3 lives lost

Colin W Kingsbury wrote:

There is no way visibility goes from adequate VFR to low IMC in less
than
sixty seconds. I'm calling bull**** on this.

It's not usual, but I've had it happen once or twice. Only once did I
get caught in it, and then only for about 5 seconds, but it can happen,
even in daytime. You fly out of BED in MA, IIRC, right? I fly out of
FIT in MA usually, but once at BED I took off, was flying a pattern in
VFR conditions with 6 mile visibility, 1500 ft. ceilings, and just
managed to get down and land before a rainshower came through at about
30 kts and vis. went to .5 miles with a 200 ft ceiling.

The 5 second time was with 1200 ft. ceiling and 4-6 mile vis., and then
I just flew into a cloud, which I THOUGHT I could see through and was
just light rain. Boom - white. I knew that the weather was clear to
the left, made a shallow 90 deg. turn, and popped out 5 seconds later.
Went back to FIT and landed.....

I agree with you that even with 4 mi. vis. and the ceilings reported at
the airport, you've got to wonder what the pilot was thinking, but
weather CAN close in very quickly, especially if you're moving at 100
mph.....

--
Marc J. Zeitlin
http://marc.zeitlin.home.comcast.net/
http://www.cozybuilders.org/
Copyright (c) 2004