary,
but the middle of an emergency is not the time.

People who panic and wail and scream and cry in an emergency make for
good drama, but they don't usually survive to talk about it.

That's one of the most ignorant things I've read yet. Even Chuck Yeager
wrote of how he was sobbing when asked to repeat something while he was
encountering a big problem that he fully expected to end his life within
the next few seconds. Controllers remain emotionless?? Are you kidding
me? I can often hear the pitch go up just when the pattern starts
filling up, let alone when there is a real situation.

[..] The stark terror in her voice is chilling, and
really points out how quickly things can go bad.

I dunno, from her repetition and confusion, she sounded totally to me
like a freight dog who fell asleep, and woke up to the plane doing
something unexpected. Probably missing pitot heat , like the
controller suggested.

Reminded me of that (IFR mag?) story from a controller who noticed the
usual cancelled check flight, continue past his airport late one
night. He kept other aircraft out of his way, alerted center, and
waited to see what would happen. Sure enough, about fifty miles past
his airport, the radar target suddenly wavered, then circled, then
called in sleepily for vectors back to the airport.

Kev

Tony writes:

There's no evidence she paniced. She was scared, that came through
clear enough, but she regained control of the aircraft -- that's
number one, and she communicated -- that's number two. That's what
professionals do.

Her voice sounded a lot more like panic or hysteria than fear.
Compare it to other voice recordings where the pilot is manifestly
terrified, and you can hear a difference.

She may not had read the script the way some would have liked (even on
a good day she's not going to sound like Chuck Yeager) but she
executed her job well. Good on her! I doubt many of us would reject
her from the left seat, especially after the experience she gained
from this flight.

She still didn't seem to have a clue as to what went wrong at the end
of the incident. I think she only survived because the ice melted.

--
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Owen Rogers writes:

That's one of the most ignorant things I've read yet. Even Chuck Yeager
wrote of how he was sobbing when asked to repeat something while he was
encountering a big problem that he fully expected to end his life within
the next few seconds. Controllers remain emotionless?? Are you kidding
me? I can often hear the pitch go up just when the pattern starts
filling up, let alone when there is a real situation.

The fact remains, the calmer you can keep yourself, the safer you'll
be.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

Mxsmanic wrote:

Dan writes:

I suppose hindsight is 20/20, but her comments of "I just dropped at
2000 feet per minute with uncommnaded rolls.... I have no idea what
happened..... let's continue 2.5 hours to Bangor" don't really seem to
make much sense to me.

If a plane did that and I didn't have any idea why, I'd lean towards
getting it on the ground ASAP.

I suppose at some point, she must have realized that the ice was
coming off...

It's not clear that she ever even thinks about ice;

You must have an amazing talent to know what someone might be "thinking"
about.


I don't recall her
ever mentioning it. Only ATC talks about that.

So what? If I picked up some ice, I'm not sure I would be talking about it
either.