Inadvertent IMC

[Ed Cesnalis]

I find the discussion on Pilots of America thought provoking. The common unstated belief is that your are a goner doomed to exit the layer in a spiral if you inadvertently enter IMC.

 

You are lucky that you are not dead is the common reaction over there.

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmm,

 

I have never had any instrument training but I have always been able to fly via instruments, night flying in the mountains sometimes requires reference to instruments to remain clear of terrain that you cannot see. My first event entering IMC inadvertently occurred flying home from South Lake Tahoe at night after a Willie Nelson Concert. It was a dark moonless night and I found myself intermittently in rain and clouds.

 

A more recent event happened in my CT along the reciprocal route of flight, headed for Minden in the daytime to get work done on my CT. I was enveloped in smoke from forest fires over 200 miles away, the smoke came from lower altitudes and up canyons in a way where I didn't see it coming and by the time I did see it there was no exit. With synthetic vision and a big moving map with terrain view the flying wasn't challenging at all.

 

I am not advocating VFR flight into IMC but I am questioning the conventional wisdom that you likely have only seconds to live, my experience doesn't agree. I live and fly in an environment that lacks line of sight and access to ATC. Today inadvertent IMC is far less likely and easier to deal with if it does occur because there is so much information in my cockpit and the views are so intuitively presented but even when relying on VORs and ADF and steam gauges I found the reality different than the conventional wisdom.

 

my 2 cents

[Anticept]

I've inadvertently hit IMC as well.

 

Here's the thing about IMC. FLYING in IMC is cake, even with little training. Just do a standard rate 180 turn and leave it if you go into it. It's getting all of the approaches and holds down to precision that makes it so difficult.

[Tom Baker]

Some people really struggle when they get in IMC. I know I do even though I am instrument rated, because I don't fly IFR very often. One thing I teach is to make that 180 degree turn with rudder only and have your hands off the stick or wheel and reduced power if you need to descend. To often the accidents from inadvertant flight into IMC are caused from over controling while trying to fly the airplane.

[Ed Cesnalis]

The navy does not teach its students to do a 180 instead the navy teaches student naval aviators who accidentally encounter IMC to commit themselves to flying on instruments to keep the greasy side down.

 

I avoid scud running but I have been on mountain crossings where things closed up in front of me and behind me at the same time, the 180 exit sounds obvious but when you are below the terrain you might want to give priority to avoiding the granite clouds.

 

I have used the 180 exit and I have pressed on.

[Mick]

I don't fly instruments and never intended to, but I got the rating and keep current just so i can handle it and just as important, know I can handle it and keep calm. Being an east coast flyer, my first and usually best choice is the constant altitude 180.

[FastEddieB]

We certainly are blessed with large screens (or not so large, in my case) to show us where the horizon should be.

 

It's almost like having a window peering though our panel at the real horizon.

 

Compare that to this:

 

 

But...

 

...until you've faced real vertigo, you don't really have a handle on what can happen and how powerful our instincts are when our inner ear conflicts with what we're seeing. It's been a killer over the years, and only enough training to enable a pilot to "trust his instruments" can overcome our lizard-brain reflexes.

 

It's fine to have confidence. But I'm sure JFK Jr. and myriad other pilots probably thought, in a pinch, they could handle IMC for at least long enough to get out of it - and died trying.

[FastEddieB]

Watch this video.

 

http://www.aopa.org/...TVdKZRHoXPZe9vs

 

I had seen that at least once before.

 

Chilling.

 

Huge PFD and MFD could not overcome spatial disorientation, and he was in IFR training.

 

Not to derail, but seeing the parachute among the wreckage brings up another point...

 

...if that pilot had simply pulled CAPS, four lives would have in all probability not been lost that day.

 

What stopped him? And isn't it inevitable that Monday morning quarterbacks online would have criticized his decision?

 

What a waste.

[FlyingMonkey]

I hit IMC one time, dim conditions on a flight I should not have made leading me into a cloud bank that was at the wrong altitude according to weather reports in the area. I saw that the haze ahead was actually a cloud about five seconds before I hit it, by then I had already started my 180. As soon as the view outside went gray-white I stopped looking outside and looked only at my EFIS for attitude. My total time in that cloud was less than ten seconds, maybe less than five. Scared the shit out of me. If I had made my 180 and not broken out I would have started a climb to see if I could break out on top. If that had not worked or I had gotten disorientated I would have ridden the silk elevator down.

