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Joined: Thu May 31, 2012 9:25 pm
Posts: 86
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What keeps this one in my head is how nobody thought to mention it in my training, even though I had better than average and more thorough training than most during the earlier part of my career. Maybe it's because no one imagines how hard a young pilot will push the weather.
I was trying to cut a few miles off a fairly short 206 trip through the mountains by using a slightly more direct but higher pass I had nt been through before. The weather at the entrance of the pass looked good. It deteriorated slowly as I climbed into it. Confidant in my lightly loaded plane and 1200 hrs of experience, I continued. Ten miles in, I was about 5 miles from the valley and road on the other side, the road being about 2000 feet lower than where I was, at the high point of the pass. The vis was down low, I don't know how low..l could still see where I would turn, as I puttered along with flaps 10 and maybe 90 kts. The valley petered out into flatter terrain at the top, making navigating a bit harder.
Finally I came to the point where the terrain dropped away, down to the lower terrain and hopefully better vis. It dropped away much more steeply than the valley I had climbed up.
This was my mistake, and not one I had ever been cautioned about...flying down a steep slope in poor vis. As the ground dropped away, the vis didn't improve as I had hoped. Also, to maintain reference to the ground, I would have had to drastically reduce power and add flap. I did neither, or not enough, and as I continued the ground dropped away steeply from under me. I could see nothing but cloud ahead. Too late I started my left turn 180 back the way I had come. I had already descended down the mountainside, and realized I would have to fly a turn that descended with the slope at first to maintain visual, then transition to a steep climb back the way I had come.
Halfway around the turn I thought I saw an opening below and ahead, and hesitated, slowing the turn. Another mistake. Changing my mind again, I added power and pulled hard, desperately trying to maintain contact with the ground. I have no doubt that if I had lost the ground at that point I would have died. It's dangerous enough to transition to instruments low down, but in a steep turn, close to terrain, I was so twisted up I wouldn't have had a chance.
I didn't, and I managed to probe my way back to the top of the pass, where the weather seemed to be worse than before. I tried to follow my gps track back the way I had come, couldn't, and finally ended up getting out and down another way by flying with flap 20 and 65 kts just above the trees for half an hour before conditions improved.
Life seemed particularly vivid and special for the next few days.
I learned a few things that day. Don't push so hard. Don't bother with the slightly shorter new way in wx. Don't try to fly down a steep hill in fog. Turn around before you think your life is in danger, not when it is. When you do decide to turn, turn, don't stop and think about it halfway round.
I'm sure everyone has a moment like this, when they almost die and learn a few things, maybe changing how they fly. It bothers me that this has to happen, because of course quite a few don't survive it.
If this story kept me awake at night, it would be because when I train people, I realize its the things I never thought of, or never experienced, or was never taught that will be the greatest holes left in their knowledge, and the biggest risks.
So use your imagination, think what might kill you that your instructor never thought of. |
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