A video about being trapped over clouds in icing conditions

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Oracle427
Chief Master Sergeant
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Location: 3N6
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A video about being trapped over clouds in icing conditions

Post by Oracle427 »

http://www.pilotworkshop.com/blog/trapped-av

A most interesting and informative video. I was tense watching the situation develop with a fortunately happy outcome.

Sorry the Pilot Workshops site requires that one provide an email for it to share the video. I haven't been getting spam from them over the past couple of days...
Flight Simmer since 1983. PP ASEL IR Tailwheel
N28021 1979 Super Viking 17-30A

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scottb613
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Joined: 28 Dec 2015, 11:06
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Re: A video about being trapped over clouds in icing conditi

Post by scottb613 »

Hi Folks,

Illustrates extremely well - all the things you SHOULDN'T do on a flight - seems to have completely ignored the VFR visibility and cloud separation minimums as well - still very interesting to watch...

Regards,
Scott


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ryanbatc
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Re: A video about being trapped over clouds in icing conditi

Post by ryanbatc »

Nice, that's Keith Smith in his Lancair 360.... he owns Pilotedge.net (I highly recommend that by the way)....

I haven't actually watched the video yet but I'm pretty sure he's legal there. Ok so I watched the video (not the full video you have to pay for)... It looks legal to me... 1000 ft above... 1 mile horizontal (above 10k) + 5 mi flight vis... hard to tell from the camera. One thing to note, even though he doesn't declare an emergency he could be having an emergency anyway and in that case you can legally do what you have to (as you know). I agree that the decision making wasn't the best but he does have his instrument rating so it's not like he's a VFR only pilot getting into that situation. edit: Another thing I noticed... he tried to get a special above 10k. Can't do that (at least from an air traffic perspective).... I think that's why the controller said standby.

I think the point of the video is to learn from it and yes I agree, what happened wasn't great, but I presume that's why he showed it.

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Oracle427
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Re: A video about being trapped over clouds in icing conditi

Post by Oracle427 »

ryanbatc,

Yep PE is a great service and we've used it in my local flight school at N07 where Keith bases his Lancair.

I do agree he remained legal for just about the whole time, but the really big concern in this portion was that Keith could not get down without passing through visible moisture in icing conditions.

While he was operating legally he was going to have to cruise through or descend through icing conditions nearly down to the surface. That Lancair has extremely tiny wings and probably will turn into a brick if it starts to ice up. If you watch his descent rate at the end, you can see he did not want to spend one fraction of a second longer than he had to in visible moisture.

I also shared this with my club and it generated a lot of good discussion on the subject. Keith certainly gets a lot of utility out of that Lancair. As a pilot grows and increases the utilization of their aircraft it seems that we must be prepared to deal with these eventualities. Despite our best laid plans, mother nature is always going to force us to adjust to her reality.

In 2011, there was a high profile crash in NJ not far from N07. It is still brought up regularly in discussions about flight planning and weather. That aircraft was a TBM-700 and is certified for FIKI. Despite the equipment it had, things went south very quickly when it did ice up. :(

https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.avia ... 115&akey=1
Flight Simmer since 1983. PP ASEL IR Tailwheel
N28021 1979 Super Viking 17-30A

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