Mooney "Scaped by" scud running

[201er]

Noticed this in a back issue of ASRS Callback. http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/docs/cb/cb_422.pdf

 

Scud running is a very dangerous practice that all too often leads to inadvertent ight into IMC. After ducking under the clouds, this M20 pilot did manage to “scrape by,” but only by a matter of inches.

There are no explicit lessons offered by the reporter, but the narrative speaks for itself.

nWhile on a VFR ight, I decreased altitude to maintain visual conditions and inadvertently lost visual contact with the ground momentarily as I entered a low cloud. I brushed the left wing on a tree top before I was able to ascend and enter visual conditions. I returned back to ZZZ and landed uneventfully.

Once back in my hangar, I noticed a few dents on the bottom side of the left outboard section of the wing and a slight bend in one prop blade. There was no damage to any other property or injury to any others and no injury to me. The incident occurred in a remote location. 

[Hank]

!!!! Dented wing and bent prop tip??? He's lucky to be alive . . . . .

[glafaille]

I hope he ran out to buy a lottery ticket AFTER changing his britches!

[flyboy0681]

More importantly, did he report it to his insurance company or try to keep it hush-hush.

[aviatoreb]

I read that previously - amazingly close call - down to inches.

There is a story last month in one of the several magazines I subscribe to - I forgot which one - of a fellow who hits a corn stalk thinger with his airplane and the engine shutters for a moment but then continues - talk about low flying.  So he flies on and then the engine fails on the very next flight because it turns out it was a prop strike that crack the cam.  Luckily it is one of those I learned from stories and this is a fellow telling of a story he survived from.

[FloridaMan]

 

[FloridaMan]

 

[FloridaMan]

To add, I would bet that there is a broken treetop somewhere if there is that kind of damage to the airplane. When I put mine down in a terraced runoff field with tall thick weeds and briars and touched down fast around 80-90 mph there was not a single dent on my airframe. 

[Mooneymite]

 

".... and a slight bend in one prop blade"

What I want to know is how does one determine a "slight bend" in a prop blade!!!! 

 

 

 

[Mooneymite]

3 hours ago, Hyett6420 said:

 So why oh why oh why does anyone scud run....

Intentional scud running is, of course, inexcuseable.  However, I think in many cases people get duped into it.  Weather can be very unpredictable and sometimes the line between VMC and IMC can be very hard to determine even for an experienced pilot.

I know a pilot with a ton of hours....(not me, of course!), who was on an instrument clearance and called field in sight in marginal VFR conditions.  ATC happily dumped him out of the system.  However it wasn't very long until said pilot discovered that his "field" in sight was exactly that....a field with the runway nowhere in sight.  Was that intentional scud running?  Could it have lead to an accident?  Sure!  How could such a thing happen to an experienced pilot?

Anyone who flies long enough is going to get fooled once in awhile.  The trick to to have a plan B to extricate one's self from the scud.

Yep....scud happens.

Edited March 29, 2016 by Mooneymite

[N201MKTurbo]

My plane has new skin on the outboard right wing. When I bough the plane I asked the seller what happened to the wing. He said that he was on approach to some airport at night and hit a tree! He said it made about a six inch deep indentation in the wing. He went missed after hitting the tree and flew 2 hours home.

I think it is good he sold the plane...