Don't always believe the AWOS...

I got my IR last August and finally got to log my 1st post-checkride actual
approach. All while the airport I was landing at was reporting 10 miles and
clear below 12,000. More like 1,200. All day long this place was reporting
clear skies. All day long it varied between 1,200 and 1,700.

ATC read me the AWOS before I heard it and we were planning a decent to MSA
then a visual landing. The bases were only about 700-800 below me, but I
just couldn't keep visual. I ended up flying a full procedure turn LOC
approach. Bah. Just enough to keep my in the clouds until descending past
the FAF. (and yes, i will be logging that approach g)

Lesson learned? Be prepared. I had already loaded the approach into the GPS
just in case, & had everything ready for it. Also, I'll believe reported
weather when I'm actually in it. Third lesson? Be very familiar with the
equipment in your plane. I was flying a Diamond Star I was recently checked
out it. We had gone through auto pilot usage, and I used it for most of the
flight, but when it was time to make the procedure turn, the plane wasn't
turning. I didn't have something set. I think I forgot to switch the 530
from GPS mode to VLOC once I activated the approach. Shoot I can't remember
if I even hit APR on the autopilot now that I think of it. I ended up hand
flying the approach.

Cool experience. Very rare to get such benign IMC to learn in.

--



PP-ASEL, instrument

"Steven Barnes" wrote in message
m...

I got my IR last August and finally got to log my 1st post-checkride
actual
approach. All while the airport I was landing at was reporting 10 miles
and
clear below 12,000. More like 1,200. All day long this place was reporting
clear skies. All day long it varied between 1,200 and 1,700.

ATC read me the AWOS before I heard it and we were planning a decent to
MSA
then a visual landing. The bases were only about 700-800 below me, but I
just couldn't keep visual. I ended up flying a full procedure turn LOC
approach. Bah. Just enough to keep my in the clouds until descending past
the FAF. (and yes, i will be logging that approach g)

Lesson learned? Be prepared. I had already loaded the approach into the
GPS
just in case, & had everything ready for it. Also, I'll believe reported
weather when I'm actually in it. Third lesson? Be very familiar with the
equipment in your plane. I was flying a Diamond Star I was recently
checked
out it. We had gone through auto pilot usage, and I used it for most of
the
flight, but when it was time to make the procedure turn, the plane wasn't
turning. I didn't have something set. I think I forgot to switch the 530
from GPS mode to VLOC once I activated the approach. Shoot I can't
remember
if I even hit APR on the autopilot now that I think of it. I ended up hand
flying the approach.

Cool experience. Very rare to get such benign IMC to learn in.


What field?

"Steven Barnes" wrote:
I got my IR last August and finally got to log my 1st post-checkride actual
approach. All while the airport I was landing at was reporting 10 miles and
clear below 12,000. More like 1,200. All day long this place was reporting
clear skies. All day long it varied between 1,200 and 1,700.

Yeah, it happens. Nothing, but nothing, beats a set of human eyeballs
in the location right now to report what the weather is doing. I've had
ATC try to sell me a visual when I'm looking at a solid cloud layer
below me. He's sitting in a room with no windows looking at a computer
readout of some automated system, but I'm looking at clouds. Who should
you believe?

ATC read me the AWOS before I heard it and we were planning a decent to MSA
then a visual landing. The bases were only about 700-800 below me, but I
just couldn't keep visual. I ended up flying a full procedure turn LOC
approach. Bah. Just enough to keep my in the clouds until descending past
the FAF. (and yes, i will be logging that approach g)

After you landed, did you give ATC or FSS a pirep? It would have helped
the next guy out. Wouldn't it be nice to be the next guy listening to
the AWOS from 30 miles out and have ATC tell you, "I've got a pirep from
10 minutes ago of 1200 overcast"?

Third lesson? Be very familiar with the
equipment in your plane. I was flying a Diamond Star I was recently checked
out it. We had gone through auto pilot usage, and I used it for most of the
flight, but when it was time to make the procedure turn, the plane wasn't
turning. I didn't have something set. I think I forgot to switch the 530
from GPS mode to VLOC once I activated the approach. Shoot I can't remember
if I even hit APR on the autopilot now that I think of it. I ended up hand
flying the approach.

