3 lives lost

"Colin W Kingsbury" wrote in message
ink.net...

wrote in message
oups.com...

...in that you have pilots who have displayed good decisionmaking for
perhaps decades, and
one day take off, VFR, into 1/4mi viz.


Did you read the story? She did not take off in IMC, vis was 4sm at takeoff.

Nobody,

Come on. It was *reported* to be 4sm vis. In fact, the aircraft was
airborne for 60 seconds. The reported ceiling was 500 overcast. The
crash was heard, but not seen, from a hangar a qtr mile away.

She took off into conditions that were entirely visibile to a casual
observer. That the weather report says the conditions are 4 sm does
not absolve the PIC from looking out the window.

She did not maintain conservative safety margins; and her emergency IFR
skills we inadequate.

Please get this. It was not an 'act of God.' This was entirely
preventable.

Gene

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

"nobody" wrote in message
...

Did you read the story? She did not take off in IMC, vis was 4sm at
takeoff.

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

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.

Well, you've obviously never lived near a coast of had warm moist air
move over snow. I've had my house go from sunshine to completely fogged
in within this amount of time, and I live on top of a hill nowhere's
near water. Snow can cause fog very quickly under the right conditions.

I personally think the pilot should have seen this coming, however, it
is amazing how fast conditions can change. Even so, usually the
conditions that might cause these changes can be known in advance, which
I'm assuming is your fundamental point - and with that I agree.


Matt

On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 17:32:53 GMT, 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.

Colin,

Having lived in the area for 4 years before I moved to MS, it does happen.

I have seen the fog rolling in no time flat due to warm frontal passages.

Please keep in mind the the ground had a 12 to 18 inch snow pack, and with
warm air advecting into the area, you get some incredible fog formations in
the North Central Ohio area with this combination of weather.

The closest reporting airport is MFD (Mansfield), and the second closest
airport is MNN (Marion). I have seen it raining at both airports and
snowing at 4I9. The distance from each airport is rather small for such
diverse weather conditions.

I personally thought that 4 mile viz and snow cover is not condusive of any
sight seeing anyway, thus I would have question the decision to launch FOR
SIGHT SEEING PURPOSES. There would have been no visible horizon with that
kind of visibility and snow cover once you left pattern altitude.

But, since I wasn't there, Monday night quarterbacking is only speculative.

Allen