AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2022 - 100

RUDDER & WRENCH
NEVER AGAIN /
Into a monster
It looked benign. It wasn't.
BY STEVE WEAVER
on the ground waiting for the weather to
clear. No more scud running to stay VFR.
No more scheduling my trips around the
weather. I was now a cloud dancer, and
I could run with the big guys who made
the airplane noises come from the inside
of clouds. This was more like it.
I'd made a few tentative forays into
I CR OUCHE D M I S E R A BLY behind the
instrument panel of the shuddering, heaving
Piper Aztec, listening to what sounded
like a million BBs being shot against my
windshield. I was reviewing my options as
well as my sins, and I took what comfort I
could from an observation that I remembered
by someone who had been there;
that when you're really flying in hail, you
won't wonder if that's what it is. I was still
wondering, so this must still be rain. But
rain like this, I'd never seen. This was like
being inside a garbage can that was being
shot with fire hoses. I wondered how the
100
AOPA PILOT / September 2022
engines could continue to run, since they
seemed to be under water. Lightning was
streaking on each side of me and almost
at the same time the deafening crash of
the thunder would, for an instant, block
the noise of the rain and even the engines.
I was smack in the middle of a thunderstorm
and I was not a happy young aviator.
It was the early 1970s and after surviving
almost 5,000 hours of VFR flying,
doing flight instruction, banner towing,
VFR charter, and whatever other flying
there was to do, I had, at last, a brandnew
instrument ticket. No more sitting
mild instrument conditions, and everything
was working just as it was supposed
to. The flight plans were accepted, the
clearances were issued, and I took my
place with all the other murk lurkers and
experienced no surprises. I even sounded
like I mostly knew what I was doing, and
most of the flights were smooth and the
minimums high. I was a real IFR pilot,
and I was gaining confidence in myself,
the equipment, and the system. I liked
IFR flying. Life was good.
The never-to-be-forgotten trip that
changed forever these warm, fuzzy feelings
about instrument flying was across
the mountains of West Virginia, to a midsize
airport in Virginia.
It was summer, and the forecast contained
the usual " chance of scattered
afternoon thunderstorms " warning, but
the weather looked good to me when I
checked in at Flight Service. This was
well before internet accessible radar and,
also, I believe, before Flight Service had a
radar repeater, or at least before they let
you look at it. You were to simply read the
teletype information pertaining to your
flight, while you took frantic notes and
tried to assemble the jumble of facts and
numbers into something you could use.
I did this, as best I could, and it looked
to me like this day would be just another
good IFR experience.
The Aztec was almost new, and one
we were using in our charter service. It
was well equipped for its day, but lacking
NANETTE HOOGSLAG
AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2022

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