Watch this video… I’m usually not the one, who likes to point the finger at someone, but what the hell is this?!
Italian-registered ultralight aircraft, flying intentional multiple times massively VFR into IMC, not just for a short “cloud break”. And the German pilots are telling their story in a proud way, like being “the best of all”. Even making fun of a French air traffic controller, and clearly stating the aircraft is not IFR capable. I do know that you can make fake storytelling videos, and fool the audience, but the VFR into IMC scenes at the beginning and around 19:20 look quite unedited and real. I’m however not sure how real the engine failure was, as claimed in the video.
I honestly do hope, that not many pilots outside YouTube do this kind of reckless flying, even though these pilots claim to be IFR rated.
Were they in Golf? or in controlled airspace (Echo, Delta, Charlie…)?
Frans wrote:
I honestly do hope, that not many pilots outside YouTube do this kind of reckless flying, even though these pilots claim to be IFR rated.
When flying in anything other than perfect weather we will file an IFR plan and fly like the airline. But lets face it this is quite common. I have seen so many VFR planes disappear in clouds right at the airport. I have seen many VFR transponder signals on the TCAD which must have been in IMC for sure etc.
Some pretty disgraceful language in that video (e.g. when cutting around the cooling/air inlet).
That UL Power 520 sure speeds up the Tarragon. 180 KTAS is nice.
Ibra wrote:
Were they in Golf? or in controlled airspace (Echo, Delta, Charlie…)?
In Germany certainly in Echo, maybe even Delta or Charlie at some point, which is not shown in the video.
Sebastian_G wrote:
But lets face it this is quite common. I have seen so many VFR planes disappear in clouds right at the airport.I do know these occurrences as well, but don’t most of them join IFR pretty quickly, as soon as they’re in the air from VFR-only airfields? Don’t want to justify such actions, but it is somehow reasonable. What I see in the video is far beyond good and bad…
Some pretty disgraceful language in that videoDidn’t notice it, as I skipped that part, but indeed… pretty disgraceful. :-(
That UL Power 520 sure speeds up the Tarragon. 180 KTAS is nice.Yes, it looks like a nice UL. Nothing against the machine itself.
Is it true that there is no minimum altitude for microlight in Spain? Shortly after the cloud breaking descent they tell this openly and make a very low level flight over Mallorca. Isn’t that SERA ? 150m over water and open land..
That flight has for sure broken a lot of rules.
That takeoff in the beginning was around 400 meters VIS? Hard to judge, but cockpit visibility was around 0 meters due to the fogged up canopy.
I’m not quite sure what the video is telling me. Did they post the video so open because it’s a long tradition and anyhow lots of people fly like that? It’s missing any kind of sensibility for the regulations we all follow.
In Germany certainly in Echo, maybe even Delta or Charlie at some point, which is not shown in the video.
Flying IMC in controlled airspace without ATC clearance can be prosecuted as one did break SERA and has lot of 3rd party liability elements to it
Flying IMC OCAS in VFR Aircraft, well good luck, it’s no different than RPM > limit in TCDS
Naiive question of a non-flyer: Is the flying around 19:20 really that reckless? It seemed to me the cloud layer is quite thin and with numerous gaps (you can see the sun’s reflection in the water below almost contiguously).
@esteban that part (in retrospect ) is not risky at all (me thinks), but it’s not allowed VFR to enter clouds. You cannot know what is below, so what one believes to be a short fly through might turn out to become entering solid IMC. The reason that this happened too often is why it’s not allowed. In addition it’s not at all allowed in a microlight aircraft.
