VFR into IMC. What did you do?
Part The First:
Was tasked to take 2 wealthy Korean people and a film crew from Sydney to a farm out near Cowra, well west of Sydney. They were to be filmed buying the world's most expensive bale of AAAA fine wool. Popped them into the LongRanger, cameraman in front seat, and away we went.
Weather was a westerly wind with some middle cloud forecast, but Cowra was clear, so with the GPS pointing towards the farm, I tried to make the rough ride under the cloud bearable. Getting closer to the Blue Mountains, the ride was getting rougher and the Koreans' faces were getting greener. Didn't want to see Kimchi in the cockpit, so I climbed above the layer, to about 4000'. Hmm, the layer looks extensive, but I can see the dark lines of the mountains ahead, need to climb a bit more, not many holes below, keep on going. Climb a bit more to stay above the layer, getting closer to the dark line, and then see that it was another layer of clouds in a shadow.
Climb above them too. At least the ride was smoother, pax not so green. But getting close to the farm's gps spot, no breaks seen. Still above the layers. at 7000' as I get to the farm, inform the pax we are going to Cowra 30nm away to wait for the weather to improve, they didn't understand. Call up Flight Service (this was a while ago) and explain that I am above 8/8ths and need to do an NDB at Cowra to get down - but I don't have any instrument plates, could they please read out the NDB plate for me? A few questions back and forth, no the aircraft isn't IFR, but it is Night VFR with an ADF. No, not current IFR but rating expired 5 years previous, happy enough to fly the approach. Has anybody on frequency got a plate? Are you declaring an emergency? Well....yes.
Getting closer to Cowra and still no plate, starting to worry a little, but with a mile to run to the NDB, pop out over the layer. Cancel emergency, land on field, locate a friendly person with a drum of jet fuel, and the friendly person's wife takes the pax to her nearby house for a cup of tea.
Refuelled, re-loaded, launch back to the farm UNDER the layer, all is well. Pax never realised the problem, wouldn't have helped if I could have explained it anyway. They bought the bale of wool for $100,000, but too big to bring back with us.
On return, I summoned the other company pilots and explained to them what a dopey thing I had done.
Was tasked to take 2 wealthy Korean people and a film crew from Sydney to a farm out near Cowra, well west of Sydney. They were to be filmed buying the world's most expensive bale of AAAA fine wool. Popped them into the LongRanger, cameraman in front seat, and away we went.
Weather was a westerly wind with some middle cloud forecast, but Cowra was clear, so with the GPS pointing towards the farm, I tried to make the rough ride under the cloud bearable. Getting closer to the Blue Mountains, the ride was getting rougher and the Koreans' faces were getting greener. Didn't want to see Kimchi in the cockpit, so I climbed above the layer, to about 4000'. Hmm, the layer looks extensive, but I can see the dark lines of the mountains ahead, need to climb a bit more, not many holes below, keep on going. Climb a bit more to stay above the layer, getting closer to the dark line, and then see that it was another layer of clouds in a shadow.
Climb above them too. At least the ride was smoother, pax not so green. But getting close to the farm's gps spot, no breaks seen. Still above the layers. at 7000' as I get to the farm, inform the pax we are going to Cowra 30nm away to wait for the weather to improve, they didn't understand. Call up Flight Service (this was a while ago) and explain that I am above 8/8ths and need to do an NDB at Cowra to get down - but I don't have any instrument plates, could they please read out the NDB plate for me? A few questions back and forth, no the aircraft isn't IFR, but it is Night VFR with an ADF. No, not current IFR but rating expired 5 years previous, happy enough to fly the approach. Has anybody on frequency got a plate? Are you declaring an emergency? Well....yes.
Getting closer to Cowra and still no plate, starting to worry a little, but with a mile to run to the NDB, pop out over the layer. Cancel emergency, land on field, locate a friendly person with a drum of jet fuel, and the friendly person's wife takes the pax to her nearby house for a cup of tea.
Refuelled, re-loaded, launch back to the farm UNDER the layer, all is well. Pax never realised the problem, wouldn't have helped if I could have explained it anyway. They bought the bale of wool for $100,000, but too big to bring back with us.
On return, I summoned the other company pilots and explained to them what a dopey thing I had done.
Part the Second:
Fifteen years later, that company had been bought by a new owner, I was well clear of it. That JetRanger had been bought by a private owner, a doctor, and left it in the care of the Company. They would use it to collect the doc from his Central Coast home, and fly him to Sydney to land at the hospital for his work.
The doc was reluctant to spend money on the chopper, so as time wore on, the AI needed repair, and was removed. Same for ADF kit.
