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What's the worst IMC experience you've encountered


M016576

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Interesting stories. I always try to avoid bad weather and keep my plane in good condition. In the event of a total power failure I resort to my smartphone with GPS and Garmin Pilot. But even if I loose my only generator I will still have enough juice on my M20J battery to drive the G530W to a safe landing. I know this because I lost an alternator due to a prop lightning strike. I switched off all essential equipment and after 3hrs overwater I was able to extend the gear with the battery. 

Lightning can be very annoying on prop planes. The prop and the antennas can act as lightning rods. This why airliner antennas are DC grounded. Besides reducing the radio static noise at high speeds it keeps the COMs from getting fried by lightning. 

José

Edited by Piloto
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Ok. I'll start this one with "I was young and stupid" but I really was. Twenty three with a fresh PPL, full of hormones, and a girlfriend that had just moved two states north. That was all the excuse I needed to rent a warrior and fly from Miami, Fl to Knoxville, TN with my buddy (a student pilot) to go see this girl. The plan was to depart at sunrise but that quickly went down the drain due to low ceilings which did not clear until around noon. Nevertheless, we took off when the skies cleared and off we went. The flight to Knoxville went pretty well other than a somewhat lengthy discussion with FSS near Bacon Georgia. No...that was not a typo...that is what my sectional said and even though FSS insisted I was south of Macon he was clearly confused and now had me confused as well. Although I had never been out of the state of Florida at that point I could certainly read!! Well...after figuring out that my well worn sectional actually said Macon I was ready to end this conversation but the gentleman at FSS, now very irritated, took the initiative and said "Oh, and by the way, your girlfriend in Tennessee wants to know where the hell you are." After considerable silence, as I tried my best to process how in the world she managed to reach FSS to relay her concerns, I decided right then on two things. 1) I would land soon to refuel and call her before she called the president of the United States and 2) I would marry this girl (27 years now and she can still track me like a bloodhound).

The flight back from Knoxville is when things started to fall apart. Again, a very late departure due to weather meant that we would now be arriving well after sunset. Just south of "Macon" it was pitch black and we started to go in and out of clouds. Soon it was clear we were in IMC and I needed to fly the instruments. For some reason my old instructor spent a lot of time practicing instruments with me. Perhaps recognizing that I was "young and stupid" he decided that a few extra lessons on the gages might just save my life one day and it did!! We were now in full IMC and I was concentrating 100% in keeping straight and level. A couple of times it began to get away from me but I kept calm and got it back under control. A healthy dose of fear kept me focused like never before.

I could not spare a single brain cell to do anything but fly the airplane so I tasked my buddy with navigating us to the closest airport. He decided that Lake City in north Florida would be our stop and worked the NAV radio to get us there (no GPS/LORAN just VOR). It was some of the most intense flying I had ever done and more than once I thought this is how poor judgement kills pilots. Eventually, just north of Lake City we broke out at 1200 feet and could see an airport beacon in the distance. I called the tower and got cleared to land in runway 10 (I think it was still 10 back then). I turned the landing light on and was asked to report mid field on the downwind. When I did tower said they could not see me but to continue. No worries, I though for sure when I turned final they would see me. They did not and on short final was told to go around. I was also then advised that I might be at the wrong airport. My buddy insisted we were not but he was just a student pilot and for all I knew we could be anywhere in Georgia/Florida (the fact that if I was somewhere else the tower would likely not be talking to me on the Lake City frequency was something that I could not process at the time) . Now that we were out of the clouds I tried to triangulate my position from two VORs but could only receive one because I was too low I think and could not risk going back into the clouds looking for better reception. I called Jacksonville center for help but they too could not hear me. I then tracked the outbound radial from the one VOR I could receive towards Lake City airport and the airport appeared right were it should be. It was only then that I was somewhat confident we were right over the airport. I called tower again and told them we were landing and again they tried to wave me off on short final. At that point I was completely spent mentally and physically and adviced tower that I was landing anyway. We taxied to the FBO only to find everything was closed, including the tower. We could not find a single person at the airport. In fact when I later checked the airport facility directory the tower was closed on Sundays. This had all been a sick joke by someone with a radio. My buddy and I slept in the airplane and nearly froze to death but were glad we were alive.

That was nearly 30 years ago and I still remember every single mistake in a very long chain of stupid mistakes that nearly cost me and my friends life. Learned a lot and best of all I did marry that girl and my buddy is still my best friend.

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Thank you guys for openly sharing your experience...

