Weather

An upper air sounding from the Slidell, Louisiana, NWS site, located about 85 SM west of the accident site, depicted a moist low-level environment with saturated conditions from 500 feet AGL to 6000 feet with a capping inversion. The freezing level was identified at 14,700 feet. The wind profile indicated calm surface wind with wind from the south-southeast veering to the southwest and west through 18,000 feet. A low-level wind maximum or low-level jet was identified near 5000 feet at 215 degrees at 25 knots, with winds less than 10 knots below 1000 feet AGL.

I had this exchange on a flight back to a rural Arkansas airport from Florida. I usually fly IFR even in VFR conditions. I was at 6000 feet, with a broken layer below me. I usually cancel about 20 miles in advance, as Memphis Center cannot see me on radar, or communicate with me once I descend below 3000 feet.

An approach to safety of dont have an accident and always effectively weight risks doesnt work because we dont take actions we think will cause accidents. Tom Turner recently presented a Wings seminar, Stop Teaching About Safety, covering this. Safetys an integral outcome, not a separate goal. Instead, he suggested approaching flying as its master and commander: The result will be safety. While being master and commander will work for all pilots, the instrument environment presents unique challenges to achieving that goal.

Richfield was forecast to be overcast 2000 or better all day, so you didnt file an alternate and didnt carry alternate fuel. So thats the situation: 12,700 MSL at EBOVE, no GPS, no DME. Even turn off GPS location on your iPad if you have that. (In ForeFlight, this is in settings, scroll to the bottom, and set Enable Ownship to Never.) Give yourself 45 minutes of fuel at normal cruise. No one said you were good at planning.

When average Americans wake up and go to work every day, they expect to see mostly the same faces, same routine, the same stuff-like the expression same stuff, different day suggests. When pilots and air traffic controllers go to work, its often the same coworkers in the room or cockpit, but we both work with people on a daily basis that we have most likely never met. In fact, the chance that a center controller has met a pilot that they talk to on the radio is miniscule. Tower and TRACON controllers might have a somewhat higher chance.

The day starts in Mansfield, Ohio by stuffing your Piper Arrow to its max gross weight. The plan is to stop for fuel at Queen City Municipal in Allentown, Pennsylvania on the way to Massachusetts. You load three other people, bags and as much fuel as weight permits-25 gallons. Meticulous flight planning shows 1.7 hours to get to KXLL, burning 9.2 gph. This leaves one hour of reserve, slightly buffering the legal minimum 45-minutes of 91.167(a)(3). And, youve diligently followed 91.103 as far as knowing all available information for the flight, including weather, runways and some backup airports should you need to stop en route.

Flying brings pilots into all kinds of unexpected meteorological hazards. Normally we present you with introductory articles about these topics so you can understand what they are, where they occur, and how they work. But sometimes presenting an actual case study from NTSB reports really drives the point home. We see the hazard vividly from the perspective of those who faced this same sort of trouble. We can see actual data reconstructed from that day, challenging us to ask questions for, hopefully, a safer outcome for ourselves.

At my home field in Farmindale, NY, (KFRG), one Sunday I was entering the pattern after a long trip. A student soloing in a Cessna 172 was in the pattern doing touch-and-goes. I heard the following exchange.Republic Tower: Cessna Two Six Seven Three Bravo, cleared for touch and go. Make right traffic and report the downwind.

Thank you for a great publication. It really helps knock some rust off. My question is for Tim Vasquez: Where did you get that chart shown on page 22 of the April issue?As a SPIFR EMS helicopter pilot, icing is my Achilles heel. Not only do I have the same problems as the fixed wing community-weight, reduction of lift etc.-but I also have asymmetric shedding that will tear the aircraft apart rather quickly. Also, as an EMS aircraft, my flights are not very long so I never get above about 3 to 4000 feet.

Perhaps its my airline background, or perhaps Im just arrogant. But I would never think of planning an IFR flight unless I felt proficient enough to fly any reasonable approach all the way to published minimums. Sure, something might happen on the day of the flight or even on the way that might cause me to increase the margins a bit-and recognizing and reacting to that is a good thing-but planning to fly and simply excusing a lack of proficiency by increasing minimums seems to miss the point.

In June, the FAA put on hold its flight testing for the Piston Aviation Fuels Initiative (PAFI) unleaded 100LL replacement fuels program. The FAA said it would assess issues related to the differences between the two PAFI fuels and 100LL. Both fuel producers, Shell and Swift, are currently evaluating options to mitigate the impacts that these differences will present in fuel production, distribution, and operation in the GA fleet, said the FAA. The FAA also said it will also assess alternative fuels developed outside the PAFI program. Meanwhile, General Aviation Modifications Inc. (GAMI) said its close to completing testing on its own 100-octane unleaded fuel. GAMI sidestepped PAFI in favor of a more streamlined STC approval process.

Establish yourself on the reciprocal of the ILS localizer course, 351 degrees, and fly outbound on the localizer. Since youre outbound on the front course, remember to correct away from the needle on the localizer. (See, Reverse Sensing and Reverse Sensing-HSI in the June and July 2016 issues.) Two minutes is usual. Then turn to the outbound procedure turn heading of 036 degrees. The Instrument Flying Handbook specifies flying that heading for 40 seconds, although many of us were taught to fly it for a full minute. Either is fine so long as you remain inside the limit. Then, make a standard-rate left turn to 216 degrees and join the 171-degree localizer.