In-depth video with unseen footage of single pilot decision making on an international flight from Dinard, France to Stapleford, UK.
This flight was by far the most challenging, but in hindsight one of the most rewarding to date. I share with you my thoughts and feelings from inside the cockpit as we make a diversion into Southampton Intl Airport, UK.
This video has purpose to share my experiences without affecting in any way the status of officially adopted legislative and regulatory provisions, including Acceptable Means of Compliance or Guidance Materials. Please seek the advice of your instructor(s) or examiner(s). As always, fly safely.
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I think this was actually quite an instructive video which shows what can happen to decision making when under pressure.
Indeed, useful video. Three other things came out for me:
- haven’t watched the complete video sorry, but I kept wondering how different that weather was, compared with what it was forecast when you took of.
- ATC was excellent (available, professional, very patient as you noted)
- on-board weather is a game changer for longish flights
A bit of advice, without criticism.
The time frame isn’t clear because of the editing, but I get the impression that a lot of time passed between you recognising that you were in difficulty and finally making a decision. It seems you did this because you wanted to get the best possible outcome and delayed making a decision to see if you could improve the situation.
By doing so you heaped stress on yourself and made your passengers in fear of their lifes. You know things have gone way too far if your passengers are telling you where to land and commenting that their lives are more important than the landing fee!
In these sort of situations, it’s far better to make an early decision on where you can go that is guaranteed to be possible and safe. You explain this safe option to your passengers and you never let that safe option become unavailable. With that option in the bag, you are free to try something else, knowing that if the something else doesn’t work then you can revert to your safe option.
If there isn’t a safe option that you can quickly point to, then forget about looking for the best outcome. You’ve bigger problems and your focus should be on finding a safe option even if it’s not a convenient one.
In this case, it looks like Le Touquet was a reasonable option. 10km viz and 1000ft cloud base. With your IMCR that 1000ft probably wasn’t an issue (even though you can’t legally use it in France) and you could descend over the sea or probably descend VFR over the sea in one of the gaps and proceed below the cloud base. There may have been even better options further back along your route. Telling your passengers that you can safely make Le Touquet but you’d like to try to get into the UK, but if that doesn’t work then you have plenty of fuel to make Le Touquet and that’s what you will do, would have made them far more comfortable. It would also have taken a lot of pressure off you.
Consider for a moment what would have happened if as you got closer to Southampton, you got the latest METAR and it showed that the cloud base had reduced to 200ft and 2km vis. (Not an unusual development when everywhere around was in poor weather, and especially so with a coastal airport). You’d have had some thinking to do about what you wanted to do now, and your fuel state would have started to be a consideration. But if you had a safe option already in mind as your fall back plan, then it would have been simple. As soon as you’d have heard 200ft you’d already have been turning around for your safe option before you’d even have heard the whole metar.
Already have a safe option in your mind first, and never let it go beyond your comfortable range and make sure your passengers know that there is a perfectly safe option that you’re prepared to take.
Just watched the whole video. Very interesting. Very many thanks for posting it.
Above all it shows how much value it is to have in-flight wx; at least tafs and metars. Over land, at a few k feet, you can probably get enough 3G/4G connectivity to get those. Getting this from ATC is such a process; with access to a suitable wx site you can get a dozen airports in one go. With much foreign ATC you would have been on the calls for much longer… and a lot of ATC services will simply not do it.
My feeling is to grab an airport with above minima ASAP, and quit while I am still losing 
Can you fly a coupled ILS (i.e. on autopilot)? That is the ultimate lifesaver. I flew one today, getting visual right bang on the minima of 250ft DH (the airport was reporting OVC002 but it is legal to fly the approach if the vis is OK).
What made you think Southampton would be £1000 (14:03)? That is unbelievable that such a view has been expressed somewhere where you saw it, but not wholly unsurprising on the basis of having been on some UK sites in the past. Even Gatwick is c. £700, with Luton and Stansted somewhat less.
1. @JasonC @denopa This is why I posted it and it shows willingness to review my actions. All rationale thinking goes out the window, it really does. One way to make yourself feel extremely vulnerable is fly into a box of weather with dodgy looking TAF’s that say it will clear up. In reality a forecast is just that. ATC was extremely professional and helpful, I did laugh at some of the witty comments from other pilots. Who probably didn’t realise how challenging it was having never been in that position before.
The TAF before departure -
TAF AMD EGLC 100502Z 1005/1012 09005KT 5000 BR OVC005TEMPO 1005/1009 1400 RADZ BKN003 PROB40 TEMPO 1005/1009 0300 FG BKN001 BECMG 1009/1012 9999 NSW SCT015=
The TAF after departure -
TAF EGLC 100807Z 1009/1018 08007KT 2000 BR OVC003 BECMG 1009/1012 6000 NSW BKN009 BECMG 1012/1014 9999 SCT020 PROB30 TEMPO 1014/1018 4000 +SHRA BKN014CB=
2. @Dublinpilot Criticism welcomed though. It’s why I posted for the world to see. It helps me a lot.
