Survey: Pilot Weather Related Decision Making
 

Hello,

I am conducting a survey on VFR pilot weather related decision making for a post graduate study. If you have a spare 5-10min it would be great if you could help – the survey comprises of evaluating 5 VFR flights in marginal weather.

The survey is targeting pilots, therefore only complete this survey if you have some flying experience. Please click on the link below

CLICK HERE TO START SURVEY


Thanks very much for your help.

Stephen

The Posting of this survey has gained approval from PPRuNe Admin

Don't forget to post the report when yo finish! Will be interested to see the results.

Done.

That was fun :)

Done - interesting!

Completed - Very realistic scenarios.

Stephen,

Based on the final section questioning the experience level of the submitter, I am assuming the survey is about risk assessment and decisions taken vs experience levels. However, the questions do not describe the experience level of the pilot involved, just that they were undertaking marginal weather VFR flights. I sometimes conduct VFR flights, ...even in singles, Wally. :E
This suggests the pilot is probably relatively inexperienced.


Had you asked 'a 200/2000/5000 hour pilot', my answers to the following would have varied considerably apart from Q3 which is more related to my experience level.

1. Considering the information available to the pilot, how do you rate the pilots decision to conduct the VFR flight;

2. How much risk do you think the pilot took in attempting this VFR flight?

3. You wish to conduct the same flight. Considering the information available to the pilot before they departed, indicate your level of agreement with the following statement; I would be able to safely conduct the flight VFR;

I remember a flight (or two) in a Cessna 172, some 8000 hours ago that require vastly different answers today to those I would have given that day. :\

Regardless, they are all very plausible scenarios that have, and will again cause incidents and accidents. I hope your survey reveals insights that might help prevent this in the future. :D

.

All the best with your research and studies - on the whole, good survey!

jarjar01,
For me to answer sensibly, I would need the whole met. forecasts.
With the low cloud bases, whether I would even depart would depend on the extent of the cloud cover. There is a big difference in 1 @ 700 and 8@700.
Tootle pip!!

Good luck with your studies JJ. I agree with LS, the whole forecast is really needed. (PS, my sister works at Massey Uni in UnZud!)

'dogsx2' I've also flown a SE & in marginal Wx about a 100 yrs ago & lived to tell, back then I had "P" plates on, wouldn't even contemplate leaving the ground in some of those scenarios these days:-(

I think it's a good exercise to answer the questions with what little Wx you are given, we can't always fly with the luxury of being that well informed for all sorts of reasons & have lots of cotton wool to protect us. Many a pilot would launch right or wrong with little to no Wx details of their intended route & destination as described so this is a good little thought provoking experience:ok:


Wmk2

Interesting survey.
My responses now, given the company I work for, where I work, has probably made me a little too eager to burn some gas.
Showers? Just go around them.
Low cloud? Anything above 500 is VMC right?
Admittedly I trained in NZ, and when I completed my training I probably wouldn't have gone on a few of these... In saying that, some of my training flights were really marginal, I'm talking cloud below 1000AGL, low vis and the holes I was circling around in slowly shrinking. :{
Nowadays in West Aus it's as flat as a pancake, and so long as I can maintain height I'm not going to run into anything :eek:
For me, the clincher in a lot of scenarios was the statement regarding flat ground, or familiarity with the training area.
Would I send up my students solo in these conditions? :mad: no. Would I take a student up so they could see marginal weather and learn something. Of course I would. If I'm sending a student on a navigation flight, and they get into trouble, I want them to be able to acknowledge their limitations, and choose the safest course of action.

Got to agree with Leadsled and Two Dogs - a early/mid-time PPL is a different proposition to an old freight dog.

Also - given you'll get responses from Australia, Oz forecasts/reports have different formats and information. Specifically, they report all vis better than 10km as 10km - so for the first question, I thought - "ok, nice and clear under the cloud", which may not be what you intended. Only later, when the vis given is greater than 10km, did things become clearer.

Also our charts are different and I found it hard to see how significant the height variations were - mostly looked pretty flat...

I've always understood the term cloud base as where the cumulative cloud cover from ground level is greater than half (ie 4+). So if you have SCT 1000 SCT 1500 then the cloud base is 1500 because 3-4 oktas + 3-4 oktas is greater than half. This is the basis for calculating alternate requirements using TAFs, etc. Made sense to me!

Interesting survey!

VFR flying - it's about always having an 'out'! :ok:

Hang on a minute, that's IFR flying too!! ;)