Most risky flying decisions.

[C.W.E.]

What is the most risky flying decisions you have to make with regard to weather?

Or what type of weather do you least like to fly in?

[C-GGGQ]

Launching training flights in da20's during quick vfr breaks in the lake effect IFR streamers to get to the vfr practice area then flying back in very marginal vfr knowing there is a giant tower over London we need to avoid.

That or doing mandatory discovery flights with 63 knot upper winds and making landings in London with crosswinds so strong the runway was at my 5 o'clock during downwind leg. I was later told the crosswind component was 25kts or 5 it's beyond the diamonds published limits.

Confessions of a dumbass 19 year old class 4 at a shady operator. It's a good thing teenagers are immortal cause God are most of us idiots during those years...

[Lightchop]

Departing into 300/1 and having it drop on me. Did it once, never again. The fact that ops spec exists is scary.

[PilotDAR]

While training a friend in his 182 amphibian, we were flying south in Finland. I knew the weather was deteriorating ahead of us. My friend wanted to visit his friend at his cottage on the Baltic Sea coast of Finland. I was unsure that weather would hold for us to get that far along, but agreed to try - along a coast, and in a country I had never before flown. I checked weather, and planned an alternate airport along the 100 mile route. As I passed the alternate (Kemi), I cleared through their airspace. Once south of their airspace, and encountering deteriorating weather, I elected to divert back to Kemi. 'Problem was, during that interval - they closed! Silly me, not thinking of that! Their frequency was now manned by an airport further into the deteriorating weather (Oulu). They were below VMC. Not knowing, I decided to ask, would they accept a request for special VFR. To my happy surprise and relief, a very welcoming "Of course" was the reply. So special was issued to me, cleared direct to Oulu.

'Next problem was, I was at 700 feet over the water, in a couple of miles of vis, and I could see lots of windmills on the coast. Direct [across all of those windmills] was just a bad idea. The GPS was happy to magenta me direct, and to my alarm, was not giving me obstacle alerts. I was not going to distract myself from flying, to start to fool around with the GPS in VFR mode. So, I reverted to the ILS. I flew down the coast staying over the water, until I intercepted the localizer, and followed it in to Oulu as cleared, reasoning that they do not put windmills on ILS approach paths. The GPS provided adeqaute situational awareness to reassure me. I allowed the plane to climb a bit on the localizer until I intercepted the glideslope, and then back down I followed it to an entirely acceptable approach and landing. Of coarse, none of this should be a big deal, and had we been planned and filed IFR, with a well set up GPS approach, it would have been normal. But, instead, unplanned circumstance lured me further into deteriorating weather on a planned VFR flight, and changing conditions introduced room for mistakes.

We parked across from a diesel C 182, which bore the registration "OH-WTF", which I photographed for my amusement. The next day was much nicer, and as the owner flew, I mused about the windmills on both sides of the departure path as we left. I got around to reading the manual for the GTN 750, and G 500, and learned a few things about the Garmin factory settings for obstacle warnings (which I should have known before!). I did not scare myself, I've certainly flown IFR in worse weather, and this was a very well equipped aircraft. But, it was not right, and I'm getting too old to be playing games in deteriorating weather like that, particularly in a distant and unfamiliar land!

[Big Pistons Forever]

All the scary VFR flights I have done have involved low vis. Assuming no terrain issues I would rather have 500 and 20 than 5000 and 2

[pelmet]

We parked across from a diesel C 182, which bore the registration "OH-WTF", which I photographed for my amusement.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=airplane ... Cb5PSMAN9M:

https://aviationhumor.net/funny-aircraft-registrations/

[youhavecontrol]

Two months ago I did a training area flight with a student who needed help with his upper air work. The winds were very strong, but became insanely strong upon return, with little warning from the TAF. When I was on final, the aircraft in front of me, which was a Jazz Dash 8 reported to tower that they had a 20kt wind shear on final. "Did you copy that, (my call sign)?" tower asked me, to which I replied, "affirmative, we have our seat belts on tight." The guy on tower laughed and probably watched our landing very closely.

On three separate occasions during the approach I had to apply full power to stop the aircraft from sinking. Two different times, I had to use full aileron and rudder deflection to stop the aircraft from rolling. It was a wild ride, and I kept hitting my head on the roof. The landing actually turned out pretty good, but that approach was rough from all the mechanical turbulence off the buildings. Would have made a great addition to those 'Crosswind Landings' YouTube video compilations. Haha. I was landing a 1500lbs Diamond Eclipse on runway 27, with winds 330 15 gusting 38kts.

