My most scary flight
I had made a habit of frequently driving out to the airfield with pax in the car, and putting them in the back of a 172 for an air tour of downtown Toronto, usually with a couple of orbits of the CN Tower to watch the people eating in the revolving restaurant. This time was supposed to be the same. The flight was usually less than an hour, so no problem was expected getting back before my lack of the five take-offs and landings at night would have made carrying pax illegal. That is, until I looked at the TAF, which said told OCNL SCTD TRS for my time aloft. which was to be just before civil twilight.
My reaction was a proper one, just as I had been taught. Never fly beyond your capabilities and experience. So from the home where my pax were staying, I told the man waiting for me that we were not going due WX. However, as a meteorologist from Copenhagen Airport, he wanted to speak to the local met man, so we called them. After exchanging pleasantries and comments in the lingua franca of those who observe the clouds, we hung up and I spoke directly to my friend.
Surprisingly, he gave me his professional opinion that it would be safe to fly!
Who was I to argue? So I took him and a couple of lasses out to the airport.
The out-bound trip was a complete success. We circled the CN Tower twice and headed back towards Toronto International's airspace. I called their terminal controller from South of Humber Bay, only to be told that my destination was just now under TRS.
"What are your intentions?" he asked.
Obviously the best choice was to turn back to Toronto Island, which I had just passed.
"Toronto Island is now reporting TRS coming in off the lake!"
I looked at the alternatives. While I was considering Burlington Air park, the controller came back to me.
"It looks like there are two cells, ten miles apart, one each side of the route to Brampton. I can get you between them if you like."
I had originally requested to fly up runway 33 at 2k, since they were landing East-west, but they had denied me that route, and vectored me way out way West of Pearson, beneath the departure profile. That was when I started to follow vectors to go between the two T cells.
Just as I was thinking of being home in a few minutes, I experienced what i now understand what people mean by 'all hell breaking loose'. The plane started to climb, and I had to push the nose down to keep at altitude. Then the plane started shaking so badly that I felt it would break apart. I knew I had to do a 180, but in a control zone? I rolled the plane left to a rate 1 turn and tried to tell ATC what I was doing. But the plane was shaking so badly that I could not get the air into my lungs to speak, and my words seemed to sound like a bunch of incoherent broken syllables.
The controller acknowledged my turn, and gave me vectors BACK OUT OVER THE LAKE! Great! I thought, they know I am going to break up and don't want me falling on the expensive houses below!
You know that you are in trouble when an older, more experienced voice comes over the R/T from ATC!
He asked me my situation, and how much fuel I had, and I explained about the turbulence. He gave me more vectors to circle South of land while they figured out a solution.
Eventually he told me the TRS over Brampton had dissipated, and vectored me to the button of 33 at Pearson, with instructions to fly up it. After that, it was vectors to Brampton and the smoothest straight-in airline landing I have ever done, since the airport was closed, the runway wet and beautifully highlighted by the reflection of (thankfully distant) clouds.
My passenger said I was a damn good pilot, and that I should be flying the big jets. That was when it dawned on me, his judgement to fly was based on transport aircraft criteria - way too much for a little 172! I never listened to anybody else's judgement whether it was safe to fly after that!
Last edited by ve3id; 26th Dec 2020 at 23:58.