Vince R
Pre-takeoff checklist
On a recent flight to NY (KISP), I had the scariest experience I’ve ever had in an airplane, and now I’m looking for advice from some of you super-experienced pilots on what I might have done differently.
Inbound, we were at 3000’ in smooth air off the south shore of Long Island. We were pretty much right at the top of a stratus layer that went down to 1400’ with a broken layer below that went to 700’ or so. There were thunderstorms 50-60 miles north of the field, but we saw nothing like big buildups anywhere as we cruised at the top of the clouds. Indeed, it was the benign kind of weather I remember wishing for as an instrument student.
We were vectored for the RNAV 24 approach, and things were going fine...nice stable descent, no turbulence, no precipitation, nothing on the XM weather display - completely routine. As we were turning to intercept the final approach course and were just handed off to the tower, it happened...out of nowhere, we were caught in some sort of wind shear.
In the blink of an eye, we went from a standard rate turn onto the final approach coarse, to a bank of over 60 degrees and 30 degrees pitch up. There was no real turbulence, and I remember thinking we had some sort of flight control or mechanical failure. For a moment I was holding full aerelon against the bank and yet it was still getting steeper.
Thankfully, I managed to recover...we lost nearly 800’ and had turned through nearly 180 degrees, and we went from maybe half a mile south of the final approach course, to almost 2 miles north of course in what seemed like an instant. Once I regained control, my reaction was to turn back towards the airport and climb back up on course, expecting to gain altitude, fly the missed approach and maybe divert elsewhere. Then it happened a second time, except this time it was with turbulence. Severely turbulent, but luckily it only lasted a few moments.
By now we had descended far enough to be in visual conditions and with the airport in sight, I decided to land. There were no scary looking big black cumulonimbus, no rain/lightning, calm winds under 5 knots at the airport. Nothing on my NEXRAD display, and apparently nothing on ATC’s radar since they vectored me right into it. Thankfully we landed without incident, but it was really a harrowing experience that I don’t want to repeat.
So the questions are: what did I fly into, how could I have avoided it, and was there a better strategy than what I did?
Inbound, we were at 3000’ in smooth air off the south shore of Long Island. We were pretty much right at the top of a stratus layer that went down to 1400’ with a broken layer below that went to 700’ or so. There were thunderstorms 50-60 miles north of the field, but we saw nothing like big buildups anywhere as we cruised at the top of the clouds. Indeed, it was the benign kind of weather I remember wishing for as an instrument student.
We were vectored for the RNAV 24 approach, and things were going fine...nice stable descent, no turbulence, no precipitation, nothing on the XM weather display - completely routine. As we were turning to intercept the final approach course and were just handed off to the tower, it happened...out of nowhere, we were caught in some sort of wind shear.
In the blink of an eye, we went from a standard rate turn onto the final approach coarse, to a bank of over 60 degrees and 30 degrees pitch up. There was no real turbulence, and I remember thinking we had some sort of flight control or mechanical failure. For a moment I was holding full aerelon against the bank and yet it was still getting steeper.
Thankfully, I managed to recover...we lost nearly 800’ and had turned through nearly 180 degrees, and we went from maybe half a mile south of the final approach course, to almost 2 miles north of course in what seemed like an instant. Once I regained control, my reaction was to turn back towards the airport and climb back up on course, expecting to gain altitude, fly the missed approach and maybe divert elsewhere. Then it happened a second time, except this time it was with turbulence. Severely turbulent, but luckily it only lasted a few moments.
By now we had descended far enough to be in visual conditions and with the airport in sight, I decided to land. There were no scary looking big black cumulonimbus, no rain/lightning, calm winds under 5 knots at the airport. Nothing on my NEXRAD display, and apparently nothing on ATC’s radar since they vectored me right into it. Thankfully we landed without incident, but it was really a harrowing experience that I don’t want to repeat.
So the questions are: what did I fly into, how could I have avoided it, and was there a better strategy than what I did?
