Flight Training - July 2022 - 8

AROUND THE PATCH BY JILL W. TALLMAN
Another pilot was at the FBO, essentially
doing the same thing as me. He'd
flown in on a Flight Design CT light sport
aircraft. He was en route to New Jersey.
LSAs were just starting to hit the scene in
2004, so that was interesting and I took
the time to check out his airplane. We
chatted about airplanes and compared
notes on the weather. I wish I could
remember his name.
About 4 p.m. he got up, stretched,
and pointed to the sky. " I'm going for it, "
he said, indicating a you-know-what in
the clouds. He climbed into his airplane,
fired up, and took off.
Did he make it to New Jersey? I
JILL W. TALLMAN is an instrumentrated
private pilot who is never
instrument current and is still
conservative about go/no-go
decisions.
jill.tallman@aopa.org
SUCKER HOLE
My mom used to say about a patch of blue sky in a broken
ceiling: " If it's big enough to darn a pair of overalls, there'll be
good weather. "
My kids called that patch something else: " Look, Mom, a sucker hole! "
" Sucker hole " is pilot jargon that refers to that ever-so-tempting hole in the
clouds that could entice you to take off and fly VFR over the top of clouds. It's legal
to do that, but not always safe; hence the term " sucker. " As in, there's one born
every minute. Sucker holes live in the same neighborhood as get-there-itis; if you
see one, you'll likely experience the other.
My son and I were flying from Maryland to North Carolina one hot day in July
2004 when the weather ahead began to look sketchy. There was no ADS-B weather
in the cockpit, so a preflight call to flight service for weather information, eyeballs,
and a call to Flight Watch en route were my primary weather tools. Cumulus clouds
were stacking up, and the haze was getting thicker. I decided to land short of my
destination-in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, just north of the Virginia/North Carolina
border-and check the weather. The weather resources available at the FBO
confirmed my suspicions: Thunderstorms lay ahead, with no easy way to go around
them. We decided to stay put for the night in Mecklenburg.
The next day we headed back to the FBO, loaded up the airplane, and began waiting.
And waiting. The ceiling was 2,000 feet broken. Not terrible but not great, either.
I kept checking the forecast, hoping the conditions would improve. I also telephoned
AOPA Editor at Large Tom Horne, who is always willing to help pilots translate
weather reports and put that info into perspective (and he still takes my calls).
8
FLIGHT TRAINING JULY 2022
assume so. If he could maintain VFR and
was comfortable with the ceiling and
visibility, the federal aviation regulations
don't prohibit flight.
I stayed on the ground and decided
to spend a second night in Mecklenburg.
My son and I borrowed a car from the
FBO and rented a hotel room, and we
swam in the hotel pool, ate pizza, and
ordered the Starsky & Hutch movie on
pay-per-view. We headed back to Maryland
the next day. It wasn't the weekend
I'd envisioned, but it was still great fun.
Was I cautious? I had logged about
258 hours at the time, and I was a noninstrument-rated
pilot flying a rented
Cessna 182 with my 8-year-old son on
board. So yes, I was cautious. Non-instrument-rated
pilots have been known to
misjudge the conditions when attempting
to fly VFR over the top, with fatal
results if they should lose spatial orientation
by accidentally entering clouds.
Research indicates pilots get themselves
into these situations almost weekly, and
it's why the AOPA Air Safety Institute
has launched a safety campaign that
runs now through the end of the year
and focuses on raising your awareness of
this issue so that you will know how to
handle it should the situation arise (see
" ASI Tips, " p. 13).
Although I still experience a twinge
of regret when an abundance of caution
turns out not to be necessary, I remind
myself of the pilot's mantra: " It's better
to be on the ground wishing you were
flying than in the sky wishing you were
on the ground. " Be as cautious as you
need to be as you gain experience, and as
pilot in command, know your limits and
stick to them. FT
Flight Training - July 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - July 2022