 

Man, I never want to do that again.

[Anticept]

Ctflier:

 

If you get caught in IMC and have no way out, for you I have a different recommendation. First thing is CAN you make a 180 safely? Can you make a climbing 180 turn safely? Do you have your charts handly to see what the ground altitudes are and your position?

 

If it isn't immediately available, climb and get altitude if you can, and get that terrain info up right away! If you have a x96 gps, it has a terrain mode, if you have it updated. Once you are sure you are not going to slam into a mountain, you need to establish contact with ATC. Since it is the mountainous areas, ATC comms may be intermittient until you get really high up, probably more than a CT can go in places. If you know how to read an IFR chart, great! If not, go get a little instrument training on charts so you can read the ATC altitude MRA/MEA.

 

If you can contact ATC, they will help guide you.

 

If you cannot contact ATC, then use your judgement. Make your way to an airport with a control tower, and they should be able to help guide you down.

 

Outside of that, a couple rules in IMC:

-you should not make turns greater than standard rate. Even though solid state devices are more reliable than vacuum, hard turns may throw off their guideance for a short time. It also helps you to keep your bearings, whereas hard turning will increase the chance of disorientation.

-stay coordinated! Uncoordinated turns amplifiy instrument error.

 

Other than that, use your judgement. I never want to get caught in IMC in mountains unprepared myself.

[Doug G.]

I have taken a little bit of training, but there is no instrument rating for a light sport pilot. I found it pretty easy to get out of unusual attitudes with foggles. I think one of the big tricks is to keep your eyes on the panel - everything you need should be there in most, if not all of our planes.

[FastEddieB]

Anticept,

 

One thing not mentioned in your post is the chute.

 

It should not be an immediate or automatic decision, but it should at least be considered.

 

In fact, one of the Cirrus safety mottos is "CAPS....CONSIDER".

 

The relevance is that many pilots have gone to their deaths, never having made the positive decision to pull, when it almost certainly would have saved their lives. If the chute was not part of one's training, there's a good chance it will not even be considered, right up to the end.

[coppercity]

Another great tool many of us have in our aircraft that can really help in an inadvertent IMC condition is the autopilot. Even a simple one like the Tru Track keeps you level in pitch and roll, can do a 180 for you, can navigate to VFR weather so long as you know where it is and can even climb and descend for you. As Eddie mentions above, the chute should be a consideration especially during an unusual attitude in which the pilot is disoriented. I try to incorporate a bit of instrument flying into Flight Reviews I give regardless of the rating held. Also Sport pilots should be getting a little bit of instrument training prior to solo cross country, Private pilots get at least 3 hours of flight by reference to instruments and must demonstrate it during the practical test. If you have not flown on instruments in a while or ever, grab a CFI and go do some.

[Patrnflyr]

Auto pilot! It's one of the few things than can really save your butt during an inadvertent IMC excursion. It can fly a lot better than you. I did my training a couple of years ago and they DEMAND extensive training with your AP if you have one on board. AND, you are tested extensively during the checkride to prove you know how to do it.

[FlyingMonkey]

THe biggest danger with IMC is leaving or turning away from it and getting too close to a sudden appearance of the ground or an obstacle. The danger is concentrating on the cloud and giving up attention to the other things you normall look for flying VFR. And of course, the chance another aircraft is entering the same cloud or obscuration.

 

Scud running is a great way to hit an antennaor worse.

 

It depends on your terrain. Where you live that is a big concern, not so much here in central Georgia, there is just not that much terrain at normal flying altitude except in the North Georgia mountains.

 

In my encounter once clear of the cloud I dropped down to stay below all the cloud layers in a "scud run" to make sure I stayed clear of all clouds. I liked my chances at low altitude with terrain and obstacle alerts from the 496 better than my chances if I got into another cloud. Luckily I was right on the edge of a weather system and only had to stay at the lower altitude for a few miles to get into higher ceilings.

