GlaStar down, Waukesha WI

Velocity173 said:
SVFR is an invaluable tool for helos. Used it a few times. Plenty of times the airfield can be reporting less than 1000 / 3 but there’s a significant portion of the field in the clear. Whether it be arriving or departing a lot of time can be saved to ask for SVFR vs filing and picking up an IFR. No point in getting vectored way out of your way for IAP for 2 miles vis if you can sneak in SVFR direct the field.
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SVFR is a great tool. I've used it several times. Once to land at a field (McCollum) that was half obscured by a low ceiling and half clear and a million. Another time to land at a towered field when it got too low to continue scud running on a cross country. Another to get out of Daytona beach when it was great VFR a couple of miles away. No need to do away with the tool, just use it responsibly.
 
So am I the only one that thinks that two AI's, one way or another, are better than one not so much because one could fail, but to convince yourself/remind yourself to trust the two of them over your own brain? Maybe that's too simplistic, but thinking maybe an advantage.
 
Kathryn’s Report says “Aircraft was the subject of an Alert Notice “

What does that mean?
 
NoHeat said:
Kathryn’s Report says “Aircraft was the subject of an Alert Notice “

What does that mean?
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Alnots are issued when an aircraft is overdue or otherwise "lost".
 
caverjamie said:
As a VFR pilot I still don’t get this sort of thing. If your plane has an artificial horizon and you get in the clouds, shouldn’t a non instrument rated pilot be able to at least keep it in the air? That’s one instrument telling you everything you really need to know to not die - so it’s not like you even need to keep up an instrument scan. Just ignore your senses and trust the instruments, the body lies - seems like that has been covered in basic flight training.

I was in actual IMC at night with my instructor once. I would never have been able to land in that stuff, but I could hold a heading and altitude, and make standard rate turns. I mean even a VFR moonless night in a rural location is almost the same thing, I’ve had no ground reference before for a while, just black, everywhere. There shouldn’t be much of a difference. I wonder if panic is a big factor. You know to expect loss of horizon at night, but probably did not expect VFR into IMC. I don’t know…
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I get the leans now and then, but the worse was during primary training and was with my instructor at night over a desert. Glad I had my seatbelt on because I might have just gone right out the door. I also have gotten myself from clear and forever VFR into clouds and rain that were trapped in a valley. Fortunately I knew there was an airport right behind me and a descending 180 to the runway was simple enough. But maybe not every pilot would be capable ... I don't know. You really have to do what they teach you from day 1: fly the dang airplane. As long as everything is functional and you remain a pilot and don't become a passenger the outcome has a good chance of being positive.
 
caverjamie said:
As a VFR pilot I still don’t get this sort of thing. If your plane has an artificial horizon and you get in the clouds, shouldn’t a non instrument rated pilot be able to at least keep it in the air? That’s one instrument telling you everything you really need to know to not die - so it’s not like you even need to keep up an instrument scan. Just ignore your senses and trust the instruments, the body lies - seems like that has been covered in basic flight training.

I was in actual IMC at night with my instructor once. I would never have been able to land in that stuff, but I could hold a heading and altitude, and make standard rate turns. I mean even a VFR moonless night in a rural location is almost the same thing, I’ve had no ground reference before for a while, just black, everywhere. There shouldn’t be much of a difference. I wonder if panic is a big factor. You know to expect loss of horizon at night, but probably did not expect VFR into IMC. I don’t know…
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The purpose of the 3 hour hood time for PPL is to scare the crap out of you so you don't intentionally fly into IMC. At best you learn how to perform the coolest maneuver in aviation: The 180 degree turn. You handled it fine but how about in turbulence, heavy winds, when one or more instruments fail or you get the above mentioned "leans"? How about when your spouse is sitting next to you crying and you realize your navigation is suspect? Your instructor should have pushed you to the point where you saw how ugly it could get. Maybe you're a natural at instrument work and if so then good on you. It's the most rewarding rating to get.
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As for special VFR I used it once in a very odd circumstance. I was working with a student doing his XC work. He was a .mil guy and asked if we could do a flight in the morning while it was still dark instead of a late evening flight like normal people do. I was agreeable so we made a flight from KBFI (Boeing field in Seattle) to Port Angeles and back. The flight went great until we got back to KBFI. The ATIS told of a cloud layer directly over the field which was odd because the rest of the area was severe clear. When we contacted the tower they told us that the field had just gone IFR with a 300' ceiling.
Thing is, we were across Elliot Bay and I could see the numbers on runway 13R, and a thin layer of very low clouds directly over the rest of the airport environment (and nowhere else). The controller informed us that he was about to put up a revised ATIS, but we had called before he had done so. I asked for, and received, a special VFR and a few minutes later we were safely on the ground. We had clear view the entire time.

Had I requested a pop up it is likely that we would have been vectored around for an hour and flown an ILS in a single radio plane.
 
My take on the 3 hr IFR training is that it's a last ditch thing to try to keep you alive if you screw up and go into IFR by accident...and to convince you that you shouldn't do this on purpose. I was not taught the 180 turn. Starting off what could end up being fatal disorientation by immediately introducing a turn doesn't seem sensible to me.
 
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