[Heliian]

ugh, please don't remind me of my young and foolish days.

3 occasions I can recall making extremely poor decisions. One resulted in a breach of airspace, one resulted in getting home and one resulted sitting on a logging road for hours waiting for a fuel delivery. All three involved the decision to take off in marginal conditions just to "get er done". Dumb.

[Blueshift]

As BPF alluded to, the only times I've really scared myself taking risky decisions was scudrunning VFR.

[rookiepilot]

Planned pleasant VFR flight over the front range in the US turned into filing IFR and crossing in IMC, unreported smoke, turbulence and even some light mountain wave, which was a new experience. Didn't like that combination much over the rocks in a SE even though I had lots of clearance.

Should have diverted before crossing as upper winds were probably too strong.

[Chris M]

VFR into hard IMC as a 30 hour student pilot. Dumbest thing I've done in my life. Nearly became a statistic that day.

[hotdog1]

Low vis, when you have to look out the side window to see the tree tops cause there is nothing but white fog out the windscreen, and knowing there is a ridge and hills in the area that you are already below. And you can feel your passengers staring at you for reassurance that it’s ok.

Or sandstorms when the wind is 95 mph in my c-150!!

[MortyBubba]

The most risky flying decision is easy.

Not saying “NO” when you should actually say no.

That saves you from a ton of problems.

[iflyforpie]

In light aircraft VFR it was always high winds and lee mechanical turbulence and mountain wave. Unless it’s accompanied by telltale clouds or blowing snow it’s often impossible to see and avoid. Bad visibility and precipitation and thunderstorms were always things I managed to avoid in almost two decades of flying. I think he worst I did was 2SM in smoke (can’t see ahead of the cowling) following roads through the mountains....... but as it was drift smoke and there was no clouds I didn’t anticipate any problems getting through. Even night VFR through Rogers Pass in a Cessna 150 was easy (thanks to clear skies, full moon, and intimate knowledge of the area).

Flying hard IFR has opened up other challenges but there are few times the weather is still legal and excessively risky. Part of it is having a very capable aircraft. Part of it is being used to flying around bug smashers and always having extra fuel and a back door open. But I think the most important thing is that I’ve always worked for people who never pushed me or questioned my decision to refuse a flight.

[photofly]

You are all way braver than I am.


Shiver.

[goingnowherefast]

A lot of my risky decisions I made not knowing how risky they were. It's seeing the results of that decision that allow learning, and better decision making in the future. It's the process of building experience.

Can't say I've ever done something stupid knowing it was stupid. Only afterwards did I realize how dumb it was.

Unforecast weather is a tricky one. I have taken off with 3 decent alternates, well above what's legally required. By the time I missed the destination, nothing is above minimums. If the meteorologists can't predict that, not sure how I am supposed to.

Another tricky one is mechanical problems. The CARs require sufficient fuel to fly single engine, or at 10,000' unpressurized to a suitable airport. Those are the easy ones. Well what happens if you go to land at destination and the gear partially extends. With that extra drag, it's easy to find yourself with nothing in diversion range that has emergency services. Could do the same problem with flaps stuck where every runway in range is too short to land flap-less.

[Zaibatsu]

That's where risk assessment steps in.

What are the risks of a known hazard (overrunning a runway that's too short with no flaps, or landing with partial gear at an unserviced airport) vs running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere?

There's things you can do to mitigate risk, too. A call to ATC to notify local emergency services will do much to reduce risk after landing, even though they might not be ARFF.

For me, ice always gives me the willies. It can come on very subtlety and suddenly. All of a sudden you're struggling to make it above a layer or looking for a safe altitude below it. Things like boot failures or prop deice failures always make it fun.

[RatherBeFlying]

A bunch of gliders were happily working a ridge in the Rockies and I took a tow to join in the fun. As were approaching the ridge the viz was crappy and I passed on dodging other gliders that I wasn't seeing.

[Mostly Harmless]

My intro flight.

That lead me down the highway to the danger zone... and many, many years later I am still on that highway.

[trey kule]

I like your answer.

The sense I got is most of the other “risky” decisions might be better described as stupid . And because people survived them, they become risky.

Darned if I am going to join in and confess to, the I was stupider than you game on a public forum..Not that I ever have made a stupid decision flying

The instructor one was a bit of an eye opener.