Doc wants to do his thing on this day, but the weather is seriously gloop. He demands to be picked up, so the usual pilot for this job flies to his home, and brings him back to the heliport, and says the lane to the hospital is socked in. Doc is annoyed to have to take a taxi for the 10km trip, and demands to fly. First pilot flatly refuses. A junior pilot, against the advice of first pilot, says he will do it. The owner of the business, also the Chief Pilot, does not intervene. Away they go, ducking around cloud at zot feet over houses, in and out of cloud, back and forth, up and down, trying to reach the hospital. They eventually did reach the hospital, after being dug out of the wreckage, but way too late.
Fifteen years later, that company had been bought by a new owner, I was well clear of it. That JetRanger had been bought by a private owner, a doctor, and left it in the care of the Company. They would use it to collect the doc from his Central Coast home, and fly him to Sydney to land at the hospital for his work.
The doc was reluctant to spend money on the chopper, so as time wore on, the AI needed repair, and was removed. Same for ADF kit.
Doc wants to do his thing on this day, but the weather is seriously gloop. He demands to be picked up, so the usual pilot for this job flies to his home, and brings him back to the heliport, and says the lane to the hospital is socked in. Doc is annoyed to have to take a taxi for the 10km trip, and demands to fly. First pilot flatly refuses. A junior pilot, against the advice of first pilot, says he will do it. The owner of the business, also the Chief Pilot, does not intervene. Away they go, ducking around cloud at zot feet over houses, in and out of cloud, back and forth, up and down, trying to reach the hospital. They eventually did reach the hospital, after being dug out of the wreckage, but way too late.
They do it when they can. Last month regularly told 'no IFR traffic for descent, numerous VFR traffic in the area'. Nothing more. Generally not all showing on ADSB. Breaking through cloud and looking for them isn't ideal. ATC don't have radar coverage below 3,500 for many areas I fly around so I'm guessing this also impacts.
Garmin 100 . Now there’s an historical artifact and what a knockout gadget it was./ is. Initially was the ProNav 100 , bought out by Garmin.
Certainly revolutionised tracking around the GAFA. And making life easy with the calculations you didn’t have to do.
How the techno has changed since then. Incredible.
But I do love my little old ProNav best.
Certainly revolutionised tracking around the GAFA. And making life easy with the calculations you didn’t have to do.
How the techno has changed since then. Incredible.
But I do love my little old ProNav best.
We had a contract with Sydney Water in the 90s to service the rainfall gauges scattered around the entire Sydney basin catchment area. Little holes in the trees, barely enough room to fit the chopper and the gauge on its stand. And in the Colo River area, every ridge looked exactly the same as its neighbours, making it very difficult to locate the site using a map. Quite a bit of time was spent looking for each site before making the approach. And while the rotors are turning, the money was earning.
The advent of the GPS 100 meant that we could go direct to every site without stuffing about, it shortened our day (visits to 9 sites a day) and meant we didn't have to come back another day to find a spot we missed. But it also meant less money earned. Win some, lose some.
The advent of the GPS 100 meant that we could go direct to every site without stuffing about, it shortened our day (visits to 9 sites a day) and meant we didn't have to come back another day to find a spot we missed. But it also meant less money earned. Win some, lose some.
On my qualifying cross country in the UK, years ago; flying solo in a PA28, navigating towards my second planned landing. VFR and all going well but then flew over a layer of cloud.
Hmmm....... I am still in clear air with good visibility, but no longer in sight of the ground. Instructor never mentioned about this.......What to do?
Well, I do know quite accurately where I am having tracked my progress over various motorways and road junctions, and am under radar service, so although technically I should turn 180° and fly back into clear conditions, I know that I am safe from terrain, so I elect to continue and hope the cloud will clear enough at my descent point.
It did, but that could have ended very differently.
PS, I was not concerned about the absence of a clear, level horizon, because even before taking my instrument rating(s), I always flew by reference to the instruments - personally finding the visual method a bit inaccurate.
Hmmm....... I am still in clear air with good visibility, but no longer in sight of the ground. Instructor never mentioned about this.......What to do?
Well, I do know quite accurately where I am having tracked my progress over various motorways and road junctions, and am under radar service, so although technically I should turn 180° and fly back into clear conditions, I know that I am safe from terrain, so I elect to continue and hope the cloud will clear enough at my descent point.
It did, but that could have ended very differently.
PS, I was not concerned about the absence of a clear, level horizon, because even before taking my instrument rating(s), I always flew by reference to the instruments - personally finding the visual method a bit inaccurate.
I always flew by reference to the instruments - personally finding the visual method a bit inaccurate.
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