What my instructor never taught me and why that might be a good thing

The Aviation Safety Reporting System, ASRS, is a repository of voluntary, confidential reports of various types of potential safety issues. It contains a lot of interesting reports that are fascinating reading. The one below is from a flight that occurred last year at SQL. Reading it makes you wonder what was this pilot thinking??? In particular, this pilot used a special VFR clearance to depart SQL when the airport was below VFR minimums. My CFI never taught me about SVFR and perhaps that is something that should never be taught to a private pilot.

Here is the narrative has reported by the pilot.

I arrived at the airport from San Francisco and although there was a cloud deck at approximately 600 FT I had noted a number of holes, which I had deemed sufficient to fly through and get on top for VFR conditions. In checking the conditions for the route the conditions were showing overcast at 600 FT with 8 miles of visibility in the bay area and clear to the south and east with 12,000 few in the central valley. I had made the trip the day before under the same conditions with no issue. As I was looking to plan my route, I saw that there was a hole with clear sunlight over Coyote Hills, which meant asking for a special VFR clearance with a cement plant departure and climbing on top as soon as I reached the hole. This was exactly what I had done the day before. In the worst case I had 8 miles of visibility so even with the low ceiling I could always make a u-turn and come back to the airport if there was a problem. I performed the normal preflight and asked for my clearance from the Tower. Once I received this I taxied to the run up area and when I was ready I asked for a clearance.

Just as I was taxiing onto the runway I was stopped by a large goose standing right on the 12 numbers which initiated a dialog with the Tower. Eventually the goose left the runway and I taxied onto the runway for a cement plant take off. In the time I was in the run up and paying attention to the goose I had not noticed that the conditions were changing rapidly and that the fog was moving very swiftly. Once I took off and made a 20-degree turn off the end of the runway, as is the normal procedure and then proceeded to turn towards the cement plant. At this point I was at approximately 400 FT and noticed there were a number of clouds below 600 FT that I needed to avoid. I began to weave around the clouds when the Tower called and inquired about my strange flight and if all was ok. I indicated that I was avoiding clouds and all was fine. At this time the Tower called to hand me NCT Approach. At about the same time I lost sight of the cement plant and the hole I was flying towards. The situation was rapidly getting worse. At that time I decided to turn back to San Carlos and radioed my intentions to the Tower.

I told the Tower that I was turning back due to the clouds and proceeded to turn into a cloud. What I had not realized was the 8 miles of visibility had closed to 0 behind me within a matter of minutes. I was in a cloud with no visibility in any direction. I told the Tower of my situation and tried to descend and see if I could get below the clouds. I was at 300 FT and could not see the water below me and remembered the power lines so I began a steep climb. I then tried turning left and right to see if I could find any visual reference. At this point being a VFR pilot in a cloud with complete white out conditions and no clue which way to go I began to panic. I tried to fly the plane and when I looked at the instruments I was descending at a rapid rate completely uncoordinated and given my height above the water did not have much time before I would crash. I stopped the descent at about 200 FT and remembered my flight instructor telling me to stare at the instruments, as you will have no idea what you are doing otherwise. I can honestly say that until I stared at the gauges I did not realize I was turning at a 45-degree bank while slipping. I immediately began to stabilize the plane and was reporting to the Tower my altitude to make sure there was no traffic that would be a factor.

Once the plane was stable I began to fly coordinated with the instruments and realized that I had no clue of where I was and certainly could not find the airport. I decided to try and get the GPS set so I could use the moving map however after 5 tries it would not accept my input of direct to San Carlos this may have been due to my hitting the wrong buttons in my state or a problem with the GPS. I was lost over the bay in the clouds with traffic and obstacles all around. The Tower was talking to me almost constantly and asking if I could see anything I reported that I was in total white out conditions. He asked if I was IFR certified and I reported I was not. He reported I was just about over Coyote Hills and that I should fly a westerly heading. I began to turn however I was still lost. I flew the heading and he told me there was an instructor in the Tower to help. He had me verify my altimeter with his and the heading I was flying at that point he directed me to fly a heading and report when I can see anything. I flew that heading for what seemed an eternity however could not have been more than a couple of minutes. Eventually the ground below came into sight. I reported seeing the power lines and was able to make sure I was above them however I still could not see the airport. I kept flying and then the 101 highway appeared almost instantly. I reported the highway in sight and then the airport. At that point there was a large hole above the airport and there was very good visibility and not a problem to land.

I made my go no go decision without paying attention to how fast the conditions were changing. As my Hobbs meter indicted .6 from the time I started the conditions went from 600 with 8 miles visibility to complete white out within minutes. The visual reference points all disappeared including the ones behind me that would get me back to the airport in case I could not go forward. From a risk management standpoint the margin for error with a 600-foot ceiling was too narrow. In looking back the questions I should have asked myself were

1.  What is the margin for error in this situation?

2.       What are the consequences of failure if I am wrong? Given the answer to 1 is 600 FT with power lines below and clouds all around the answer is very little. The answer to 2 is I will end up in a cloud and likely to crash into the Bay. An easy answer in hindsight I should have stayed on the ground.

