Classic British Flight Sim

Posted this to CB forum, as I was in a 748 at the time..... ;-)

As and excuse to fire the sim up, I took off from Gustavas and flew to Yakutat, where I picked up a 'virtual' Peter Mcleland who had chartered the 748 to survey the site for Mcleland field - anyway, I had clear weather set to PAYA, and as I preared for takeoff on the survey flight, I (unintentionally) set 'building storms' after I had selected real weather which was overcast and no good for a survey flight....... :roll:

Anyway, after about 20 minutes on the 'approaches to MCleland field, the clouds were rolling in and the wind whipping up. I was immediately minded to proceed direct to PAYA and land, however my guest had requested onward transit to Haines to collect some merchandise - so I headed out to sea and alititude between the clouds. After 10 minutes, PAYA was under a storm, and as I set course at FL200 weather deteriorated, eventually rendering a visual into Haines impossible. Fortunately, not being real, I switched off... but it got me thinking - in 'real life' what would be the correct procedure in such weather? If there is a doubt over conditions, would the commander elect to land when he had a chance (IE at PAYA before the clouds came in)? - was my flight too much of a gamble?

:flying:

Would he not have checked the forecast and seen it comming before he left??

Garry

I would imagine so Garry - but it's me we're talking about here.....

** Lets' say information received whilst airborne... ;-)

forthbridge wrote:

I would imagine so Garry - but it's me we're talking about here.....

Garry

If you're VFR and the weather deteriorates, then get down on the ground asap.

IFR suggests pre-flight planning and checking of weather. Destination should be planned using precision approach minima and alternate using non-precision approach minima. Real world, you would have the option of listening to a VOLMET station to get METARs for the region.

If you want the real world rules and regs on it, I can send you an extract from EU-OPS.

NC

Sounds like a case of 'clear of cloud and in sight of the ground', best advice I ever received.

Thanks for that

Now I can say 'sorry' to any pax in a similar situation

having been caught like this for real a couple times, despite all the appropiate planning etc, the advice i took to heart, when in this sort of situation was "land while the choice is still yours"

even did it this week in flynet, and incured a land away penalty, but virtual pilot/plane/and passengers are safe as is CBF's reputation

i did not hesitate then when it was for real and did not when it was virtual, 'cos i have noticed things learnt in simulators have a habit of turning up in the cockpit and that includes the bad stuff as well as the good stuff.

With the aids available at my base I consider that I can land there in absolutely ANY weather down to CATIII vis. The biggest problem I encounter is a strong crosswind but even then the vis is normally good enough to land into wind on taxiway M. When flying in this region of Alaska I regard McLeland Field as a "Master Diversion" with the caviat that the ILS on runway 13 MUST be flown accurately and preferably on autopilot.

BTW...When faced with a refusal from ATC to either taxy or approach, due to IMC, I just file a flightplan from PAMA to PAMA and call for clearance.

yup my bases have all the aids down to cat III, however my trusty stratocruiser has has two needles on an RMI that you can tune to a beacon and its "over there"... and that sums up the current nav aids.

no wonder the average captain had some 30,000hrs before he was allowed to captain this.

all in the days before crew limits where flights ran from 12-20 hrs

i had forgotton what hard work it is flying like this, after a night approach to gander just now, HUGE sigh of relief to emerge from the murk at 2000ft to see the runway after a trans-atlantic hop

she does have a RAD alt which does make the go around decision a bit more precise.

when my nerves give out and i start twitching its back to FMC driven autopilots and auto land for me where all i have to do is monitor, not quite as stressfull LoL