"Mike" nospam@ microsoft.com wrote in
:

"Ricky" wrote in message
news:9b9ea44b-afaf-4864-8d3d-8e19039e8377
@v72g2000hsv.googlegroups.com.
..

You are flying a high performance single recip. about two hours south
to an airshow you really, really want to go to. In fact, this airshow
is an annual thing you haven't missed in years.
You are not yet instrument rated but about halfway through the
training for commercial & instrument.

The enroute forecast is for heavy fog 20 miles south of your
departure airport to about 30 miles north of your destination. The
fog layer top is consistently 100-200 ft agl the whole way. Ceiling
is nil and visibility is 1/4 mile at best in the fog. Above the fog
it is clear blue with light winds the whole way. Destination is
excellent VFR. Conditions are forecast to remain this way for the
duration of your flight. Fog will be gone later in the morning but
the destination airport will be closed for the airshow by then. To
make it to the airshow in time you must fly over the fog for about an
hour & 45 minutes (most of the way). The fog layer stretches 100
miles or more both sides of your intended route, flying around it is
unreasonable and would compromise your fuel supply.

Go or No-Go?

What if it was something more important like a business meeting or a
critically ill close relative who may die within hours? How about two
engines instead of one?

Go or No-Go?

Ricky

The reason for the flight is irrelevant.

Personally I have never seen a 200 mile wide section of fog over dry
land where conditions were constant over the entire area, but even if
such conditions were possible the answer wouldn't be much different
than if were a body of water and you had no water survival gear. If
you feel comfortable flying a single engine plane over such a stretch,
then go for it. Lots of people do.


I've seen this a good few times and have actually flown over it VFR to
the end. In a Chief, in fact. We had a way out, but were screwed in the
event of an engine failure, of course.

I don't think I'd do it now...


Bertie