Every day is a school day
 

All the training in the world is for nothing if you don't follow procedures and start cutting corners.

My flying today involved jumping in the plane for what I deemed a "local" and straightforward flight 70 miles up the coast including getting a transition thru controlled airspace to a fly-in at a small airfield I had visited at least 3 times before. The weather was overcast at 2000 with great visibility and light winds so all in all I viewed the days flight as a "no brainer" all the terrain enroute is a few hundred feet above sea level and I looked forward to the BBQ and the hospitality the destination field excels at during their annual fly in.

The flight up was smooth enjoyable at 1000amsl, after several hours of hangar talk, catching up with friends and meeting new ones, eating burgers and taking 3 ATC cadets for individual flights round the circuit, I realized I had spent a few hours longer than I had planned and there was some nasty weather moving in from the west from the direction of the Grampians, cognizant of deteriorating conditions of light rain and lowering and darkening bases being concern but not a show stopper as my recently completed IFR and Commercial training afforded me an air of confidence I would not have had 6 months ago.

Take off straight out easterly into a light shower after about a mile I hit the coast and turn south with the bases now at 800 agl with vis 4 miles, check in with the controller to get my shoreline transition thru CAS down the coast . ATC advised they were unable to provide the transition due to workload and weather and I was to remain clear of the CAS (bugger number 1), to say this caught me totally by surprise is an understatement, I started to circle outside CAS to ponder my options, I reach round to get the chart and (Bugger number 2) it's in the baggage area out of reach ("it's a local familiar flight I won't need it remember") .

I realize I can't fly south keeping to the east of the CAS as it would put me uncomfortably far out over the North Sea, I can't fly down the west side as that is where the weather is coming from and there is an slight obstacle called the Grampian mountains. At about this point the ATC to his credit implied that he could give me the transition but was not crazy about the idea and asked if I could accept an IFR clearance?

My first thought being freshly minted IFR was sure I can, then I remembered that my only pen had rolled under the seat during the circuits with the cadets (Bugger number 3) my knee pad/notepad was keeping the charts company in the baggage area (Bugger number 4)and I just did not feel comfortable flying IFR without the routine and familiar tools and setup I had used during training so I declined a clearance and advised I would continue to circle while pondering my declining options.

It's now pissing down with bases about 700 AGL and darker, I decided to head to the only clear area to the northeast were the shoreline turns from running north to 90 degree west turn, I think if I can't go round either side of the CAS I will go over it by going north out to the the only clear area and climb up over the weather and to ceiling of the CAS which is ,,,, (Bugger number 5) no chart and pissing around with the GPS at 600agl is not appealing prospect with a gas venting station, antennae farm and more wind turbines than you can shake a stick at in the immediate vicinity.

About this time I had moved far enough north that ATC had handed me off from a terminal to area controller on a frequency I was unfamiliar with, I advised that I was still considering my options and he advised that as I was pretty close to my field of departure circuit area I should give them a heads up and switch back to him after. I went to switch frequencies and (bugger number 6) I had forgotten it and the only 2 frequencies I had in my single com active and standby was the terminal and area ATC, so I switch to a familiar flight information freq to get the departure field freq then go to switch back to the unfamiliar ATC by using the recall feature and mess it up losing that frequency (bugger number 7) .

So I decide if I try and get over the top I may get pushed to far out to sea trying to climb and stay ahead of the weather pushing offshore , so I opt to return to the field of departure, oh the humiliation after the big goodbye on departure, I land at the field and as I am walking in to the radio room I hear over the air ground speaker an Irish accent of a regional airline pilot relaying ATC attempts to contact a "lost" aircraft, the local air ground guy advised them I was on the ground and a few seconds later ATC called the field to say the weather had cleared slightly and I should get back up and they would give me a transit, after profuse apologies to ATC from going off frequency and landing without signing off from them the transit went fine and the weather cleared to sunshine for miles,

Bottom line, I completely and utterly messed up in every area I had been trained in from not being completely familiar with how the equipment worked or more accurately forgetting when a bit stressed, not following own self imposed rules for being equipped and whole bunch of other issues,

Every days a school day. Hope I am not the only one that can learn from this balls up

Haha Piperboy..........just as well I was able to give you the Longside frequency.....glad to hear you survived to chat another day :cool::cool::cool:

Great narrative there, thank you for sharing your experiences. It's so true, you (should) never stop learning. It sounds like you had a difficult flight there and all of your observations I am sure will strike at least one or more resonance with many readers.

