CFI-to-CFI Newsletter - Volume 13 Issue 1 - 11

ASI mESSAGE
BAIL OUT WHEN YOU SAID YOU WOULD
SAY NO, OR ABORT, OR dIVERT AS PLANNEd BY RICHARD G. MCSPADDEN, JR.
TWO FRIENDS DEPARTED MINDEN AIRPORT IN LOUISIANA
(MNE), IN THEIR RESPECTIVE AIRCRAFT IN MARGINAL VFR
CONDITIONS. They established a route of flight into slightly
rising terrain to their destination, Clarksville Municipal Airport
in Arkansas (H35), 170 miles north.
Before takeoff they seemed to realize the potential hazards of
the trip and agreed if things got dicey, they'd divert to Ralph C.
Weiser Field (AGO) in Magnolia, Arkansas, along the route of
flight. By design, plans are based on assumptions. Chief among
these assumptions is the discipline to execute the plan.
According to the preliminary NTSB report, the two pilots departed
one after the other. The second pilot said the weather was " sketchy "
immediately after takeoff, with poor forward visibility. The pilots pressed
on. After 20 minutes of scud-running at less than 1,000 feet agl, in poor
forward visibility, and before reaching their planned divert point, the pilots
entered instrument conditions. Although neither pilot was instrument
rated, they decided not to divert or turn back, believing the weather
would improve farther north. They pressed on. Into rising terrain, into
deepening IMC. The trail pilot noticed on his ADS-B In display that the lead
pilot began a right turn off course. He received a 500 feet agl warning on
ForeFlight, and began a full-power, straight-ahead climb in IMC to 3,500
feet msl, roughly 2,500 feet agl. He couldn't raise the lead pilot on the radio
and continued in IMC for another 15 to 20 minutes before finally getting
visual conditions about 25 miles from their planned destination, Clarksville
Municipal Airport.
According to the NTSB's preliminary report, while the trail pilot was
climbing, the lead pilot continued a slight descending right turn into the
side of Trap Mountain at 1,095 feet msl. He did not survive the impact.
VFR-into-IMC accidents are a frustratingly tenacious problem. Given the
advances in weather forecasting, and the affordability of in-cockpit satellite
weather and moving maps, these accidents should be extinct. METARs,
TAFs, radar pictures, and constantly updated ceiling heights and visibility
are available to us now, refreshed every couple of minutes and color-coded
for quick analysis. All that technology, though, is of limited use if we
don't establish the decision criteria to keep us safe, and then develop the
discipline to execute our decisions. This seems to be the recurring theme
in VFR-into-IMC accidents. We lack the discipline to say no, or to abort, or
divert when we said we would. Every pilot who's perished in a VFR-intoEducating
pilots on improving their skills and enhancing GA safety is a core tenet of AOPA's Air Safety Institute and its educational programs.
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CFI-to-CFI Newsletter - Volume 13 Issue 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CFI-to-CFI Newsletter - Volume 13 Issue 1