Peregrine wrote: ↑Mon Dec 10, 2018 10:53 pm
Chris M wrote: ↑Tue Nov 27, 2018 6:39 am
VFR into hard IMC as a 30 hour student pilot. Dumbest thing I've done in my life. Nearly became a statistic that day.
I'd appreciate it if you could elaborate on how the situation deteriorated as it did. Currently time building for my cpl with winter here, and very much interested in not doing something similar.
Not a whole lot to it really. Get-home-itis combined with being too young, nervous and shy to question things. I was on the final leg of my solo cross country and had been steadily moving lower during the flight to stay under a descending ceiling. Eventually ended up .. running at 1000-ish AGL until I ran out of room between clouds and went into solid IFR. Spent a minute looking down to try seeing the ground and looked up to see myself in the classic descending right turn. Straightened out, looked away from instruments for a few seconds and went right back into that turn. I ended up flying IFR for about 20-30 minutes before coming out the other side.
Mistakes I made and things I should have done:
-Called for an updated weather briefing. The one I had was many hours old by that point and not keeping up with real time.
-Do not let anyone push you faster than you feel is safe. I called my instructor from the airport I landed at and was told "Get going quickly, the weather is getting bad". That was a bad thing to say to a kid who didn't know well enough to say no.
-Know well enough to say no.
-Stay the **** on the ground. Hang out at the airport, sleep on a couch, call a friend, stay at a hotel, whatever. It's all cheaper than your life.
-Divert back to a field behind me when things started going south.
-Immediate 180 back to clear air once I hit the clouds.
-Don't consider myself "better than that". What I mean is that during groundschool we're all taught about how without visual reference you'll eventually flip the plane over, and that once you've started that process your body tends to pull you back to it. I was young and indestructible, and knew that could never happen to me. I'd be able to feel the plane banking and turning. Ya, it doesn't work that way dumbass.
This isn't a story I'm proud of. I don't feel like I did something special. I was fortunate enough to live through a chain of really bad decision that have killed many, many people. There were so many opportunities to turn back that I ignored.
Don't force the weather to teach you respect.