@OhNoCB - Agreed it would have been better to avoid the situation in the first place, which is what I eventually sought out to do, but it was a case of leaving it alil too late & misjudging the severity of the weather situation. Had the weather been bleak/ poor from the get -go at EGBO, then I wouldn't have dared attempted doing such a long winded trip so early in my post PPL era, but alas deception of the Wx at homebase & within the surrounding local vicinity lead to mass enthusiasm & eagerness to get going far out West. By the way I did check the enroute NOTAMS situation via the
NATS homepage as taught & the AIAA was actively NOTAM'd as per the SD prompt we got in the air. And it was for that very reason we had to descend, otherwise we would have never left the comforts of FL65+ in such area with bad Wx awaiting us ahead. Lesson well learnt & lucky stars counted upon landing
@Pace - I'm glad you familiar with that neck of the woods so to speak & since then I have visited EGCK 3 times & you are spot on with the spontaneous build up of cloud/ bad WX en route there. Weirdly enough upon landing back I did ring up EGCK to advice of our shortcoming & out of curiosity asked them about local WX & they said they were showing good Viz & more or less were CAVOK along the coast, so that had me like
for a minute. You're correct WX developed all too quickly & left me gobsmacked & hesitant, in hindsight I wish I had turned back earlier instead of trying to attempt a heroic Indiana Jones style pursuit through those VMC tunnels & openings
@sapperkenno - Ha you probably right there mate...
@Johnm - Thanks...yes I believe our NOTAM interpreting skills were somewhat flawed in that sense.. its evident we descended due to Notam depicting some air exercises were taking place at the time & we were clearly aware of this but seemed to had forgotten about it up until SD popped up with the warning...& coupled with the crazy WX ahead it was merely a Swiss cheese scenario taking shape
@BEagle No not yet at that phase of training yet. I'm in the midst of hour building at the moment, on the back of conquering some really hard ATPL's doing it all distance learning. Aiming to commence my CPL/IR late March/early April hopefully ( also my bank account is somewhat injured at the moment lol) & thanks for the details on the normal situation that tend to previal in the AIAA down there
@BackPacker- You are correct because as stated there was an actual NOTAM in place, I simply didn't deviate due to it being an AIAA. No I did not partake or endure any sort of close call cloud frolicking during my PPL training, in fact we were instructed to shun away from them at all costs.... as if they were Dementors & we teenage quidditch playing wizards. That barrel role exercise you mentioned sounds overly cool in an aeorbatically certified aircraft.. & yes you don't realise or rather notice speed in the vastness of blue skies until you encounter some fluff per se
. So true! The slip indicator/ ball equivalent in a DA40 is mad sensitive, I know this now but at the time I had very few Glass cockpit hours so still flew the aircraft as if it were a Piper/ Cessna to some extent. Lastly many thanks on the advice given in your post mate...especially the part about flying in a TCU/CB predicament!
@RTN11 - Thanks for making me feel less stupid in that sense & gracias for the accolade on my brilliant Houdini like escapism
also apologies on the misuse of terminology...I'm still getting to grips with the appropriate aviation jargon/lingo so bear with me on that one!
@Tolka - AlexBrett hit that one straight on the head, my aircraft did not have capable AP functionality & at the time I wasn't well versed with the whole G1000 interface etc.
@Ridger - Thanks mate, I was on the receiving end of a lot of peptalk (& some light B*llocking) form the Old boys at the airfield. This was all after I had landed & brewed a cup of coffee to calm the nerves so to speak
@fisbangwollop - Gracias on the plausible advice, Prior to entering the zone I was vigilant as it is just got caught up in really sour weather after evading the NOTAM that's all, nut I'll keep that transponder advice in mind...just in case I were to find myself in the soup & ill equipped to deal with it confidently
@funfly - Thanks for sharing....that out of cloud description gives me a really thrilling visual picture in my head! Haha I see the 'scurrying back home' correlation is quite a STRONG reaction in these predicaments. I can fully relate on that one, mate, also can't wait till I'm IR certified...up until then my flying is confined to the prevailing weather systems that surround me.
@ChrisN - Appreciate the insight into flying close to high land areas on a windy day. Yes that cloud that swallowed me did indeed move towards me..or so my optical abilities lead me to believe..but Backpacker could have been right in the sense that I was cruising too fast (115-120+) in the DA40 & it was me who flew into the cloud as opposed to it coming to me....illusions & naivety eyyy