Whats the worst fog you have seen?
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Australia
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Over the years, every now and then, YMLT would have fog for 36 hrs straight. Nothing get in and the odd departure tongue in cheek viz wise. Every thing diverted to YDPO except the 727 and DC9's which went to HB. On one occasion saw Ipec's entire fleet plus Bristol Frighteners, DC3's and sundry GA types parked waiting for fuel and freight. YDPO and YWYY can often go out with sea fog.
North Sea, sometime in 1973 operating Sea Kings with 824NAS off Ark Royal (the big one with F4Ks and Bucc's), we ran into a bit of fog which hung around for 10 days out of our 14 day exercise and grounded everyone and everything: except us!
We'd developed a 'fog approach' which was yet to be used in anger, so yours truly was left out when the fog rolled in and cut vis to some horrid number such that we only got visual with the water at about 80 - 100' on descent to the 40' auto hover. Cunning plan was a self radar intercept to a mile astern the Ark, descend from 200' transit height to 70' with manual cyclic and fly up the ship's wake at about 20kts closing.
Good idea, but where's the ship's wake? Blind arc in the radar (behind the main gearbox) put us on doppler plot so the looker gave us a quarter mile count, ship still not visible, one driver with head out of the sliding window looking for the wake, suddenly there's the very distinctive back end of the boat looking as if it was quite a distance away. Then it was a hundred feet away as we realised that the image of the round down was actually the boat deck, and the round down was looming above us: talk about slowing down in a hurry!
End result was a rethink of a few details in the procedure and we then flew day and night for more than a week in <100ft fog.
(The approach was refined by the quarterdeck sentry chucking smoke floats overboard every few minutes to give us a 'flare path', plus streaming the splash target at a quarter mile, plus turning on the ships formation fog light. Oh, that's right they couldn't the switch for the fog light so they parked a flight deck tug on the round down with the headlamps on full beam!!)
We'd developed a 'fog approach' which was yet to be used in anger, so yours truly was left out when the fog rolled in and cut vis to some horrid number such that we only got visual with the water at about 80 - 100' on descent to the 40' auto hover. Cunning plan was a self radar intercept to a mile astern the Ark, descend from 200' transit height to 70' with manual cyclic and fly up the ship's wake at about 20kts closing.
Good idea, but where's the ship's wake? Blind arc in the radar (behind the main gearbox) put us on doppler plot so the looker gave us a quarter mile count, ship still not visible, one driver with head out of the sliding window looking for the wake, suddenly there's the very distinctive back end of the boat looking as if it was quite a distance away. Then it was a hundred feet away as we realised that the image of the round down was actually the boat deck, and the round down was looming above us: talk about slowing down in a hurry!
End result was a rethink of a few details in the procedure and we then flew day and night for more than a week in <100ft fog.
(The approach was refined by the quarterdeck sentry chucking smoke floats overboard every few minutes to give us a 'flare path', plus streaming the splash target at a quarter mile, plus turning on the ships formation fog light. Oh, that's right they couldn't the switch for the fog light so they parked a flight deck tug on the round down with the headlamps on full beam!!)
25 metre visibility on the old Princes Highway just north of the lookouts at Sublime Point (north of Wollongong)...I was driving at about 40mph and had to open the driver's door and look at the white lines going past me to make sure I was still on the road!
That was fine until some maniac came up behind me at twice my speed and overtook me! I pulled off the road into a gravel side-road that led to a communications site and waited until dawn before resuming my journey.
That was fine until some maniac came up behind me at twice my speed and overtook me! I pulled off the road into a gravel side-road that led to a communications site and waited until dawn before resuming my journey.
taxied about 100 mts and on the brakes opened the throttles ( about 15 feet discs x 4) he did this about 4 times every 100 mts, asked for back track, rwy clear, quickly back track to threshold, asked me how many lights can you see, we agreed we had sufficient for a legal T O,
The aircraft's brakes overheated due to the application of full engine power during taxiing. This caused the aluminium wheels to burst, one of them on the runway prior to departure. Upon retraction of the landing gear, the hydraulic lines in the gear bay were damaged. This was caused either by the wheels that had exploded, or the bursting of the other wheel rims during the climb. Subsequently, spilled hydraulic fluid ignited when it came in contact with the overheated landing gear rims. The fire damaged the gear bay, followed by the wing. Finally losing its hydraulic pressure, the aircraft became impossible to control.
From the book "Dick Richey - the Flying Fisherman".
