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#31
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As a matter of fact, I did make a comment about flying VFR under such
terrible conditions, and her response was: filing IFR wouldn't have made a difference. In essence this is true, since the first error was not having a briefing, the second was continuing her flight into IMC, while the third was failing to turn around immediately. As an aside, during the conversation with the people in the FBO, she said she was a foot and ankle surgeon in the orthopedic department at a prestigious medical school. However, she was unaware that I am on the faculty at a neighboring medical school, and know most of the members of the department where she claimed she practiced. When I named some names, she immediately changed the subject, and didn't appear to know even the most prominent members of the department. I never called her on this, but simply walked away- she was someone that I simply did not want to associate with in any way. While I generally have better things to do, I looked up the faculty on the net, and as it turned out she was not an orthopedic surgeon as I suspected, but in fact was a podiatrist at a suburban hospital that is loosely affiliated with the medical school where she claimed to practice- hardly what she claimed. Prior to this several pilots, instructors, and experienced mechanics tried to bring up how dangerous her actions were, and how lucky she was that she didn't get hurt seriously or killed. She simply didn't get the message, and dismissed all of these comments. All of us have probably been guilty of some macho bravado at times, but this was the worst case of this that I had ever seen. It was either total bluster, or an example of being completely clueless. Regardless, this attitude, along with getting caught grossly exaggerating her job, gave me a lot of bad vibes. Several of us walked away rather than hang around listening to her conversation and encouraging her behavior. Hopefully she will hook up with someone who can give her some advice that she will follow and potentially save her life. |
#32
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"Viperdoc" wrote in message
... [...] Hopefully she will hook up with someone who can give her some advice that she will follow and potentially save her life. She doesn't sound like the kind of person aviation needs or should protect. Why not just report her flying to your local FSDO? This is exactly the sort of "bad apple" person that gives the rest of us a bad name. She's not doing any of us any favors with her attitude, and I don't see why anyone would do her any favors by not turning her in. Pete |
#33
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How times have changed.
There is a fine line between utter and complete devotion to duty, and insanity. During wartime her behavior was elevated to the status of "courageous" -- but in peacetime it's just plain nuts. -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
#34
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Viperdoc wrote: As a matter of fact, I did make a comment about flying VFR under such terrible conditions, and her response was: filing IFR wouldn't have made a difference. While I agree with Peter's suggestion to get the FAA involved, I expect I would have behaved much the same way that you did. You do what you can. George Patterson I childproofed my house, but they *still* get in. |
#35
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"Frode Berg" wrote in message ... Then the million dollar question: Did he get rich? He was already rich. Surely he didn't win a lawsuit for this??? I don't know. I knew he had crashed his Bonanza, but I never heard of any lawsuit out of it. |
#36
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It's become quite acceptable (and even *strongly suggested*) that keys are taken away from someone who's impaired by alcohol Taken by whom? This is a slippery slope, especially in aviation. Letting others stop you because they think you're inadequate to the task (whether by virtue of being drunk, stupid, inexperienced for the conditions, whatever) erodes the basic tenets of self-responsibility, which is one of the big differences between aviation and driving. I wouldn't want that to happen. Jose -- (for Email, make the obvious changes in my address) |
#37
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"Viperdoc" wrote in message ...
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. In this case gravity will win sooner then later. Did ya get an N number off the Bonanza??? |
#38
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"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message ...
Viperdoc wrote: As a matter of fact, I did make a comment about flying VFR under such terrible conditions, and her response was: filing IFR wouldn't have made a difference. While I agree with Peter's suggestion to get the FAA involved, I expect I would have behaved much the same way that you did. You do what you can. George Patterson I childproofed my house, but they *still* get in. Lol! Well, sometimes being under a squall line is better than filing IFR and getting a high altitude, penatrating cells with large vertical development, and picking up ice. (I bet her Naner doesn't have radar or stormscope.) None of us were there in the cockpit with this lady, Doc, so I'm reluctant to encourge this witchhunt by what appear to be comments by low-time private pilots on this NG. I went through this phase of scudrunning many years ago, and fortunately survived. The rationalization that: "I've got plenty of fuel, so I can always ask for a pop up clearance if it gets too bad" sounds like a common 500-hr pilot attitude that seems reasonable until something bad happens like you hit a tree branch or spot some rocks in the clouds or realize, as in my case, that I flew under new high voltage lines that were obscured in the fog (about a month later a 182 on the same river hit them breaking the neck of the pilot and seriously injuring his passenger.) That was my wake up call. I realized those wires were meant for me. I don't know Viperdoc, you were the one who spoke with this lady... My guess is her close call hasn't sunk in yet. Any chance you could get an instructor at her field to go talk to her? Or if that's too much trouble, contact her directly since you both work in the same profession. Suspect she might listen to a senior M.D.like you. Getting the FAA involved should be the last step. Regards, pacplyer |
#39
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If you would not cut in my post to the point that it changes the ,meaning of
what I wrote, other people that don't read the whole thread won't get the impression that I'm an ignorant ***... :-) This is excactly what I wrote, but off course deleting the rest of my sentence instead of leaving iot there makes me look like an idiot. Thanks, Frode "Newps" skrev i melding ... "G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message ... Frode Berg wrote: Sure, someone will get upset, ... So what? Do you know this person? What do you care what she thinks about you? Exactly. There's a guy in the MSP area who got a vacation from flying because I turned his sorry ass in to the local FSDO in the Twin Cities. He was flying over a lake at about 100 feet AGL over the top of boats and peoples houses on the lake. 5 times. |
#40
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"G.R. Patterson III" wrote: .. Since I'm not instrument rated, I would probably be able In this weather? No way man! (see what I mean above...?) hehe. Frode |
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