Terrain VS CB
Hi all.
I was presented with a little problem last week and I'd like to know how you would've handled it.
The situation was such that we were departing from an airfield with very high terrain around us and the winds were up to 20-30 knots in the gusts. CB's were rolling in from the sea. The FMS SID track would take us straight into one of these. The SID is built like this: Straight ahead to a beacon, when passing 3100 feet, left turn to intercept a QDR from the same beacon and then once on that QDR, slightly right on to another radial. The initial left turn brings us over terrain and the FMS usually flies it all the way to the beacon. Basically it's the pilots decision when to turn left once above 3100 feet.
In hindsight we followed all pertinent limitations regarding terrain clearance and navigational precision, but one thing struck me (and here's my question):
What if the CB had come across our path before the 3100 feet marker on the SID? The left turn would have been illegal in respects to navigational precision. With limited knowledge about the terrain, would you have turned to get away from the CB (away from SID track below turning altitudes, IMC in high terrain below MSA) or would you have continued into the cloud (EMB CB). I was surprised of what my captain suggested but was pleased to see that other commanders had a different view. What would you have done and yes this is basically a question asking "would you choose to fly into a CB or would you go off track, hoping that your situational awareness -in an area in which you rarely fly- was sufficient to keep you from flying into terrain ".
/LnS