Setting Personal Minimums

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Apache123

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Hey, Steve!
Friday I have a trip from Waukegan down along the shoreline towards gary, then to Fort Wayne Indiana. I've set some personal minimums at 2500' ceilings and 5mi visibility. What are you guys thoughts on snow? I'm a VFR pilot, and I know that rain can recuce visibility to zero pretty quick, but snow? I'm not so much familiar with it in flight.

If reported visibility is 6mi with light or moderate snow, should that be a no-go (i.e. will light or moderate snow impact visibility that much off of the reported)?

Being VFR I figured I'd ask in here.
 
Apache123 said:
Friday I have a trip from Waukegan down along the shoreline towards gary, then to Fort Wayne Indiana. I've set some personal minimums at 2500' ceilings and 5mi visibility. What are you guys thoughts on snow? I'm a VFR pilot, and I know that rain can recuce visibility to zero pretty quick, but snow? I'm not so much familiar with it in flight.

If reported visibility is 6mi with light or moderate snow, should that be a no-go (i.e. will light or moderate snow impact visibility that much off of the reported)?

Being VFR I figured I'd ask in here.
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I think that snow impacts visibility as much as rain, if not more at some times. Just think about what it's like when you look outside your window and it's snowing.
 
The couple times I've found myself in snow it's looked more like haze than rain. So if you'd be comfortable (or at least willing to try) 6 miles in haze, I should think that you would be alright with 6 miles in snow. It may be heavier in localized areas, but much like rain you can see where those localized areas are and stay out of them.

The bigger concern would be having the icing discussion. It may still be doable, but you'd want to know exactly why it's doable before launching into it.
 
Yes, snow can be as bad and worse than rain. IMO, it's worse to try to fly into VFR because it's usually harder to see just how bad it is inside - It may be okay at first, but as you fly into it, it can get worse in a manner that you can't see it coming until you're in it.

In addition, while I don't have many personal minimums that are hard and fast because as Ron likes to say, "It's all situations," I do not fly down the Chicago lakeshore without known good VFR conditions. You just don't have too many options between PWK and GYY if the weather goes south. Let's say you're a mile and a half north of downtown and the visibility drops to less than a mile. Where do you go? Left puts you over the lake which can be bad even in good visibility VFR, right puts you in the midst of some very tall buildings and towards ORD, up puts you in potentially worse weather with airliners flying over, and down, well, you're already about as low as you can go.

So - Save the lake shore flights for good days! :yes:
 
Snow is not going to be a big deal at all unless it gets heavy. If it gets really heavy vis can get quite low. Just do your research and get a good feeling for the vis along your route and you'll be ok.
 
Apache123 said:
Friday I have a trip from Waukegan down along the shoreline towards gary, then to Fort Wayne Indiana. I've set some personal minimums at 2500' ceilings and 5mi visibility. What are you guys thoughts on snow? I'm a VFR pilot, and I know that rain can recuce visibility to zero pretty quick, but snow? I'm not so much familiar with it in flight.
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We all know that with FAA minimums, one size doesn't fit all. After 36 years of VFR flying, it's obvious to me that the same applies to personal minimums. Every situation is different. I'm comfortable with flying down to FAA minimums if it's daylight and I'm not in the mountains. Still, I wouldn't start a long trip at FAA minimums. I look more at what the chances are that I could get into a situation where I wouldn't have an out. Minimums can easily turn into less than minimums. It's more of a personal comfort zone thing.
 
heavy snow falling from a solid overcast with snow on the ground can make the whole world outside one indistinct blur. In some cases it should be treated as IMC.

when you get to your destination, if there is snow on the runway don't assume the depth, get someone to check
 
Indeed. I'm not setting hard minimums, just personal gauges. If the cloud layer is a solid ceiling at 2000' with nothing scattered, not descending, and 10mi visibility I'll most likely be going. At the same time if the ceilings are 5000ft and vis is 3mi, I won't be departing.

Haze doesn't bother me so much, but rain can be a whole other experience. One of my two experiences with rain looked like like summer rain on the ground but as soon as the rain was smashing into the airplane at 100+kts forward visibility was (frighteningly to me as a student) significantly reduced. I just have no experience with snow, and I head it just bounces off instead of sticks/builds-up so I wanted some opinions. =) It looks like light snow won't be an issue so long as the general visibility is where I want it to be.

I don't think snow buildup on a runway more than a dusting will be much an issue, they're really quick about it here at Waukegan, and our destination is class Charlie (this will also be my first venture into Charlie as the only pilot on-board).

My biggest concern is avoiding VFR into IMC. =)
 
Apache123 said:
Friday I have a trip from Waukegan down along the shoreline towards gary, then to Fort Wayne Indiana. I've set some personal minimums at 2500' ceilings and 5mi visibility. What are you guys thoughts on snow? I'm a VFR pilot, and I know that rain can recuce visibility to zero pretty quick, but snow? I'm not so much familiar with it in flight.

If reported visibility is 6mi with light or moderate snow, should that be a no-go (i.e. will light or moderate snow impact visibility that much off of the reported)?

Being VFR I figured I'd ask in here.
Click to expand...

IME, snow will reduce visibility worse than rain, turn off any white strobe you have when/if you encounter it if at night.
 
Generally speaking snow does not cause airframe icing and what you need to worry about is visibility and rwy conditions.
 
Unless you and your plane are IFR certified I would not personally fly in those conditions as a VFR pilot only. You can expect icing and as soon as you can't see through unanticipated snow fall, you will be in a pickle and probably end up with vertigo and kill yourself. Simply ask yourself, why would I take a chance on something I have no personal experience with? Your gut feeling is telling you no go. Follow your instincts to fly another day.
 
If you are in marginal VFR, South and east of lake michigan and it is snowing, you have supersaturated air. If you are gently snowed upon in north central indiana we are having a front and you will become a very unhappy VFR pilot.

In the winter, our weather pattern means something completely different if you are 4,000 OVC- that either a warm front, which is not so okay to fly below (rainout into colder clear air below), or in the warm nose (wherein you will be ilegal in IMC).

4,000 OVC in one of the cold spirals on the backside of a low is much better for the VFR only pliot, as the clouds will not rain out supercooled moisture.

I think 2,500 in the Great lakes really oversimplifies things. The question suggest relative weather-unsophistication, which can be quickly fatal in this environment.
 
bbchien said:
If you are in marginal VFR, South and east of lake michigan and it is snowing, you have supersaturated air. If you are gently snowed upon in north central indiana we are having a front and you will become a very unhappy VFR pilot.

In the winter, our weather pattern means something completely different if you are 4,000 OVC- that either a warm front, which is not so okay to fly below (rainout into colder clear air below), or in the warm nose (wherein you will be ilegal in IMC).

4,000 OVC in one of the cold spirals on the backside of a low is much better for the VFR only pliot, as the clouds will not rain out supercooled moisture.

I think 2,500 in the Great lakes really oversimplifies things. The question suggest relative weather-unsophistication, which can be quickly fatal in this environment.
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Key takeaway
 
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