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.