Navy plane down in Lake Ponchatrain

I read about that yesterday Steve. Glad the student survived but it stinks that it looks like the instructor did not. Since the navy is investigating does the NTSB as well? Will there be a public NTSB report?

I flew in a T34 on the same day. Fun plane.
 
AdamZ said:
I read about that yesterday Steve. Glad the student survived but it stinks that it looks like the instructor did not. Since the navy is investigating does the NTSB as well? Will there be a public NTSB report?

I flew in a T34 on the same day. Fun plane.
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No NTSB involvement or report.
 
Looked at my handy-dandy JesseWeather plot, looks like ceiling and vis should not have been an issue, a firly brisk crosswind, but nothing that should have been unmanageable. It is a terrible black hole approaching over the water.
 
Doggtyred said:
Oh hell yes... I concur.. Thats one of the places you fly the needles in, even in severe clear at night..
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Hmmm... IFR in VFR conditions at night...?



(BTW -- I agree. Approaches over water at night require vertical guidance or stay high until 4 miles or less from the PAPI)
 
SCCutler said:
Looked at my handy-dandy JesseWeather plot, looks like ceiling and vis should not have been an issue, a firly brisk crosswind, but nothing that should have been unmanageable. It is a terrible black hole approaching over the water.
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Try it to ILS minimums daytime sometime.

I have.

Use every piece of your IFR skills.
 
wsuffa said:
Try it to ILS minimums daytime sometime.

I have.

Use every piece of your IFR skills.
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I can believe that.
As others have stated, it's also often bad when conditions are legally VMC.

The one time I landed there (VFR) it was daytime, on a late summer scattered t-storm kinda day... big hole of clear air over the city, but "gray wall" all around, and low scud over the western half of the lake. I'd barely made it through a gauntlet of weak but low soggy CBs between Picayune and Slidell, and there were some very big boomers rolling in off the gulf. It was warm and humid, as is usually the case there in early September. The surface of the lake was very still due to weak surface winds.

Approaching from the north (following the 3 bridges), if I looked to the right, across the lake, there was no difference at all between gray sky and gray water. I've seen poor horizons before, but this was like a "gray hole".

I was glad I didn't have to turn west until I was over the waterfront.
 
rottydaddy said:
Approaching from the north (following the 3 bridges), if I looked to the right, across the lake, there was no difference at all between gray sky and gray water. I've seen poor horizons before, but this was like a "gray hole".

I was glad I didn't have to turn west until I was over the waterfront.
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Inbound, it was "ground fog" - we saw the lights at 200' AGL, then got the runway. As you say, there was nothing but grey. Just like being in a cloud all the way around.

Outbound, we couldn't see the bizjet that landed to the south at minimums and neither could the tower. We got clearance to depart northbound once the bizjet clear the runway (at which point we saw him as he turned onto the taxiway about 2500' from us). At 1000' we were in the clear.
 
I've had that happen driving on I-55 looking west across Lake Maurepas. Absolutely no horizon. The bridge rail looked like it was in the middle of nothing. Very unsettling even when on the ground.

rottydaddy said:
I can believe that.
As others have stated, it's also often bad when conditions are legally VMC.

.
.
.

Approaching from the north (following the 3 bridges), if I looked to the right, across the lake, there was no difference at all between gray sky and gray water. I've seen poor horizons before, but this was like a "gray hole".

I was glad I didn't have to turn west until I was over the waterfront.
Click to expand...
 
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