How many of us as VFR pilots have ventured into that 178 second realm and been fortunate enough to return.?
I know that I have been there and the three things that came together to bring me and my passengers back were an AH, sufficient fuel and recent simulator time. Without any one of those essentials and a very large dose of luck the last 235 years of the joys and the sorrows of life shared by the seven of us on board would never have been.
What follows is what I wrote of those events for a one of the flying magazines.
One Monday in March some years back, saw me pacing the early morning dew at Bathurst airfield. Our driver, desperate to get back to open his business was looking at his watch as often as was the passenger who had a shop to open in Melbourne. Neither of them understood nor wanted to understand the problem. They could see that the field was clear of storm, gale and fog so why the delay?
Days earlier on the outward journey storms over Katoomba had forced us to abandon the rented Cessna 210 at Bathurst and finish the journey by taxi.
When making plans for a family reunion and celebration weekend in the Blue Mountains this level of stress, uncertainty and delay was not anticipated. On the morning that we were all due back at our various workplaces everyone was stuck at Bathurst while I struggled with the go/no go decision.
So much for a relaxed weekend and for my reputation as someone who gets thing done - on time and on budget. My credibility was eroding fast, while the cloud, with tantalizing slowness , was just barely eroding from the ridge tops.
To balance the briefing office’s gloomy predictions, I obtained an actual weather from and aircraft at Canowindra. Since he was reporting CAVOK below high cloud I decided to take off and check the cloud/ridge interface from up close.
The passengers were loaded and advised that we would be returning to Bathurst if a clear path could not be found.
Viewed from the sky the gaps were larger; the horizontal visibility was definitely an improvement on the slant view from the ground. Not good, but not too bad; & I did have that actual report. Another decision made and VH-BEV rolled onto a track up the most open valley.
There was plenty of width between fingers of wispy cloud that barely reached down to the peaks. Straight ahead of us was a tunnel large enough to turn the QE2 . All I had to do was pop through that tunnel and then it would be smooth flying all the way home. One small obstacle to clear before I would get everyone home with all obligations and promises honoured.
Minutes later those wispy fingers became hands, hands gathering the land up into the cloud. The valley was narrower, and all ahead was grayish white down to the green of the trees. Or was it? Surely it was just another slant line illusion? And if only we were low enough it would again reveal that clear path up the valley. It had after, been clearly visible mere seconds ago.
Gently carefully, I eased the first millimeter off the throttle,. The pasture was now streaming past. A view abruptly punctured by a clump of trees, the mates of whom, I suddenly realized were a bout to obliterate two families.
It was time to stop laying the odds and to seriously aviate. Throttle forward, wings level, ease the trim towards climb. A wisp of mist swiped at the windshield as I checked the power. Then the view completely disappeared. The abruptness was a shock, as was the glaring white blackness.
Glaring white blackness?
That’s the very question that I asked myself. But I saw what I saw.
The engine note changed in step with my reflex snap back on the column and with the passengers’ silence. They were not pilots, but had been oft regaled by pilots’ stories. Do pilots ever tell stories that are not about being disoriented in cloud, stall and spin or other disasters?
I forced myself to focus on the AH. It showed winds level and the nose slightly up – we were climbing straight ahead.
What next?
Something about scan?
Yes Attitude, altitude, speed and direction.
Attitude? Climbing straight ahead, wings level – good.
Altitude? 3500 and climbing at 400 fpm.
Speeds MP? and airspeed OK for climb.
Direction? What direction ? I’d been chasing valleys wherever they led. All sense of direction was well lost.
Fossicking for the charts I remembered Scan!
Scan scan, scan., forget the charts.
I looked out to where there was no wing to see, merely water streaming along the Perspex. Beyond that , nothing, absolutely nothing; just more of that glaring white blackness.
Attitude, altitude, speed and direction
Attitude, altitude, speed and direction
Attitude, altitude, speed and direction
Good training , earlier ignored, asserted itself. The memorized litanies returned. Aviate, communicate, navigate.
Communicate! My God, communicate!. I had so far avoided the rocks in those clouds but what about speeding aluminium rocks?
“Canberra this is Cessna Bravo Echo Victor , VFR to the south of Bathurst seven POB. Passing through seven thousand VFR in solid cloud. Request assistance”.
“ Bravo Echo Victor , say again VFR in cloud?”
“Affirmative VFR in cloud”
“ Bravo Echo Victor, stand by….. Bravo Echo Victor remain this frequency and keep wings level on AH”.
“ Bravo Echo Victor”
” Bravo Echo Victor say again POB? And do you have an instrument rating?”
“Seven POB, no rating”
“ Bravo Echo Victor I am clearing this frequency of all other traffic.
Maintain wings level 0on AH. I repeat keep wings level on AH”
“ Bravo Echo Victor”.
“ Bravo Echo Victor keepings wings level can you advise your present position”.
“Maintaining heading two zero zero leaving 8500 feet on climb.
location unsure”.
“ Bravo Echo Victor, concentrate on wings level on AH. If possible maintain climb. We do not have you on radar at this time”.
“ Bravo Echo Victor”
Attitude, altitude, speed and direction
Attitude, altitude, speed and direction
Attitude, altitude, speed and direction
A tense 40 mins after we had entered cloud and as suddenly as we had originally been engulfed, we were spat out into brilliant light. Clear unblemished blue above and a solid froth of white below.
“Canberra, Bravo Echo Victor is maintaining 11200 on top of solid cloud, heading one eight zero”.
“ Bravo Echo Victor, keep wings level on AH and, if possible, maintain heading and remain clear of cloud”.
‘ Bravo Echo Victor”
“ Bravo Echo Victor your you are radar identified. Can you come onto a heading of one five eight, remaining clear of cloud?”
“One five eight Bravo Echo Victor”.
“Canberra Bravo Echo Victor is visual, ten thousand over Lake George”.
“ Bravo Echo Victor, remaining clear of cloud, descend to 5500. At 5500 contact Canberra approach on 124.5
“124.5 Bravo Echo Victor”
What else to say?
No one factor created the situation. Just the usual story of a cascading sequence of small deviations from best practice. Thankfully good training eventually did take over. On the ground, an excellent service shepherded two vulnerable babies and their families to safety.
Thank-you is so little to offer for such a big service. So little in exchange for seven lives. But thank you ATC was all that I had to offer then and all that I have today.
Calm, assured and professional guidance brought us safely home. That and the instructor who in supervising my transfer from a New Zealand PPL to an Australian one had insisted on a couple of hours of real IFR training in IFR conditions.
Today both of those infants have children of their own . Children who, we can only hope will grow up p forever protected from that subtle cascading sequence of small deviations. That killer cascade that converts people into statistics.
And, I wonder, VH-BEV where are you today?.