[Ed Cesnalis]

It depends on your terrain. Where you live that is a big concern, not so much here in central Georgia, there is just not that much terrain at normal flying altitude except in the North Georgia mountains...

 

This Google earth capture shows an approach to Runway 36 at KTVL South Lake Tahoe. This is about 5 miles south with the runway obscured by the ridge on the right. I can tell my glide path is good if I'm 2-300' below HWY 50 on the mountain to the left.

 

Somtimes the Lakes have a cloud/fog layer and here you might not see it until you are about to enter it. If I entered here I would press on and forget the 180.

[mocfly]

The Trutrak has proven its metal to me. Rather than trying to hand fly the plane i would let George handle the controls while monitoring the instruments. I have on occasion programmed an Approach into the GPS and it has performed flawless. Using the power to control the step downs makes it as close to coupled as you can get.

 

My opinion is a proficient pilot will understand the full operational capabilities and proper usage in regular flight and in the event of an emergency, of the equipment he is flying. It took a problem while flying with another pilot to bring the point home. I try hard to work on being proficient regarding my equipment, whether its reviewing the rotax manuals or the FD Assembly drawings and even the old posts here.

[Craig]

The danger is concentrating on the cloud and giving up attention to the other things you normally watch for flying VFR.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm not a pilot, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night) but I thought the vast majority of your VFR flying should be by reference outside the cockpit, so you're saying continue watching the things you normally watch for flying VFR (i.e. keep looking outside the cockpit)?

[FastEddieB]

The Trutrak has proven its metal to me.

 

I think the word you're looking for is "mettle"!

 

In any case, an autopilot may end up being a VFR pilot's absolute last straw in surviving an IMC encounter.

 

That's IF he or she has adequate training, and...

 

...the autopilot does not malfunction or exceed its limitations and disconnect, and...

 

...vertigo and the survival instinct does not lead a pilot to distrust and then overpower it.

 

By the time a VFR pilot is in IMC conditions and counting on an autopilot to save his or her bacon, all the eggs are in one basket, as it were.

 

I applaud training for that eventuality. Even more important is to train to AVOID that eventuality!

[mocfly]

Again my opinion is that for inadvertent flight into IMC by a VFR pilot who is not profeciebt (Ed, is that spelled right?)in basic flight by ref to instruments and has an operating Auto pilot which he knows how to operate. Would be to engage the A/P and initiate a 180 degree turn immediately.

 

Ed,

What do the statistics say is the time to loss of control when a VFR pilot finds himself in IMC? How would you avoid flying into a cloud at night?

 

 

[FlyingMonkey]

What do the statistics say is the time to loss of control when a VFR pilot finds himself in IMC? How would you avoid flying into a cloud at night?

 

Something around 180 seconds.

[Jim Meade]

I've flown over a slanted deck at night and found the temptation to treat the tilted stratus cloud as the earth's horizon was almost overwhelming. The only option was to go on instruments.

 

[FastEddieB]

I-75 and Alligator Alley flying into S FL can be similarly disorienting.

 

I've had those slanted cloud decks while ferrying crop-dusters over water that had no gyros - very spooky and hard to deal with. The "horizon" was often just a hazy line between darker blue below and lighter blue above. If that line slanted, all bets were off.

[Marco01]

Just to share one personal experience plus one wrong assumption: I always considered that is If I get IMC, I would execute a 180 plus slightly climbing at the same time to increase safety margin. 2 days ago, I found out that this is not the best for the following reason.

I was flying under a low ceiling of 1000 ft, my height was at 700 ft. What happenned is that the ceiling went suddenly down to <500 ft, I found myself suddenly IMC. Not a big deal, and start my 180 + climb looking at the Dynon. The first issue came when the 180 was complete, my height was then arround 1300 ft, so, still IMC since ceiling was at 1000ft. The second issue is that the 180 DOES NOT bring you on the same track, but probably more than a km away due to the light rate turn during the 180. No mountains arround, but hilly country side with many wind turbine. I then started going down to get lower than 1000 ft, and get VMC back in less than 10 seconds... Not the best seconds feeling of my life!