I'd also like to thank ATC for sending me toward an oncoming hurricane while I was specificly leaving town trying to get away from it.  Really heavy rain...

My other crappy experience gave me the excuse to buy the SkyRadar.  It went from good idea, to must have, because an iPad traversed from the lap to the ceiling on its own.., flying in Georgia the week before a tornado visited SnF.

best regards,

-a-

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I don't have any horror stories but am reading each story intently. Using your unfortunate experiences as a learning aid could save me from the same fate somewhere down the road.

that's what this thread is all about- thanks for reading and hopefully we all get a little smarter...

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Ok, I'll chime in... Sitting in row 31C on a B737-800 with nothing to do other than watching the other sardines in this can.

September 1993. I had gotten my instrument ticket a year earlier. I was still flying conservative personal minimums as I was gaining experience. I had a business trip that was to take me from my airport just outside Rochester to Wilmington, DE. The flight down was great. Departed VFR, was in the clouds for about half of the trip down and shot the ILS to 800'.

At the end of the week, I was scheduled to leave Friday morning but woke up to 400' ceilings with 1 mile visibility. The forecast showed improving weather for later in the day. I waited it out and found that the weather actually was getting worse. Since I had personal minimums and I am a man of conviction, I debated for a while on what could go wrong and decided to stay the night. Not an easy feat since the NASCAR race was in Dover and all of the hotels were booked and I had checked out of my hotel. I found that the Quality Inn on the field had one last roach infested room available. Me and the roaches shared a wonderful evening. Me eating a stale bagel and them the crumbs that hit the floor. I digress...

Next morning, I call Flight Service and was promptly told that the current weather at KILG was 200' with 1 mile visibility. Again improving conditions forecasted. I waited at the hotel to check out time and then waved "good bye" to the roaches and walked over to the FBO. There I met a Piper Arrow driver dealing with the same weather. We were monitoring the ATIS and soon as it hit 400' and 2 miles he was out of there. I asked him to give me a tops report on 122.75. And off he went...

A few minutes later he called me on my handheld and told me the tops were 6000' and clear above. Since I knew Elmira north was VFR, I just needed to hit my personal min of 500' and 1 mile. About 30 minutes later, bingo, it's a go... As I departed the FBO looking at all the VFR pilots watching a REAL pilot plan to depart, I thought to myself this is why I got the rating.

As soon as I closed the door to the plane it started to rain lightly. I picked up my clearance and taxi instructions to runway 32. As I was taxiing, ground came on and told me that the "current Wilmington weather, Sky partially obscured 200' with half mile visibility, what are your intentions?"

I decided, like a fool, that at some point personal mins needed to be raised and why not today? I confidently tell the ground controller, I'm good to go. On tower, they repeat the weather and ask if I am still planning on departing. For some reason the word "departing" still sticks with me today. I tell tower, I'm ready for take-off, not departure and was given the take-off clearance.

So, there I am pounding down runway 32, in the rain, hitting puddles, throwing up splashes. Years later, that scene got played out again when I watched the movie "The Spirit of St. Louis" with Jimmy Stewart. No sooner than I clear the runway I was in solid IMC. I cleaned up the plane, got handed off to departure and for that brief moment felt like I had grown immensely.

As I was climbing, the tops were as reported by the Piper driver and there I was at 8000' feet in the clear with low IMC below me. As I plugged away the miles, I began to fly over to what I refer to as the Bermuda Triangle of the North (the area between Elmira, Williamsport and Jamestown). About half way to Elmira from Williamsport, I noticed the GEM started showing an oscillation of the #2 exhaust temp. I watched it for a bit and saw that it was just bouncing back and forth. Probably a probe, I thought.

30 seconds later, I'm riding a Harley flathead. I look down at the GEM, there is no #2 exhaust temp. All I saw was an inverted color bar that showed the cylinder temp. Other than the loud noise, I didn't feel any vibration and concluded that something happened to that exhaust pipe. Of course, being a little slow on the uptake, I didn't initially realized that without an exhaust pipe on that cylinder, I am spewing raw hot exhaust into the cowl. I am proud that I didn't panic but I knew I could be in trouble. I called up Elmira and explained the issue. He tells me to "fly heading 270, vectors to the Grand Canyon". It didn't help that he was stuttering when he said it. I asked him for the 3 letter identifier so I could plug it into my portable GPS. He starts mumbling and is having trouble telling me. Some nice Baron pilot gets on the frequency, tells me he just departed the Grand Canyon airport, tells me the 3 letter identifier and tells me the weather conditions (900' ceilings & 5 mile vis). I plug the identifier in and tell the controller that I want to stay at altitude in case I lose power. When I am within gliding distance, I pull power and listen to a series of loud pops and backfire sounds. Hitting 900', I pop out to see this wonderful SHORT runway in front of me. I land and get guided up this road by a guy. He indicates for me to stop and not even before I am getting out, he already pulling the cowling. $27 and an hour later, I learned a whole bunch about flying single engine planes over low IMC...

