IFR "War Stories"

I think a very fertile ground for dodgy IFR stories would be from Z or Y flight plan flights, or more specifically a departure from a non-towered airport.

A number of people have been killed doing that, but fairly obviously they entered IMC without an IFR clearance. You can have comprehensive “fun” even without entering proper IMC…

But it is a difficult situation at the best of times. I recall departing St Yan on a Sunday and not getting hold of anybody for about half an hour. Luckily I had the French VFR charts running as a moving map (Oziexplorer with a “dodgy” map source ) so avoided busting CAS while flying in the general direction I wanted to go. Similarly flying from a private field in Greece to Corfu – about a 1-2hr flight and that was a similar thing, but worse because I don’t really think anybody along the route had ever found my flight plan until after I landed! It was 1-2km vis in haze and plenty of terrain to ~5000ft, but again luckily I was running the topo maps on the same GPS.

Most pilots don’t have any sort of meaningful terrain awareness as a moving map because it is difficult to achieve without, shall we say, a little breach of European copyright restrictions. You will therefore never have that sort of data on any panel mount product. The nearest might be full synthetic vision (SV) but that is big bucks in avionics plus big bucks in database costs.

The lesson to be learnt is to do everything possible to obtain a phone number on which you can get an IFR clearance before departure. I think that is just about possible now in the UK, though I don’t think I personally know anybody who has done it (phoned up London Control).

At around 30 hours into the PPL training we did the mandatory instrument time. My instructor took me into the (in my mind “dangerous”) clouds. We did some exercises including an ILS to a close airport. Wow! I was hooked! What a feeling to break through those clouds! Leaving bad weather on the ground, seeing the the sun on top! Or breaking through the clouds in a approach and seeing the runway in front of you! What a comfortable way to travel! Better service from ATC. Higher safety than flying low due to low clouds.

The IR theory and practical training was very time demanding but really interesting and an intellectual experience. During my practical IR training i had the luck of real IMC encounters. I did several approaches down to a 200’ cloudbase in PA28 with GNS430. What a feeling!

I’m a not a frequent flyer as many in this forum, currently only 20-30h a year, but i’ll always file IFR if i can. Hopefully more flying in the future.

I started to fly with the Fire Patrol last year. As a private pilot in Sweden (if you have 200h TT) you can do this in the team of two (pilot and one “lookout”). The plane rental is payed for by the firepatrol. Usually around 2h flight over a fixed route over back country and forests etc.

So here comes one “war story”…. 2 years after my rating, that started out VFR.

Last summer the weather was marginal VFR but we went (with me as PIC) anyway since the forecast told we could fly VFR and with my IFR ticket i felt pretty comfortable. Half way, the ceiling started go downto 500’. I had the choice of making a 180 or continuing. I checked the ATIS on an airport along the route and the ceiling was much better. I asked ATC for a IFR clearance and i climbed to 3000’ where it was VMC. We continued the route for 10 minutes until we found a hole and descend again to 1000’ AGL and could complete our mission VFR. No drama, just more options :) And very fun :)

I have flown that approach into Kathmandu in solid IMC in 2011.
My trip there was delayed by six months, so cheapie charlie me, did not renew my Jepp trip kit “assuming” not much could have changed in the ensuing time…. This was also pre IPad JeppFD.

Suffice to say everything including the VOR frequency had been changed during that time (the first major revision in 20 years!) and I was royaly caught with my pants down around my ankles.

Fortunately my weak sweaty theory that neither the location of the airport, nor the location of the mountains could have changed allowed me to use the old plate successfully, but I was not proud of myself that day, nor wish to relive that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach everytime the controller refered to waypoints or procedures non existent on my version of the approach plate whilst gingerly picking my way down through the sons of Everest in solid cloud.

The word “unable” started sounding like it was coming from a parrot, and the thought kept crossing my mind that this was not the place nor time to be second guessing an approach. Sigh.

Radar vectors are not available for most if it due to the terrain.

And then after landing, when I thought nothing else could go wrong, those cute monkeys that hang around the airport moved in to play with the aircraft…..

More of a horror story than a war story. :-(

E

A couple of quite nasty but printable stories could be extracted from here.

