WAS: How safe is it, really?

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


Andrew Gideon wrote:

That statement was made during an ASF presentation I attended a while
ago.
It puzzled me. Why would a IR pilot fly VFR into IMC?

I'm not sure myself, but I do remember an incident that was presented in a
safety videotape. The pilot involved intended an IFR flight from
Frederick, MD
to the west. She was delayed in a business meeting and discovered when she
got
to the airport that her flight plan had expired. Rather than file a new
one, she
took off VFR under low ceilings intending to file in the air.

Frederick is under the control of the Baltimore ATC. The ground rises to
the
west. Baltimore wouldn't clear her until they could pick her up on radar,
and
you have to get pretty high for them to do that in that area. While trying
to
get clearance and climbing to avoid terrain, the windshield went opaque.

She came out of the clouds in a spiral at over a 70 degree bank, recovered
a few
hundred feet above the ground, and returned to Frederick to file a flight
plan.


She had originally filed a IFR flight pan, but lost control in the clouds?
Certainly the flight plan was a small part of the problem.


--
Matt
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO