Most risky flying decisions.

[lownslow]

The one that surprised me was a day VFR x-ctry with minimum legal VFR fuel on board. The catch was that there wasn’t another airport within that 30 minute reserve from my destination airport so imagine my surprise when I got there and the only runway was under construction without a NOTAM having been issued.

[goingnowherefast]

VFR fuel has always scared the shit outta me. I've always carried enough to land somewhere else, even if it's 20 minutes left at any diversion airport.

30 minute diversion plus 20 extra means I have 50 minutes fuel at my planned destination (again, VFR planning). There'd better be lots of very close airports for me to plan 30 minutes fuel reserve at my destination. Only time I've done that in my careers is on floats where there's lots of lakes 5 minutes away.


One of my pet peves is people saying "well I had 15 minutes extra fuel". Well what were you planning on doing with that fuel? If you're in the middle of tim-buck-tu, 15 minutes might just delay the inevitable. Have a plan B (or a plan C if needed) and bring the fuel for that. Who knows, you might end up utilising plan D. Only experience will teach people when to plan for that.

Listen up all you recruiters looking for minimum legal experience. There's a reason experience counts for something beyond the minimum CARs requirements.

[trey kule]

I am a bit confused.
The VFR fuel requirements are the minimum legal requirements.
After that it iscommon sense.

Personally , I am just as concerned about the pilot that plans a 2 hour VFR trip in CAVU weather and needs to fill the tanks with 6/hours fuel, because, you know, the only time you can have to much fuel is when the plane is on fire....and....then has to leave stuff on the ramp,or worse, flys overloaded..

Its really all about common sense.

[goingnowherefast]

I'd worry about that too, especially the overweight part.

[prettyFLY4awhitegal]

VFR into hard IMC as a 30 hour student pilot. Dumbest thing I've done in my life. Nearly became a statistic that day.

As a student pilot myself with only slightly more hours I can only imagine how terrifying that must have been!

[lownslow]

The VFR fuel requirements are the minimum legal requirements.
After that it iscommon sense.

Exactly. The weather was crystal clear over the whole province and forecast to stay that way, my route had a major highway and farm land roughly under me the whole way, and in that particular direction I was headed to the nearest airport. The area was familiar, the plane reliable, traffic generally minimal at most. NOTAMs checked, nothing significant published. The easiest flying day you’ll ever see. I was flying a weenie little two seater with a guy a little heavier than my above average weight and that left room for just a hair over fuel to destination plus a half hour. Hell, I even got updated wx, etc. from FSS before I reached the half way point so I still had a chance to turn around.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that dump truck right where I wanted to land.

[piperdriver]

The VFR fuel requirements are the minimum legal requirements.
After that it iscommon sense.

Exactly. The weather was crystal clear over the whole province and forecast to stay that way, my route had a major highway and farm land roughly under me the whole way, and in that particular direction I was headed to the nearest airport. The area was familiar, the plane reliable, traffic generally minimal at most. NOTAMs checked, nothing significant published. The easiest flying day you’ll ever see. I was flying a weenie little two seater with a guy a little heavier than my above average weight and that left room for just a hair over fuel to destination plus a half hour. Hell, I even got updated wx, etc. from FSS before I reached the half way point so I still had a chance to turn around.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that dump truck right where I wanted to land.

So how does this story end?

[TheRealMcCoy]

Days I should've stayed on the dock and didn't.

Will recount stories over beer, not on a public forum haha.

[schnitzel2k3]

Trusting a Cessna 152s fuel gauges.

Nearly put her into a field - it was one of those, I can get another line of photos in.

Lesson learned.

S.

[lownslow]

So how does this story end?

I died.



Nah, I just radioed someone on the ground and had construction work stop for the three minutes it took me to land on a slightly shorter runway. The airport manager felt pretty bad about not issuing a NOTAM so he dragged out the BBQ and we had burgers until the work was done and I could leave. Not a huge deal.

[Peregrine]

VFR into hard IMC as a 30 hour student pilot. Dumbest thing I've done in my life. Nearly became a statistic that day.

I'd appreciate it if you could elaborate on how the situation deteriorated as it did. Currently time building for my cpl with winter here, and very much interested in not doing something similar.

[pianokeys]

Deciding to go upstairs while knowing full well I had to poop.

[Chris M]

VFR into hard IMC as a 30 hour student pilot. Dumbest thing I've done in my life. Nearly became a statistic that day.

I'd appreciate it if you could elaborate on how the situation deteriorated as it did. Currently time building for my cpl with winter here, and very much interested in not doing something similar.

