[index] [month] [prev] [next] [thead-prev]

On Tue, 28 Nov 2000 17:40:17 -0800, Scott Moore <samiam@cisco.com>
wrote:

That's a great post!

Definitely true about Eureka. Before I got my IFR rating, I went there
once and had to land in Willits to let the fog burn off. Called the
local airport/hotel at Samoa and they reported clear so I took off and
by the time I got there, it was quite clear.
>
>The Unicom guy is a FAA run position, and the operator has weather,
>but not controller experience. I told him the field looked zero/zero, and
>he said "no, see the runway ? If you can see that, you have 400 feet,
>and thats what the ceiling is. I guess this is an interesting point of
>order. To me, this would have been, 400 feet RVR with a 0 foot
>ceiling. Anyways, he told me an interesting story. Arcata was located
>at the worst place for fog in california, and perhaps the united states,
>most deliberately. During WWII, they had been losing a lot of planes
>because of lack of experience with real IFR conditions, and pilots
>were crashing bombers returning to their bases in England. So ACV
>was created as a training post for actual IFR conditions. After the
>war, it was converted for civilain use, and the result was an airport
>with the worst possible conditions. Even a few miles away in
>Eureka they get consistently better conditions.
>My next obvious question was, well, ok, how do you find where the
>tops are ? He walked over, picked up the mike and asked the plane
>that had just departed for a tops report. The answer was: 1600.
>
>If I have learned nothing else from this trip I have learned that the most
>usefull thing you can get from a depart IFR situation is a tops report,
>and it does not matter who gives it. Ask the controller to ask for it.
>Ask the last departing plane for it. Call center while on the ground and
>ask for it [this is the subject of an article in the current AOPA magazine].
>
>Ok, so we had the minimums for the approach. The FAA does not
>require ANY minimums for departure, but my ear still rings from
>hearing that you should not take off under the approach minimums,
>because you might be coming back.
>Now there is a lot to be said for personal minimums, I know. For
>example, I had never done an IFR departure AT ALL, and had done
>only one approach to these kinds of minimums, and that was with
>an instructor, and basically an accident of weather that closed
>up more rapidly than we thought. Ok, ok, I am whacking myself
>with the mouse, so perhaps the IFR personal minimums police
>will give me a break here (but I doubt it).
>
>Anyways, just taxing in 400 RVR is amazing. Honestly, I can't
>see driving in that kind of weather. I announced that I was taxing
>to the runup area, then turned all the lights on and prayed that
>no one would hit me while taxing. Indeed, the chatter on the radio
>showed that some poor soul was in fact lost on the airport.

Admittedly I had the opportunity to do this once in similar conditions
(1/16 mile vis) at Montgomery field, San Diego. Took off after a
Bonanza in a C-172. There was no other traffic in the area. The tower
could not see us so they asked me to report when airborne. I took my
time and double checked everything before launching. This was
something I had done a few times during training. Make sure your DG is
set accurately and all instruments and navs are set. Not something I
would do too often and tempt fate! The likelihood of landing at the
same airport was remote given the conditions but weather was clear to
the east. Was out of the fog at about 2000 ft in this instance.

>
>Another thing I got from the trip is that practice in actual beats
>the hell out of dull VFR approaches. But this avenue has allways
>been available to me. Most of the coastal airports lie in fog this time
>of year even while the inland is clear. So you can take off and
>fly VFR, then do approaches and departures to minumums, even
>on sunny days (just as ACV was originally meant to serve).
>
>I suppose this summer I will get some hard enroute IFR. Until
>then I think I have discovered a new hobby of practicing
>AP and DP in actual. Why practice in conditions better than
>what you will actually take trips in ?
>

This time of the year, the California central valley should have
pretty good ground fog while the coast is clear. Good luck.

Sriram
based in Livermore, CA.

View index by [date] [author] [subject]
Previous message: Re: New NOS plate format?, Stan Gosnell
Next message: Re: Alone in IMC, Ronald van Riet
Previous message in thread: Re: Lessons learned after the rating, Scott Moore