Go Around In Heavy Rain

[nigelb]

I don't know where this was filmed, perhaps somewhere in the Midwest. It looks very much like the line of storms that came through the washington DC area yesterday. The sky opened up and it rained very heavily for ten minutes. There were a few tornadoes that touched down, fortunatly they were not near me and no one was injured. Lots of trees down and building damdge in Maryland though. Anyway this is a BBJ pilot doing a go around as a storm hits. The runway disappears the moment minimums is called.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtlS0sxFlHk

Nigel²

[cstorey]

Oh, yes, that was very nasty indeed . Having the runway rolled up and taken away exactly at Decision height is very unpleasant . BUT.....it did take a long time to decide to go around and the safety margin must have been very small indeed

[speedbird591]

Nasty. So lucky it didn't hit a few seconds later

Although not in the same league, I only once experienced such a sudden downpour reducing visibility to nil. Unfortunately I was driving down a twisty road in the Drakensberg mountains in South Africa with a (guarded) drop on one side and a cliff face on the other. I had to stop dead as I couldn't even see the bonnet and I was terrified that a bus or a truck would smash in the back. Nil visibility would not be considered a handicap for South African drivers. Fortunately those rural roads have very little traffic and after five minutes I could see enough to move on.

It was one of those little moments of terror that punctuate everybody's lives and sear themselves on to your memory!

Ian