There... I told my story. I feel better...

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Chris, what had happened to the engine? 

As you know, the exhaust risers are held on each cylinder with two nuts attached to the two studs coming out of the cylinder. One of the two nuts was over tightened which resulted in a stud cracking. What I saw with the GEM was the fluctuating exhaust temp as the remaining nut was starting to vibrate off of the stud.

When the second nut came off, the exhaust riser fell into the cowling with the probe wiring still attached. The GEM automatically inverts the color band from orange for the exhaust temperature with a blank for the CHT when it loses the exhaust temp. This way you can still see the cylinder temp.

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I don't really have a horror IMC story, but I was on my way to my hangar before my last engine issue. I took a look at the weather report one last time. It was essentially CAVU at my departure point and my destination, about 300nm. It was also 0/0 in between. I said screw this and I drove on "instruments" from Omaha to Fargo. Basically could barely see the hood of my truck. Guess what, next fight, against to Fargo, this time in fairly high IMC, my windshield gets covered in oil. Better lucky than good, I guess. I will not fly low IMC in any single (piston or turboprop, or for that matter jet) or any twin that will not maintain MEA. Quite frankly getting to a point in life, where if it ain't Boeing, I ain't going...

Edited by AndyFromCB
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I don't really have a horror IMC story, but I was on my way to my hangar before my last engine issue. I took a look at the weather report one last time. It was essentially CAVU at my departure point and my destination, about 300nm. It was also 0/0 in between. I said screw this and I drove on "instruments" from Omaha to Fargo. Basically could barely see the hood of my truck. Guess what, next fight, against to Fargo, this time in fairly high IMC, my windshield gets covered in oil. Better lucky than good, I guess. I will not fly low IMC in any single (piston or turboprop, or for that matter jet) or any twin that will not maintain MEA. Quite frankly getting to a point in life, where if it ain't Boeing, I ain't going...

Sure hope you don't get run over by a beer truck while driving the USA in your Chevrolet. 

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Sure hope you don't get run over by a beer truck while driving the USA in your Chevrolet. 

You would not catch me dead driving American junk ;-) And I really meant when it comes to scheduled flights. I feel much safer on airlines or corporate flights in a King Air/Citation when I have a schedule to meet. Or driving. I have been working 90 hour weeks for a while now, trust me, you do not want me in the air in anything less than CAVU. Maybe I'll go flying this weekend. But then, I'm a wuss. 

Edited by AndyFromCB
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You would not catch me dead driving American junk ;-) And I really meant when it comes to scheduled flights. I feel much safer on airlines or corporate flights in a King Air/Citation when I have a schedule to meet. Or driving. I have been working 90 hour weeks for a while now, trust me, you do not want me in the air in anything less than CAVU. Maybe I'll go flying this weekend. But then, I'm a wuss. 

Holly cow man... I used to work 55-60hr weeks plus a 1hr commute round trip; I thought that was excessive.  So are you doing 5 18s, 6 15s or 7 13s?  Either way, I hope you get to retire soon!

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You would not catch me dead driving American junk ;-) And I really meant when it comes to scheduled flights. I feel much safer on airlines or corporate flights in a King Air/Citation when I have a schedule to meet. Or driving. I have been working 90 hour weeks for a while now, trust me, you do not want me in the air in anything less than CAVU. Maybe I'll go flying this weekend. But then, I'm a wuss. 

I feel for you! Last year was mostly 60+/week, with very little flying, mostly some out-and-about flights to de stress and remind myself that I can do this. New year, new job, better hours, I'm enjoying life again! But what's the point if having a license and a plane if you only travel on the airlines? Kind of like owning a car but only taking the bus to work or the store . . .

find someone to go with you, drive to the airport and fire up your Mooney. You are suffering what I call "lack of altitude." And no, riding in the back of the Boeing doesn't count, you need to be up front, in control, with the great view, going where you want to go (not where someone else wants to take you).

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