How not to respond to IMC

Anyone who has not faced a situation where they genuinely thought they were going to die should NOT judge him. It's very easy to judge from behind the safety of your keyboard, those of you who have made fun of him.

I don't what is worse, facing what you believe is certain death or having a cohort of keyboard warriors judge you because you've had the misfortunate of having your mishap recorded and posted for all the see on the internet.
 
am i the only one that likes IMC better than VMC? seeing the lead in lights at the DA is the most awesome sight
 
BobThePilot said:
Anyone who has not faced a situation where they genuinely thought they were going to die should NOT judge him. It's very easy to judge from behind the safety of your keyboard, those of you who have made fun of him.

I don't what is worse, facing what you believe is certain death or having a cohort of keyboard warriors judge you because you've had the misfortunate of having your mishap recorded and posted for all the see on the internet.
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I used to almost die on a weekly basis, that pilot sucks. No excuse for it, he lived to toughen or change his ways and that is good, but it doesn't exonerate his behavior.
 
hazelmurphy said:
When you say Great Lakes do you mean all of them or..... :)

I live in Richmond, VA right now but am moving back to Cleveland next year, so I'm probably going to end up doing most of my training out of 15G, but starting at FCI down here.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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15G - that's my airport! PM me when you get down here. And yes, the weather is strange below and across Lake Erie too. You'll find that there is often a different weather system south of 15G vs north of it due to the effect of the lake on the atmosphere.
 
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jordane93 said:
am i the only one that likes IMC better than VMC? seeing the lead in lights at the DA is the most awesome sight
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You need to get out more. I can think of about 10,567,893 sights I would deem as more awesome.
 
ClimbnSink said:
I used to almost die on a weekly basis, that pilot sucks. No excuse for it, he lived to toughen or change his ways and that is good, but it doesn't exonerate his behavior.
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I almost die on a weekly basis too. Big deal. It's called "living in a large city".

We are so impressed.

:lol:

Big difference between almost dying (in your mind) and fully believing you are in fact in the process of dying.

Yes, his piloting skills and panic leave a lot to be desired, just saying have some compassion man! You may one day make a mistake too and just hope it is not being recorded.
 
BobThePilot said:
I almost die on a weekly basis too. Big deal. It's called "living in a large city".

We are so impressed.

:lol:

Big difference between almost dying (in your mind) and fully believing you are in fact in the process of dying.

Yes, his piloting skills and panic leave a lot to be desired, just saying have some compassion man! You may one day make a mistake too and just hope it is not being recorded.
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Compassion for pussitude is why our empire is crumbling. I will give no slack and expect none.
 
jordane93 said:
am i the only one that likes IMC better than VMC? seeing the lead in lights at the DA is the most awesome sight
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For me, it depends on what I'm in the mood for, although in general, I find that a well executed flight is a source of satisfaction whatever the weather conditions are.
 
Is this real? Wasn't there something similar to this posted previously that turned out to be from some online ATC sim?
 
There must be a better word than "pussitude", although I know what you mean.

I flew with women in the navy that could handle any emergency without screaming.
 
azure said:
It's pretty disorienting. Your inner ear is constantly lying to you, telling you you're straight and level when you're not, or in a turn when you're straight and level. I don't think it's particularly difficult to maintain straight and level on instruments, but it does take a bit of practice, and a bit more to maintain control in IMC during turns, climbs, etc. It's not rocket science though, and I think any competent private pilot can learn to do it well enough to not kill themselves on inadvertently entering IMC. I suspect that many do so without any formal training beyond the required 3 hours. Learning to fly IFR is a whole other ball game, and much more than you need to be able to survive an unintentional IMC encounter.

Panic is your worst enemy, as I think this clip serves as exhibit one. I don't think "90 seconds to live" is a particularly helpful idea to pound into VFR pilots' heads. Once this pilot got past the panic, he was able to keep control of the airplane. So no, Greg, I disagree strongly that this guy "failed" as a pilot, and the stuff about not being a "man"... sheesh, the guy was beyond scared and yet he managed to keep it together and not kill himself. I'd be a little more critical of him for going right back out the same day, but then again, we don't know that the conditions hadn't improved in the meantime. If they did, I'll give him 10 points for getting right back on the horse.

(If not, he's a candidate for the Darwin award, but I prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt.)
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I agree with the statement(s) above.

I had a VFR into IMC incident at night on a long XC, heading home. It's taken me a little more than a year to publicly admit it.

I didn't panic (much) and I had complete control over the airplane; the only thing that seemed risky to me was the possibility of a midair while IMC.

I had the (mis)fortune to get into this IMC during a frequency change and was on Flight Following at the time, and I could not raise ATC to tell them I was inadvertent IMC.

I think the default 180 advice given to PPLs is poor advice. Analyze the situation and determine BEST out. Mine was down; couple hundred feet is all it took.

God as my witness, during the encounter I was concerned about what the PoA peanut gang would say to criticize how dumb, stupid, used poor judgement, planning, etc. I later ran my Monday-morning quarterback session past 4 experts and none of them thought I did anything "wrong" per se, but one did think I flew through a front and it caught me unaware.
 
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Jaybird180 said:
I think the default 180 advice given to PPLs is poor advice. Analyze the situation and determine BEST out. Mine was down; couple hundred feet is all it took.
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As it was when I had an encounter with IMC, about 3 years before I started my IR training. I was in an area where a right 180 would have taken me further into the clag, and a left 180 would have put me in a hot R-area. I was on A/P, a really nice A/P BTW with altitude preselect, so I just set it up to descend 500 feet, and I was out in the clear again.

I was still shaking in my seat when I landed 10 minutes later though. I was in an unfamiliar part of the state, and conditions had gone from good VFR to very marginal in the space of 5 miles... totally unforecast. Did I manage to stay legal VFR for the rest of the flight? Let's just say that those last 15 miles were the first and last time I did any serious scud running. Running into someone coming out of those clouds (or a tower) was indeed in the forefront of my mind.

God as my witness, during the encounter I was concerned about what the PoA peanut gang would say to criticize how dumb, stupid, used poor judgement, planning, etc. I later ran my Monday-morning quarterback session past 4 experts and none of them thought I did anything "wrong" per se, but one did think I flew through a front and it caught me unaware.
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Sometimes Mother Nature will make a liar out of the best weather forecasters. Unless you're VERY conservative and leave yourself 3-4 outs at every point along the way, a time will come when you run into IMC. It's a lot better to have the skills to get out of it safely than to live in mortal fear of it. I think "90 seconds to live" promotes panic when what VFR pilots really need is instrument training.
 
Jaybird180 said:
God as my witness, during the encounter I was concerned about what the PoA peanut gang would say to criticize how dumb, stupid, used poor judgement, planning, etc. I later ran my Monday-morning quarterback session past 4 experts and none of them thought I did anything "wrong" per se, but one did think I flew through a front and it caught me unaware.
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I have found that it is easy to inadvertently enter clouds at night, because they can be hard to see.
 
0luke1 said:
There must be a better word than "pussitude", although I know what you mean.

I flew with women in the navy that could handle any emergency without screaming.
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My son calls it the 'vagination' of America. :lol:
 
thats a wild video! and anyone making fun of him for screaming is not really that bright.. the guy is freaking out he should be yelling.
 
marcoseddi said:
thats a wild video! and anyone making fun of him for screaming is not really that bright.. the guy is freaking out he should be yelling.
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Why should he be yelling? Is yelling in the PTS? Maybe the AIM?
 
We all react differently to fear.

This pilot reached out, was helped and lived - a great result - I'd rather be considered an 'alive coward' than a 'dead hero', period, frankw.
 
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