Most instructors (I'm guilty of this too) try to keep their students
from using "crutches" like GPS and autopilots. The idea is we want to
make sure the basic skills get learned. Unfortunately, this often
results in students not knowing how to use these very useful systems to
their best advantage. Setting up for an approach in IMC is no time to
be trying to figure out how the autopilot works.

"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...

Yeah, it happens. Nothing, but nothing, beats a set of human eyeballs
in the location right now to report what the weather is doing. I've had
ATC try to sell me a visual when I'm looking at a solid cloud layer
below me. He's sitting in a room with no windows looking at a computer
readout of some automated system, but I'm looking at clouds. Who should
you believe?


You should believe your eyes. But you should also understand that it
generally isn't a choice between a set of human eyeballs in the location
right now to report what the weather is doing and an AWOS, it's a choice
between an AWOS and nothing.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Steven Barnes" wrote in message
m...

I got my IR last August and finally got to log my 1st post-checkride
actual
approach. All while the airport I was landing at was reporting 10 miles
and
clear below 12,000. More like 1,200. All day long this place was
reporting
clear skies. All day long it varied between 1,200 and 1,700.
[snip]

What field?



Effingham, IL 1H2
Usually they're pretty good with the AWOS.

I didn't get the chance to file a Pirep, but ATC found out about the clouds
thru me. Although that doesn't help the guy planning a flight. 20 miles to
the north west it was perfectly clear.

"Steven Barnes" wrote in
m:

I got my IR last August and finally got to log my 1st post-checkride
actual approach. All while the airport I was landing at was reporting
10 miles and clear below 12,000. More like 1,200. All day long this
place was reporting clear skies. All day long it varied between 1,200
and 1,700.

I've also seen the ASOS reporting fog, low visibility and low ceilings,
and had the airport in sight 30 miles out, and no problems all the way
in. Automated systems do lie sometimes, but they're better than nothing.

--
Regards,

Stan

Nothing, but nothing, beats a set of human eyeballs
in the location right now to report what the weather is doing.

Human eyeballs can't always be trusted, either. Returning home to a
non-towered field shortly after dark, I was told by Unicom that the
ceiling was 700 feet. But the aircraft just ahead of me reported
breaking out at minimums--200 feet. I, too, broke out at 200 feet.

The observer was at the terminal, half a mile from the end of the
runway.

vince norris

"vincent p. norris" wrote in message
...

Human eyeballs can't always be trusted, either. Returning home to a
non-towered field shortly after dark, I was told by Unicom that the
ceiling was 700 feet. But the aircraft just ahead of me reported
breaking out at minimums--200 feet. I, too, broke out at 200 feet.

The observer was at the terminal, half a mile from the end of the
runway.


Was the "observer" a certified weather observer?

In article ,
vincent p. norris wrote:

Nothing, but nothing, beats a set of human eyeballs
in the location right now to report what the weather is doing.

Human eyeballs can't always be trusted, either. Returning home to a
non-towered field shortly after dark, I was told by Unicom that the
ceiling was 700 feet. But the aircraft just ahead of me reported
breaking out at minimums--200 feet. I, too, broke out at 200 feet.

The observer was at the terminal, half a mile from the end of the
runway.

vince norris

Machines are much better at precise measurements than people. I'm not
sure I could tell the difference between 200 OVC and 700 OVC by eye, and
I'm sure I couldn't between 1000 and 2000.

What humans are much better at is "big picture" observations. No human
is going to think it's overcast when it's clear because he got some bird
**** in his eye. That's the kind of mistake it takes a machine to make.

Most weather ceilings are now determined by machine (a laser
ceilometer), even if it's relayed by a human. The old balloon method
that determined ceilings by how long it took for the balloon to enter
the clouds is only used these days at those sites that don't have a
working ceilometer.

JPH

vincent p. norris wrote:
Nothing, but nothing, beats a set of human eyeballs
in the location right now to report what the weather is doing.


Human eyeballs can't always be trusted, either. Returning home to a
non-towered field shortly after dark, I was told by Unicom that the
ceiling was 700 feet. But the aircraft just ahead of me reported
breaking out at minimums--200 feet. I, too, broke out at 200 feet.

The observer was at the terminal, half a mile from the end of the
runway.

vince norris