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Sunday, March 17. 2019

Flying VFR into IMC - a top KILLER of pilots - My close call!

At least he admits it was a poor decision. (IMC means instrument meteorological conditions.)



Posted by The News Junkie at 17:17 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

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I know of two pilots killed just this way. One, of course , was John Kennedy Jr but the other was a much more intelligent man. Dave Hume was one of the pioneers of transplantation and Chief of Surgery at Medical College of Virginia . I knew him and at one time considered doing training with him. He flew his plane to a meeting in Los Angeles, then discovered a mechanical issue that resulted in him leaving his plane in LA and going home commercial. A few weeks later, he returned to pickup his plane and the conditions were such that VFR was a bad decision. He took off anyway and lost his life.
#1 Mike K (Link) on 2019-03-17 18:01 (Reply)
It's my belief that all private pilots would benefit from getting their Instrument Ratings - or at least getting training on how to fly with reference to instruments only. You just never know when you might need to do so. I was flying VFR over Kentucky once and ran into a cloud of smoke from wildfires in Canada. It kind of crept up on me because I could still (barely) see the ground 9,500' below, but all of a sudden there was no horizon - I was in a big, white cloud. I was in radar contact so I wasn't worried about flying into another aircraft, but I fell back on my Instrument training and used my artificial horizon to keep the wings level.
#2 snopercod on 2019-03-17 20:56 (Reply)
It takes about two minutes to learn to fly on turn and bank, airspeed and altimeter alone.

The most basic, bare-bone instruments.
#3 rhhardin (Link) on 2019-03-18 09:07 (Reply)
We've been watching the Netflix show "The Horn," about Swiss helicopter medical rescuers near the Matterhorn. They're first-class aggressive helicopter pilots who are desperately motivated to get to rescue sites, so it's impressive to watch them decide coolly when to ground themselves and wait until it's safe to complete a mission. In iffy weather during the busy season, they've had long practice in making these rapid, heartbreaking decisions accurately over and over. Superb professionalism under fire, and somehow they do it without losing their essential humanity.
#4 Texan99 on 2019-03-18 09:58 (Reply)

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