Wow,

this just goes to show no one is safe if you are not prepared. I passed PPL in march, took my family up last month and although it was very local, ie 25 miles i had prepared route not literally but planned it with notes on diversion and airspaqce frequencies etc... with GPs as well!

They are too precious to not do so!!!

but the above is great, i am a confident guy but this helps me know that always prepping to a high level will have you in the best place possible!

regards

T

You will be better as a result.

And no real harm done - you had a get out of jail free card the whole time. Return to your point of departure.

Don't beat yourself up. It all worked out fine :-)

PIperboy

Kudo's to you for opening your Kimono and providing an unflattering for you, but accurate description of just how easy things can turn to shyte.

Flying is easy when things are going well but surviving when things start to go wrong is a true test of every pilot. Sadly there have been many smoking holes with dead people in them that resulted in a similar situation that was not handled in a way that not withstanding all the mistakes made, was still recovered into a safe landing....

I had a pretty similar situation happen to me a few years ago. Complacency and lack of planning got me into a situation where I had to fess up and get ATC to bail me out of a very ugly spot :O

Coincidentally the day that happen was the 30th anniversary of the day, and over 7000 hrs after, I got my pilots license.....

To err is human.
Learn something every flight.

Thanks for the educational write up. They say confession is good for the soul!

So glad all turned out well Piperboy. Really enjoyed the write up and thanks for avoiding my gas venting station :ok:

pb84,

Thanks for taking the time to write-up your experience. Sharing an experience like that is a lesson for all of us. Worthy of Flying's "I learnt about flying from that" series.

I'm interested to know if you think you would have made any different decisions if you didn't have that IR in your back pocket.

I see fisbangwallop was involved in your saga. Does he ever take any time off? ;)

I would not have taken off, I would have done what I usually do and tie the plane down and call the girlfriend for a ride home, but as soon as I got in the air and had the transition declined I thought stuff this I will just go back to the departure field and call for a lift, then I realized my mobile that I never go anywhere without was back at home base in my car with all my contact numbers. It's funny how all the little things line up and work against you.

The difference with being in that situation with the IR is I never really felt frightened or felt in imminent danger, as I became aware of each mistake and oversight I just thought Ok what do I do next rather methodically, I suspect if this had happened befor the IR I would have relied a lot more on ATC and perhaps made some panicked decisions, but again without the IR I would absolutely not have been in the air.

Since getting the IMCr/IR(R) I've made some sort of effort to plan each flight as IFR, even when I expect CAVOK, on the grounds that there's no point in having the rating if I'm not prepared to use it should I have to or want to. So I've always got a full list of frequencies, VOR radials, DME distances etc in front of me ... which on some flights I never look at.

This story encourages me to continue doing so, and to take the planning seriously!

The alternative for me, as piperboy suggests, is to decide "this is a VFR bimble" and refrain from taking off if the weather could be a bit iffy.

Thanks for the narrative Piperboy. It is very useful for us all to be reminded about the ease with which things can go wrong - with a first hand, real life example.

I favour the logic model of all the Swiss cheese holes lining up, and the result being that one drops through into an accident. Watching the Swiss cheese, and controlling the holes that you can, with preparation, alertness skill, or finally ATC help is very wise. At least one Swiss cheese hold is always the weather, and you can't control that one! Control as many others as you can.....

Same here. Always prepare for every eventuality you can think of, even on a local bimble. The great thing about experienced guys like Piperboy writing this sort of thing up (thank you PB) is that it drills home that even the good guys get it wrong sometimes and it knocks the complacency out of you. I'm apparently at the dangerous 300 hour stage where any flight for the next 3 or 4 hundred hours will probably be my last. Knowing that makes me ultra cautious. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

Hi Piperboy,

A great story and with many lessons for us all; thanks for sharing it. I did something very similar about 30 years ago in a Cessna with little fuel and late on a winter afternoon 'cos "its only a 30 mile local flight", what can possibly go wrong?? I ended up on the emergency frequency asking for DF bearings (no GPS then!) and letting down through cloud to below MSA, based on Dead Reckoning navigation and followed by a dark landing at a grass strip with no lights!!

30 years and 10,000 hours later I still do dumb things sometimes which leave me asking "how the hell did I do that?" As you say, every day's a school day but the big thing I've tried to learn is prepare, prepare, prepare!!

Happy landings

3 Point

I think you dealt with the situation really well and what is best, not only have you decided to teach others with your learnings but you have openly encouraged honest feedback about your flight. Sadly you may get some crap responses but this open and honest reporting is something that all pilots need in one way or another. I thank you for you honest and candid flight report and I have taken away some interesting info and learning points.

CABUS :ok: