Lndwarrior
Cleared for Takeoff
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2009
- Messages
- 1,289
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Display name:
Gary
I've been flying for 30 years. I've flown my homebuilt 601XLB from California to the east coast and back. I'm not the most experienced pilot, but I have been doing it a while.
I have had the living crap scared out of me more than once in turbulence, including a nightmare in the mountain valley south of Sedona two years ago.
There are 5 or 6 times in my 30 years of flying when dying was a very real possibility. But a flight early this week was the worst. I'm still feeling a little over-whelmed about how close we came to dying.
Linda and I flew to Livermore California for a round of golf at Los Positas Golf Course. The two weather briefings for there and back were about as perfect as you could want. No adverse weather, cool temps in the 70's, the surface winds all along the route in the 5 to 7 knot range. Winds aloft were "light and variable" for the whole day. This light and variable continued up to 6000 feet which would be above our max altitude for both flights.
There was no forecast for either high altitude or low altitude turbulence for the entire day. There were zero pilot reports of turbulence either, anywhere in California.
The flight there was, as my wife put it, "boring". She even commented that she “liked a few bumps". If she only knew what was to come…
We had a fun golf game and as we climbed back in the plane two hours later the wind was still around 7 knots, with no real gusts.
As we climbed out for the return flight there was significant turbulence. It was very uncomfortable. I expected that once we got thru the Altamont Pass and out into the Central Valley, things would calm down. Instead, it got worse.
It was taking an extreme effort to keep the wings level. I could not control altitude. The turbulence wanted to push me down, but when going full throttle to climb, the impacts from turbulence was even more extreme. I simply could not climb to get out of it. I kept hoping that any minute it would subside.
For the next twenty minutes as we crossed the Central Valley it did not let up. I was getting exhausted from pressing the rudder pedals so hard and my right arm was aching badly from fighting against the forces on the plane. I don't have an autopilot.
I was worn out and stressed out. I was also worried about how my wife was feeling. I’m pretty sure she had never seemed me this stressed out while flying. I needed to get on the ground as soon as possible.
I had Linda pull up the information at Oakdale Airport, about 7 miles ahead. I would be entering on a left base. Controlling the descent was not easy as the turbulence, and the plane, seemed to be fighting every control input.
At this time my brain was trying to understand what the hell was happening. There winds were seemingly not strong enough to cause this kind of turbulence. The sky was severe-clear with no indication of thermal lifting. Not a cloud in the sky. Real time weather on the ADSB was still showing 7 knots of wind at my altitude and on up to 6000 feet. There was no indication or signs for the presence of wind shear. And we were not in a location for rotors.
As I tried to turn base, it got worse. Later I told Linda it felt like the Hand of God was trying to kill us.
At 800 feet AGL I was making a shallow left hand turn to base, making sure the nose was down and the airspeed up, when a unbelievable force lifted the right wing up to at least 45 degrees of bank. This made no sense!! The gust was opposite the direction of the surface wind!
I'm now in a curving left base turn using opposite aileron to keep this incredible force from rolling us onto our back - at 800 feet AGL.
I am cross-controlled in the worst possible location and the force will NOT let go. My right arm had just about reached its limit when the nose finally came around to align with the runway. I managed to land it without breaking anything.
I can come up with no explanation for the "Hand of God" situation. There is nothing in my experience that could explain it this extreme force, opposite the surface wind, and so low to the ground. There is only flat terrain around as well.
An NTSB report would probably state the pilot and wife died in a simple base turn stall with no extenuating circumstances; pilot error.
After sitting in the pilot lounge for an hour I finally got up the courage to get back in the plane and make the 15 minute flight home to Pine Mountain Lake (E45).
Back at home Linda said she promised to never ask for a "few more bumps" ever again. And maybe I need to reconsider my atheist views...
I have had the living crap scared out of me more than once in turbulence, including a nightmare in the mountain valley south of Sedona two years ago.
There are 5 or 6 times in my 30 years of flying when dying was a very real possibility. But a flight early this week was the worst. I'm still feeling a little over-whelmed about how close we came to dying.
Linda and I flew to Livermore California for a round of golf at Los Positas Golf Course. The two weather briefings for there and back were about as perfect as you could want. No adverse weather, cool temps in the 70's, the surface winds all along the route in the 5 to 7 knot range. Winds aloft were "light and variable" for the whole day. This light and variable continued up to 6000 feet which would be above our max altitude for both flights.
There was no forecast for either high altitude or low altitude turbulence for the entire day. There were zero pilot reports of turbulence either, anywhere in California.
The flight there was, as my wife put it, "boring". She even commented that she “liked a few bumps". If she only knew what was to come…
We had a fun golf game and as we climbed back in the plane two hours later the wind was still around 7 knots, with no real gusts.
As we climbed out for the return flight there was significant turbulence. It was very uncomfortable. I expected that once we got thru the Altamont Pass and out into the Central Valley, things would calm down. Instead, it got worse.
It was taking an extreme effort to keep the wings level. I could not control altitude. The turbulence wanted to push me down, but when going full throttle to climb, the impacts from turbulence was even more extreme. I simply could not climb to get out of it. I kept hoping that any minute it would subside.
For the next twenty minutes as we crossed the Central Valley it did not let up. I was getting exhausted from pressing the rudder pedals so hard and my right arm was aching badly from fighting against the forces on the plane. I don't have an autopilot.
I was worn out and stressed out. I was also worried about how my wife was feeling. I’m pretty sure she had never seemed me this stressed out while flying. I needed to get on the ground as soon as possible.
I had Linda pull up the information at Oakdale Airport, about 7 miles ahead. I would be entering on a left base. Controlling the descent was not easy as the turbulence, and the plane, seemed to be fighting every control input.
At this time my brain was trying to understand what the hell was happening. There winds were seemingly not strong enough to cause this kind of turbulence. The sky was severe-clear with no indication of thermal lifting. Not a cloud in the sky. Real time weather on the ADSB was still showing 7 knots of wind at my altitude and on up to 6000 feet. There was no indication or signs for the presence of wind shear. And we were not in a location for rotors.
As I tried to turn base, it got worse. Later I told Linda it felt like the Hand of God was trying to kill us.
At 800 feet AGL I was making a shallow left hand turn to base, making sure the nose was down and the airspeed up, when a unbelievable force lifted the right wing up to at least 45 degrees of bank. This made no sense!! The gust was opposite the direction of the surface wind!
I'm now in a curving left base turn using opposite aileron to keep this incredible force from rolling us onto our back - at 800 feet AGL.
I am cross-controlled in the worst possible location and the force will NOT let go. My right arm had just about reached its limit when the nose finally came around to align with the runway. I managed to land it without breaking anything.
I can come up with no explanation for the "Hand of God" situation. There is nothing in my experience that could explain it this extreme force, opposite the surface wind, and so low to the ground. There is only flat terrain around as well.
An NTSB report would probably state the pilot and wife died in a simple base turn stall with no extenuating circumstances; pilot error.
After sitting in the pilot lounge for an hour I finally got up the courage to get back in the plane and make the 15 minute flight home to Pine Mountain Lake (E45).
Back at home Linda said she promised to never ask for a "few more bumps" ever again. And maybe I need to reconsider my atheist views...