G1000 Data Logging

Michael Vowles has been experimenting with the ability of the G1000 to log data on flights. He recently got this to work in a 172/G1000. The process was to place an SD card in the bottom slot of the MFD. That was it. After the flight, there was a CSV file on the SD card with an entry approximately every second. It records lat/lon, altitude, OAT, IAS, TAS, GS, Vertical speed, fuel, fuel flow, RPM, wind speed and direction, engine, and a number of other parameters. There is a web site that can take this information and put it into a useful format. Below is a report from a recent flight. Interesting data....

Fly the Gap???

It was a beautiful weekend to fly this past Saturday and Sunday. I got a chance to go flying Saturday on a route up to Placerville, Auburn (stop for fuel - human and plane), Cameron Park then a stop at Stockton before returning to San Carlos. I was flying with my friend Michael and his Mom's friend Mort. We had flight following for the flight and was handed off to San Carlos just prior to Coyote Hills. San Carlos tower frequency seemed to be busy but I was able to report in and was told to report the cement plant for left traffic for runway 12. I continued on in and reported over the cement plant and was told #3 following Cessna on crosswind. I didn't immediately see it but picked the traffic up as it turned downwind. All seemed normal. I had noted that the number of planes calling into SQL started to increase. A plane from Crystal springs, another plane from Coyote Hills and yet another plane. The controller was also dealing with one plane that he didn't have the current tail numbers and was trying to get the pilot to read back the full call sign. The level of tension in the controller's voice was increasing. The controller also started issuing instructions for full stop landings which they seem to only do once they get a bit saturated. The plane coming in from Coyote hills for some reason was maneuvering over the cement plant and said they were doing that for spacing. All of a sudden the controller instructed that plan to leave the air space and fly the "gap". I have heard many calls including calls to remain clear of San Carlos airspace but I have never heard an instruction to "fly the gap". After a few more calls the controller explained to fly the gap between San Carlos and Palo Alto class D airspace... now if you have a nice moving map that isn't that hard to do but can you imagine trying to do that on command with just a VFR chart and at probably 800 feet altitude where landmarks aren't all that visible? Lucky for me the only thing happened on my landing was the controller got mixed up and while I was #1 on short final he said I was #2 following the Cessna on short final. Before I had a chance to reply he caught himself and all was good.

Well know I know what this controller means when he says "fly the gap".

...revise the definition of “Night”

An update to the FAR was posted recently and was effective October 12th. One of the changes that caught my eye was a revision to the definition of "Night". I thought to myself how could it be that somehow Night has changed. Perhaps the FAA was going to simplify the various night rules. So I read on with curiosity only to find out that the FAA was merely making a correction in the title of the source for obtaining the published twilight time. Specifically they removed the word "American" from the source document.

SUMMARY: The FAA is correcting the title of the publication ``American Air Almanac'' to its current title ``Air Almanac''.
  Background
The former ``American Air Almanac'' was created to meet the general requirements for air navigation in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. In 14 CFR 1.1 the definition of night refers to twilight times as published in the ``American Air Almanac''. The ``American Air Almanac'' publication ceased in 1953 and is currently called the ``Air Almanac''. This technical amendment corrects the title of the publication.

The "Air Almanac" can be found here

A Star among us...

Most of us have been fortunate to have Patti as a flight instructor. We all know the quality of her teaching style and we have come to appreciate her teaching skills. We know how great of an instructor she is and we sometimes even jealously protect our little secret since Patti has another full time job teaching at Norte Dame de Namur University and does the flight training in between. Now Patti has been recognized for her flight training achievements. Patti is now a Gold Seal instructor... this is an FAA honor bestowed only on CFIs that meet the qualifications and high standards of training. We knew we had a star, now she is Gold!



Good Bye to the Airship

No longer will we be sharing the sky with Airship Ventures' airship. Occasionally one would see if slowly making its way up and down the peninsula. As of November 14th the company has ceased operations.

Its a two way street

I happened to be at MHR yesterday for a visit off airport. When I returned to the FBO I saw two buses parked outside. I thought to myself, wow I wonder if this is some special group departing from the FBO. Maybe some sports team or maybe even the latest music group that I would have no clue about. As I was walking into the FBO it was crowded with a group of mostly older men dressed in non-descript work clothes. Then I caught a glimpse of a logo, PG&E. These 100 workers were being staged to go back to help with restorations of the aftermath of the devastation from Sandy. Walking out to the ramp I saw at least 5 news trucks all capturing this news worthy event. Shortly thereafter I was headed out taxing to the runway when it was overheard the ground controllers wondering what all the activity was about. My right seat heard the talk and communicated back that all the commotion was for the PG&E workers flying out to help out in the aftermath of the Hurricane. It was interesting to note that often times I think the controllers know everything that is going on but in this case they had no clue… so it is indeed a two way street.. pilots know things that the controllers don’t and we should never assume that the controllers are these all knowing voices in our heads.