AnthonyQ wrote:
To be fair, he was no doubt painfully aware of the Korean Heavy bearing down on him and wanted to make sure he didn’t screw up the exit…
When you are cleared to land it is your runway. Yes he was aware but on short final you don’t discuss your exit. If you miss the early exit you go to the next.
To be honest he seems quite overwhelmed by the whole situation.
Yes…although on the whole I think he did very well as a non-professional single pilot IFR… In fact the only cringe I had was a “Nigel” dragging out his message…
I wouldn’t be harsh with him. AFAIK, he has only been flying, at least IFR, for a few years now (he’s not posting on this forum unfortunately). But he does fly all around Europe in all sorts of weather, pretty much “on a schedule”. So far, I do think it is “GA at its best”.
It’s always easy to make comments from the armchair. He was stressed, which is very understandable, flying into a place like Frankfurt in weather like that. When we are stressed, we sometimes say the wrong things or at least put them wrongly. I am sure he knows that ATC is only ever interested in IAS. He reminded ATC he would be going to the south side to make sure he would get the proper runway assignment – fair enough.
He said he had pepple waiting for him at that airport, that’s why he wanted to get there. Sure, that’s another stress factor that one should try to avoid, but at least it explains why he went in there. He probably didn’t know the area well, so in hindsight, cancelling IFR and going VFR, in poor weather, to an unfamiliar airport so close to Frankfurt might not have been better. But yes, a taxi between these two airports is “only” about 40€.
I am surprised he relied on ATC RADAR. In Europe I never assume ATC pay attention to weather.
From the audio, it clearly transpires that ATC did have a proper WX radar picture in front of them and that they did have a clear idea about going where was the best. Also, the pilot may not know the constraints of ATC as far as the further vectoring is concerned (multi-runway layout!). So I wouldn’t call going with an ATC suggestion all too dumb. Pilots without radar on board do it all the time. German ATC is pretty much the best in Europe in terms of weather assistance. Don’t get that anywhere else.
I can second that. Just flew EDDK Cologne to EDVK Kassel less than two hours ago. In the vicinity of Cologne there was quite a bit of weather and they vectored people around it. On approach into EDVK ATC advised that there was weather around WRB but I was VMC and eventually did opted for the approach south via XAROL as didn’t look good ahead, Yes, German ATC does have WX radar and they use it.
Would it be fair to judge the video wearing the hat of a relatively inexperienced GA passenger? Would your passenger have felt comfortable? While posting the video is very helpful and appreciated, the experience of the flight and the stress on the pilot should encourage some thinking of how the flight might be conducted differently? I am guessing this is why the pilot posted the video so good on him.
The impression given is that he has not flown into a busy hub before, or at least not Frankfurt. There are a few minor examples, for example some lack of more decisive airmanship on deviating a safe distance from build ups, engaging with ATC on runway exits while on the localiser, not having the tower frequency set up, which suggest he is not as ahead of the aircraft and airport ops as he would like. However, why choose a day with TCU/CBs and what seems to be rush hour to try your hand at this?
In any event trying to Monday morning quarterback in an open manner is the point of posting videos like these. It would be great if more were posted and we could be thick skinned enough to receive the comments.
Bosco, I agree with many things you say but it f you put it on the internet, you invite comment. Some things are fine but I don’t think it is “GA at its best” I am afraid. A good instructive video though. his landing looked very smooth however 
LOL
The runway in Frankfurt is a lot smoother than the one in Zurich. Deutsche kvalität.
I would make two observations:
Otherwise – a good job (and some very good luck) getting through that convective stuff.
@RobertL18C wrote:
Mixing it up with heavy iron with a Va of 151 KTAS in TCUs and CBs (MAUW, solo and half fuel the Va is more like 130 KTAS) struck me as odd.
Robert, I thank you for that comment. Va seems actually the main point here, as, all in all, he is just suffering from turbulences he is unable to forecast. At some point in the (turbulent) descent in IMC, we see that the IAS is going way up, definitely more that 130kt.
JasonC wrote:
RADAR use could use some tilt management.
Agree with that. Besides, he seems to leave the picture at the worst moment to get useless Infrared. At the end, he refuses a right turn due to weather, continue on heading, and finally accepts for reasons I don’t know.
“Luck” has been pronounced by some of you, and clearly, I don’t see where the decisions are taken. More like imitating the others on the frequency, but without real plan behind ?
@JasonC
How do you fly such weather ? Tilt, OK, but how much anticipation do you want to ask deviation and avoid a bad cell ?
JasonC wrote:
To be honest he seems quite overwhelmed by the whole situation.
I have been sometimes, and won’t blame him. That’s just about learning.
@boscomantico wrote:
cancelling IFR and going VFR
Bosco, when would you cancel in such a situation ? Well before the approach with the whole weather map ? When he gets the “weather hole” ?
@Peter wrote:
he should get the ventilation system sorted – something was clearly wrong with it
Do you have such a towel in your plane in case of condensation ? :-D