Not a whole lot to it really. Get-home-itis combined with being too young, nervous and shy to question things. I was on the final leg of my solo cross country and had been steadily moving lower during the flight to stay under a descending ceiling. Eventually ended up .. running at 1000-ish AGL until I ran out of room between clouds and went into solid IFR. Spent a minute looking down to try seeing the ground and looked up to see myself in the classic descending right turn. Straightened out, looked away from instruments for a few seconds and went right back into that turn. I ended up flying IFR for about 20-30 minutes before coming out the other side.

Mistakes I made and things I should have done:
-Called for an updated weather briefing. The one I had was many hours old by that point and not keeping up with real time.
-Do not let anyone push you faster than you feel is safe. I called my instructor from the airport I landed at and was told "Get going quickly, the weather is getting bad". That was a bad thing to say to a kid who didn't know well enough to say no.
-Know well enough to say no.
-Stay the **** on the ground. Hang out at the airport, sleep on a couch, call a friend, stay at a hotel, whatever. It's all cheaper than your life.
-Divert back to a field behind me when things started going south.
-Immediate 180 back to clear air once I hit the clouds.
-Don't consider myself "better than that". What I mean is that during groundschool we're all taught about how without visual reference you'll eventually flip the plane over, and that once you've started that process your body tends to pull you back to it. I was young and indestructible, and knew that could never happen to me. I'd be able to feel the plane banking and turning. Ya, it doesn't work that way dumbass.

This isn't a story I'm proud of. I don't feel like I did something special. I was fortunate enough to live through a chain of really bad decision that have killed many, many people. There were so many opportunities to turn back that I ignored.

Don't force the weather to teach you respect.

[Dnapps]

VFR fuel has always scared the shit outta me. I've always carried enough to land somewhere else, even if it's 20 minutes left at any diversion airport.

30 minute diversion plus 20 extra means I have 50 minutes fuel at my planned destination (again, VFR planning). There'd better be lots of very close airports for me to plan 30 minutes fuel reserve at my destination. Only time I've done that in my careers is on floats where there's lots of lakes 5 minutes away.


One of my pet peves is people saying "well I had 15 minutes extra fuel". Well what were you planning on doing with that fuel? If you're in the middle of tim-buck-tu, 15 minutes might just delay the inevitable. Have a plan B (or a plan C if needed) and bring the fuel for that. Who knows, you might end up utilising plan D. Only experience will teach people when to plan for that.

Listen up all you recruiters looking for minimum legal experience. There's a reason experience counts for something beyond the minimum CARs requirements.

This is great advice. This is so simple but yet not taught. The logic of the above statement was never taught to me until much later in my career; and I never thought of it this way either.

[C.W.E.]

This is so simple but yet not taught.

Why is it not taught?

[photofly]

[/quote]

This is great advice. This is so simple but yet not taught. The logic of the above statement was never taught to me until much later in my career; and I never thought of it this way either.

This is so simple but yet not taught.

Why is it not taught?

Of course it's taught. There are thousands of FTUs across Canada. With what authority does Dnapps speak for all of them, that he or she can state this isn't taught?

[rookiepilot]

This is so simple but yet not taught.

Why is it not taught?

Why does it need to be taught? No one taught me when flying anywhere much outside the GTA, 30 minutes of fuel isn't sufficient. I set my own limits based on the flying that are much more conservative.

Didn't need anyone to teach me that. Or a lot of other common sense decisions.

[iflyforpie]

I’ve learned from, flown with, taught with, and rented from many different flight schools and without exception every one of them required a minimum of a one hour reserve of fuel upon completion of flight.

[trey kule]

I’ve learned from, flown with, taught with, and rented from many different flight schools and without exception every one of them required a minimum of a one hour reserve of fuel upon completion of flight.
---------- ADS -----------


Now that is a bit more than odd. The whole idea of reserve fuel is to be there if things do not go quite as planned. There is absolutely no requirement to land with fuel remaining.
Reserve fuel is calculated BEFORE you depart. Landing with an hour of reserve requires one to then carry additional reserve fuel in case you need it.

It isscary to me that common sense gets lost, and fuel planning is really a series of not really planning.

Interesting that the truck at the end was actually a non event, andthere wasenough fuel on board. It is those kind of examples that mudfy the waters. That was not poor fuel planning. It was a failure to Notam the closing. Yes yes, in our modern safe world we must plan for every possible contingency...

[iflyforpie]

You and probably everyone else know what I meant.

I’m not going to argue semantics or pedantics with you.