One is a lesson about how an avionics fault could kill you while not showing up on any of the traditional checks (e.g. morse ID, flags) and the other is a story about crappy lubricants which are probably widely used in GA and which the company/ies gets away with because few pilots go above 2000ft…

Unfortunately I will have to refer that Russell quote to Justine, who has a PhD in philosophy

Just like Finners, I got the first taste of instrument flying early in the PPL training. After some 30° and 45° bank turns left and right, the instructor said: “And now, let’s go into that cloud and do them again”. I don’t think I was afraid, but doing this exercise certainly boosted my confidence in the instruments.
As to “IFR war stories”, I have one unravelling right now, as I am on the second overnight stop on a three-leg ferry flight. Will write it up when I arrive.

Here are some from my files.

Departing early winter from San Sebastian, IFR to Madrid, should have requested a non SID departure to climb away from the Pyrenees to FL140, and join airways already on top. The 1950’s de icing technology had to work overtime as I climbed through icing enhanced by orographic lift – a phenomenon nicely spelt out in Met textbooks! Descent not an option due to the mountains.

I have become more compartmentalised in either operating IFR or VFR and not mixing the two. My IMC rating privileges OCAS being kept in reserve as a safety option. I have had two close ups operating on a Z flight plan. On one I was cleared to join and in the climb direct DVR – as I climbed on top a Twinkie was below in my twelve opposite direction – Thames never mentioned the traffic.

A similar close up was of a Cirrus as I turned at Compton, although this was in VFR conditions, but still OCAS.

On another occasion on a Z plan from the Rome area to Milano Linate, I had a particularly unhelpful Rome who were not giving me a join. Rising terrain, lowering ceilings reminded me of Russell’s observation on universals – a more sophisticated planning of a safe MSA track would have been useful to the pilot! I now have very conservative VFR limits if on a Z plan. Y plans give you the option to divert IFR if you do not encounter the VFR conditions you planned for.

Will dig up the Russell quote and edit the post.

Ecco from Chapter VI, on Induction, Problems of Philosophy 1912

We know that all these rather crude expectations of uniformity are liable to be misleading. The man who has fed the chicken every day throughout its life at last wrings its neck instead, showing that more refined views as to the uniformity of nature would have been useful to the chicken.

1
I arrived at the airport for my first IFR lesson in the C-172 RG I would fly for the whole training. We planned to do some basic attitude flying first in the clouds and some airwork. The weather was quite lousy. Overcast 500 ft, raining. We took off on a IFR flight plan and only only seconds after entering the clouds the instructor yelled “okay, my control”. I had no idea what was going on but realized something was wrong. Seconds later he told me that the AI indicator had failed. It was tilted to the left, 45 degrees and when I checked that there was no vacuum indication. The instructor flew the plane back to the airport by the Turn Coordinator and landed.

2
One week later I came back for the next try. Rain, low overcast … Took off into the clouds, climbed to 3 or 4000 feet in the pouring rain, when all of a sudden the whole panel went black. No radio, no lights, no GPS. The instructor reset some Circuit Breakers, electricity went back on, but only for some second, the all went out again. We found a hole in the clouds, descended below the solid layer and flew back, No radio approach and landing …

…. Those wewre my FIRST TWO IFR sessions. I almost quit! The next time I came back I asked: “So, what will it be today? The engine, maybe?” That RG was actually a nice and well mainatined plane, it still flies, just saw it today. Has close to 20.000 hours.

That’s a great story.

I don’t think Timothy is looking for horror stories or tales of reckless flying. I think he just wants interesting stories about IFR flying. You don’t have to make a mistake for something to be interesting or educational.

For me, my very first taste of IFR was on my sixth (PPL) flying lesson. We were due to do slow flight and stalling exercises. The cloud base was far too low for that, but I wanted to fly, so we went anyway. I levelled off at 2,000 feet whilst the instructor got on the radio to negotiate a RAS from a nearby RAF station. He then suggested a further climb. What about the cloud? It’ll be fine… just fly straight. So up we went.

I distinctly remember tensing up immediately prior to entering the cloud. A large knot grew deep in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t quite know what to expect, but climbing toward the cloud seemed a very unnatural act.

Both hands gripped the yoke tightly as the first milky wisps enveloped the aircraft. My eyes were glued to the attitude indicator and my hands began to sweat. Which way was up? Without the instruments I really couldn’t tell. Although I felt uncomfortable, our attitude remained rock solid. Gradually the cloud seemed to get lighter and suddenly, without any real warning, we broke out into the most spectacularly clear sky with only a cotton-wool blanket of cloud beneath us as far as the eye could see. In that very instant I was hooked.