The technique of “fog hopping” was developed many years ago. While this may sound quite suicidal, in reality on the relatively long beaches on the north coast of Tasmania, a Super Cub with beach landing wheels and a pilot with an intimate knowledge of the topography of the coastline can fly home quite safely if he happens to get stranded on a fog bound beach.To set things in motion, the aircraft is pointed in the direction of Devonport, there being little or no wind in most fogs, and taxied along the beach at a speed that will allow it to stop within the visible distance. If the fog only allows a visibility of 50 metres, a speed of about 10 kilometres per hour is enough, if the fog lifts a little, the throttle is opened a little, the tail comes up, speed goes up to about 50 kilometres per hour, a slight further improvement in visibility and we are airborne at 40 knots, about 80 kilometres per hour at a height of ten feet. If visibility drops again, slow a little, wheels back on the beach, until conditions improve, then back into the air, sometimes up to 50 feet and 85 knots, 170 kilometres per hour, then back to sea level as visibility gets worse.The headlands are the only problem, it pays to know when one will appear and if visibility is really bad, it may be necessary to stop and wait till it improves. If visibility is reasonable, say, more than a couple of hundred yards, follow the headland round to the next beach, keeping close to it to keep the waters edge in sight as glassy water in fog can be tricky and height above it is easier to judge if you can see the shoreline.After some taxing, some flying, some half and half, it is quite possible to arrive at Devonport. However, if the fog is that thick, the airport is invariably closed. It is best to taxi the last five kilometres to the airport boundary along the beach so the Flight Service Officers on duty can’t hear the sound of the engine, you are required to report if you are flying in the vicinity of the airport, but if you are taxying along the beach then, of course, you are not flying, but it is still best not to bother them. On arrival, the engine is shut down until after five o’clock in the afternoon and the Flight Service Officers go home. After they have gone, the weary pilot fires up the engine, takes off and hops over the sand dune and onto the fog shrouded airstrip and puts his aircraft back into the hangar. Just another day at the office to a working fish spotter.
The technique of “fog hopping” was developed many years ago. While this may sound quite suicidal, in reality on the relatively long beaches on the north coast of Tasmania, a Super Cub with beach landing wheels and a pilot with an intimate knowledge of the topography of the coastline can fly home quite safely if he happens to get stranded on a fog bound beach.To set things in motion, the aircraft is pointed in the direction of Devonport, there being little or no wind in most fogs, and taxied along the beach at a speed that will allow it to stop within the visible distance. If the fog only allows a visibility of 50 metres, a speed of about 10 kilometres per hour is enough, if the fog lifts a little, the throttle is opened a little, the tail comes up, speed goes up to about 50 kilometres per hour, a slight further improvement in visibility and we are airborne at 40 knots, about 80 kilometres per hour at a height of ten feet. If visibility drops again, slow a little, wheels back on the beach, until conditions improve, then back into the air, sometimes up to 50 feet and 85 knots, 170 kilometres per hour, then back to sea level as visibility gets worse.The headlands are the only problem, it pays to know when one will appear and if visibility is really bad, it may be necessary to stop and wait till it improves. If visibility is reasonable, say, more than a couple of hundred yards, follow the headland round to the next beach, keeping close to it to keep the waters edge in sight as glassy water in fog can be tricky and height above it is easier to judge if you can see the shoreline.After some taxing, some flying, some half and half, it is quite possible to arrive at Devonport. However, if the fog is that thick, the airport is invariably closed. It is best to taxi the last five kilometres to the airport boundary along the beach so the Flight Service Officers on duty can’t hear the sound of the engine, you are required to report if you are flying in the vicinity of the airport, but if you are taxying along the beach then, of course, you are not flying, but it is still best not to bother them. On arrival, the engine is shut down until after five o’clock in the afternoon and the Flight Service Officers go home. After they have gone, the weary pilot fires up the engine, takes off and hops over the sand dune and onto the fog shrouded airstrip and puts his aircraft back into the hangar. Just another day at the office to a working fish spotter.
british fog is way more dense and clammy than anything we get here.
DF.
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: 45 yards from a tropical beach
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Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of their wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little 'prentice boy on deck. Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon and hanging in the misty clouds.
Nunc est bibendum
I've stood and watched Rex SAABs depart Wagga when I'd lost sight of them between the terminal and leaving the apron. Less than 100m vis. Of course, I wasn't on the threshold to see how far they could actually see. 
I'm with captainng here...the "40 knot fog" a sea fog rolling over the runway in Jersey, landing just as it rolled over the far threshold and in nil vis as I taxiied clear of the runway...
another 20 seconds and I would have had to divert to England, 40minutes away as the fog was going to roll over France after it had covered up the Channel Islands!
another 20 seconds and I would have had to divert to England, 40minutes away as the fog was going to roll over France after it had covered up the Channel Islands!