First point with regards the editing. I knew I had an issue at about 45 mins into the flight – it was only another 15 minutes elapsed before I really made a firm decision, maybe 20 minutes. I think I was also waiting on what the weather was doing before making a final decision. I looked at the options as I wrote them down for 5 minutes, and I think by this point London Info was pushing for a resolution.
The whole reason I wanted a good outcome was because I had first time flyers and didn’t know how they’d react to full blown IMC. That was my only worry – I wanted to make sure that they were comfortable at all times during the flight, and I think the major problem my friend had was that I wanted to go back to France. This was an option but he was like but the UK’s right there. He just wasn’t understanding the situation other than we have to land in the UK as he’s already lost one day of work.
This delayed my decision as I wanted to try and get to the UK and even then I departed knowing the weather would briefly deteriorate in France as it was early morning. The flight was almost 2 hours and looking at the TAFs I was clear that I would definitely get to the UK that day, I just didn’t expect my alternates in Southend and Biggin to become unavailable to me.
Strangely I have no regrets on undertaking such flight as in hindsight it has been very rewarding. But I will making sure that I am more equipped next time and have a clear mindset on how best dealing with the situation. Again I guess nobody can say for sure, that if I find myself in a similar situation would it be easy or harder?
3. @peter Glad you enjoyed the video and hopefully many people can learn from my experience.
I would say that would have been much more of a help. It helps the decision making process inside a commercial aircraft, it’s a shame with all the technology we have that the general aviation sector couldn’t deliver such tools. But then in Europe I guess if low enough I could get weather quite easily.
The DA40 I fly has a coupled autopilot yes. I take it with Category 1 approaches you’d definitely want to be using the autopilot if you have one? I remember reading somewhere and being put off big airports owned by BAA but now Southampton is very reasonable, compared to most places on the South of England.
pilotrobbie wrote:
All rationale thinking goes out the window, it really does.
That’s the heart of it: it definitely should not. Especially with other people on board.
Hence the value of the exercise you went through doing this video and sharing it, which I thank and praise you for (whatever my praise is worth to you :-)).
It is great that you posted this as a learning experience. We all have to learn to make our decisions!
Posting this on the web causes all sorts of Monday morning analysis, it is brave of you to tackle this head on (see below). I know that I have screwed up a few times…
For a two hour flight (or less) from Dinard to Stapleford, I wouldn’t have launched until it was clear (enough) at my destination. The forecast suggests improvement, but the pre-launch mist and BKN 500 with TEMPO rain/drizzle and fog seems like recipe for disaster. It could clear in an hour, or it could take all morning (and get worse while doing so).
It seems to me that it was pretty likely you weren’t going to make it in before you took off. I can understand going and taking a look at it, but I would have at least had one sure clear alternate before departing (or inflight weather?).
Why not have a leisurely breakfast or an early lunch and then fly in the afternoon? It also gives you time to come up with another plan (fly your passenger to an airport with a train station or commercial flight home).
I alway hesitate to bring passengers with normal jobs for this reason. My wife and I can work with just a laptop, so no big deal. I have had many amazing trips with her (and other friends) but they have been fairly random, often without a fixed schedule. It is hard to find people who can do this.
For me it is also interesting, because there are different pilot cultures in different areas. I learned to fly in the mountains (near Vancouver BC) and normally travelled with a sleeping bag. I have stayed many a night in the airport hut/club due to weather. In this type of culture, there is not even a discussion of launching unless you have good conditions at your destination (or at least a favourable forecast that you believe and a sure alternate). You might have to evaluate the passes, see which route is clear, etc. However, you are looking for an uptrend. There is no point in getting through a dodgy valley to find your destination socked in. I summarised early in my flying, there is either VFR or IFR flying and I should commit to which is appropriate. VFR ‘maybe’ just produces lots of uncomfortable moments.
I have flown in places that are flat (the Prairies in Canada) and southern England and pilots seem to be much more keen to launch in VFR ‘maybe’, rather than waiting for improvement, or filing a full IFR plan. Of course it is harder to get an IR here, which is perhaps part of the reason why it is so….
Best wishes to many more great trips!
I take it with Category 1 approaches you’d definitely want to be using the autopilot if you have one?
You should know how to use the autopilot in all its modes including approaches, and then if you get caught out and you don’t feel current enough to hand fly an approach, you can do it that way.
For a two hour flight (or less) from Dinard to Stapleford, I wouldn’t have launched until it was clear (enough) at my destination
I would agree with that, especially in the case of “persistent” weather.
I think in cases like this, it is well worth having a reasonable overview of the weather system (and maybe you did). For example, if there was a front moving through, some metholodgy to requesting the weather moving in the direction or away from the direction of flow will give you a great idea if its going downhill or improving. Classically in a EW prevail stream for example bases will topple along the coast, and you can build a picture of how the weather is moving. In other words working out the pattern can be very helpful.
