Light aircraft down in Dundee

[Supersport]

Weather

Hi Vince, appreciate you taking the time to try and respond to queries posted here. I'm interested to know what your routing from Barrow to Edinburgh / Dundee was? I was operating West of the lakes and the Western Isles (Blackpool to Islay via Deans Cross & Turnberry VORs) at around the time you were enroute mid afternoon. Did you fly direct over the hills? Follow the coast? Follow the M6?

I was finishing a check out on an SR20 G3 with my old PPL instructor. I have to agree with you regarding the weather, cumulus was developing quickly and pretty sporadically not just over the hills as one would expect, the forecast did read a bit better than the actual though (IIRC).

My point is, had I been without an IR rated instructor I'd have turned around and gone home upon reaching Deans Cross. I was flying at FL65 and was catching the tops with very few holes, i.e. High probability of being unable to remain in sight of the surface especially further inland over the Northern Lakes where it was very filled in with even higher tops. Added to which there was a fairly stiff North Westerly pushing the muck even further inland.

I probably can guess your answer but were you in sight of the surface at all times? Enough to pick out ground features (ground to map etc)? Or were you simply VMC on top and relying on your sat nav / GPS? I appreciate that you had strong reasons for needing to get from A to B asap, but having flown at the same time, albeit further west than your goodself, it was a fairly dodgy / variable / random afternoon for a VFR flight, poor(ish) vis (<7000m) and fairly bumpy at times even over the sea! Must have been quite an experience for you and what was your CT.

Regardless of circumstances speculated about on here I'm very glad you walked away Sir, it seems like there has been a few more aviation accidents (not just GA) than the 'norm' (if the is one), so it's good have someone actually walking away from one, even if the forced landing was very adventurous and even with the laws of physics considered; a pretty big gamble!

SS600