What do you consider “scud running”?

What do you consider “scud running”? Flying under…

  • 2500’ ceilings

    Votes: 6 6.5%

  • 2000’ ceilings

    Votes: 11 12.0%

  • 1500’ ceilings

    Votes: 30 32.6%

  • 1000’ ceilings

    Votes: 29 31.5%

  • 700’ ceilings

    Votes: 9 9.8%

  • I fly pipe, bruh! 1sm COC!

    Votes: 3 3.3%

  • What did you call me?

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • I fly Alaska, so N/A

    Votes: 3 3.3%
  • Total voters
    92
  • Poll closed .
I guess as a general definition, not what would you do real world I'd say if you can't maintain 1,000' AGL without skimming the cloud bases it's scud running.
 
To me scud is the wispy stuff that hangs beneath the cloud deck, and scud running is being forced to fly in that crap to maintain legal* ground clearance. 1500 gives you 300' from the clouds and 1200' above the ground. Not great, but doable, especially if you know the area well. Personally I start getting nervous at 2000 agl.

*yeah,yeah, I know, 500' in a non- congested area, but good luck with that. Even out here on farm country it'd be pretty tough to go airport- airport without flying over a subdivision at some point. Better know exactly where those 1000' towers are, too.
 
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I fly 600/2 for a living. I rarely cruise above 500'
 
Anything below 1500'...that is flying 1000' AGL and 500' under deck which is still VFR assuming Echo.

I duck under 2K ceilings all the time and don't really consider that scud running...but it is usually a very well defined marine layer for a limited distance.
 
And I know none of you are violating regs by not remaining 500 below a ceiling class E and remaining 1000 ft above the highest obstacle within 2000 ft in a congested area right?
upload_2023-3-30_8-8-30.jpeg
 
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Staying in class G airspace the whole flight with the tail scraping the bottom of the clouds - and it is the majority of a flight that's going to qualify distance wise as a cross country for private/commercial.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Watertown doesn’t look like a “metro area with several airports close together” to me.
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Even in the middle of the nowhere near ATY, there are 10 other Class E areas with airspace at 700 within 60 miles for you to drive around.
 
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This picture was taken at about 1500' AGL. I'm OVER the airport, went through the opening up ahead, then circled back to land (all within class G, sparsely populated). Ceiling at the airport was several hundred feet.


Sugarbush arrival.jpg
 
I don't often scud run, but when I do, its low.
Last week I was down to 700' skimming the bottom of the clouds, I was over open water in the Bahamas, but that was in a turbine. On a trip to Idaho a couple years back I finally set it down on a gasline service road, I was skimming the clouds at 200' agl, for half an hour.
 
DavidWhite said:
All the other planes are at 500’. It’s better to be substantially above or below.
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Except when everyone else is above or below 500'.

I preferred to be 1/4 mile right of course when visibility was, uhhh...lets say challenging....(you know what I mean..:lol:)

In class G the weather is what the pilot says it is....
 
I have turned into a weather ***** in my advancing age; that, and the fact I am flying a modestly faster airplane than once I flew. For me, in the Bonanza, it's anything under 2k - too many random towers out there these days.

I liked the answer @SixPapaCharlie (BrYan) gave, too.
 
DavidWhite said:
All the other planes are at 500’. It’s better to be substantially above or below.
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Substantially above puts me in IMC and Echo airspace. Anything below violates part 135.203
 
I try to keep it legal but as Zeldman noted, "In class G the weather is what the pilot says it is."

I'm pretty wimpy when it comes to weather as I'm in a light airplane with neutral stability. I do have an auto-pilot that will give a a wings level 180º turn back but I'm really trying to never have to use it for anything other than practice. I posted this video in another thread but if you care to see someone who appears foolish well here it is. I like Mike but I do question his choices sometimes ... but they are his to make:

 
Jim K said:
To me scud is the wispy stuff that hangs beneath the cloud deck, and scud running is being forced to fly in that crap to maintain legal* ground clearance. 1500 gives you 300' from the clouds and 1200' above the ground. Not great, but doable, especially if you know the area well. Personally I start getting nervous at 2000 agl.

*yeah,yeah, I know, 500' in a non- congested area, but good luck with that. Even out here on farm country it'd be pretty tough to go airport- airport without flying over a subdivision at some point. Better know exactly where those 1000' towers are, too.
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I've always considered scud with the same definition. I probably picked that up from some reading way back whane....
and a 30 second google search turns it up

https://www.weather.gov/ddc/glossar...ud - Low ragged,DO NOT produce severe weather.
8) Scud cloud - Low ragged and wind-torn appearing cloud fragments, usually not attached to the thunderstorm base, often seen in association with, and behind gust fronts. Scud clouds DO NOT produce severe weather. Scud clouds are often mistaken for wall clouds and tornadoes, especially when attached to the thunderstorm base. A way to differentiate scud clouds from wall clouds is to watch their relative position with respect to the rain area: scud clouds move away from the rain area while wall clouds maintain the same relative distance.​

BUT
more in the spirit of the original question here.... it seems to me that an altitude number is nearly irrelevant on it's own. Knowing what you're flying is critical (as likely is your experience level)
flying 1,000 AGL or less is a non issue in something like a 7AC Champ
but flying some 140 kt+ aircraft, I feel like it needs to be up much higher to be in its happy place.
and a 105 kt aircraft has a different altitude somewhere in between....
 
I recall a flight home to Anchorage following power lines on a very low, fuzzy day. I was watching for traffic since anyone else out there would be doing the same so told my wife to keep her eyes on the power lines and tell me if the floats got too close.

That’s scud running.
 
Brad W said:
it seems to me that an altitude number is nearly irrelevant on it's own. Knowing what you're flying is critical (as likely is your experience level)
flying 1,000 AGL or less is a non issue in something like a 7AC Champ
but flying some 140 kt+ aircraft, I feel like it needs to be up much higher to be in its happy place.
and a 105 kt aircraft has a different altitude somewhere in between....
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:yeahthat:

I've flown ultralights under ceilings or with visibility I'd never accept with a faster aircraft. A paramotor under a 300' ceiling, no big deal. It's different XC vs. local, too; a few laps around the traffic pattern can be perfectly safe in conditions you wouldn't want to venture farther from the airport, and a flight along a familiar route (and familiarity with the local weather patterns) can be acceptable for a local pilot but not for a visitor.
 
Sac Arrow said:
My weather minimums are 10,000' AGL ceiling, 5 kt wind and 20 sm visibility.
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That's about as scary as scud running gets gets here in west Texas ;):p

In 16 years and 1000 or so flight hours, I've waited out weather exactly twice (once for an hour in Fullerton KFUL marine layer and the other 3 hours Stinson KSSF for fog to lift). I have most of the IR completed but never wrapped it up as El Paso gets like one flyable IFR day per year (the others have lightning or ice).
 
Daleandee said:
I try to keep it legal but as Zeldman noted, "In class G the weather is what the pilot says it is."

I'm pretty wimpy when it comes to weather as I'm in a light airplane with neutral stability. I do have an auto-pilot that will give a a wings level 180º turn back but I'm really trying to never have to use it for anything other than practice. I posted this video in another thread but if you care to see someone who appears foolish well here it is. I like Mike but I do question his choices sometimes ... but they are his to make:

Click to expand...
Ugh. That music drove me nuts. I gave up on the video and just read the description.
 
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