Some interesting points:
And he ends up with a gear emergency… on top of everything else.
Excellent video, so real life! Compressing layers are the bane of VFR flight over an overcast. But I have never been in a situation with icing conditions below!!! (I didn’t see the rest of the video…. does it get worse???). BTW his radio work is professional and relaxed and he seems to know how to fly, but judgment is the real question. However if he had the fuel to divert, then maybe not so bad. The only thing missing was oxygen.
High bank and high descent rate in IMC to avoid picking up ice ? Whereas he doesn’t know how thick is the layer ?
Frankly, I find this manoeuver frightening.
Peter wrote:
a good summary at 12:25 but they seem to miss the elephant in the room which is flight into certain icing conditions in a laminar flow plane with no de-ice
I wonder how laminar that airfoil really is. All foils are laminar to a point, but a laminar airfoil is one that achieve laminar flow at a cord grater than 30% approximately. The 200/320/360 use the NASA NLF(l)-0215F. This was a special airfoil designed by NASA for powered GA. The whole idea was to achieve a “nice” laminar flow airfoil that had the low drag performance of a NACA 6 series foil, and the high lift of a NACA low speed foils. At the same time it should behave like a NACA 6 series foil when laminar foil was not achieved in flight. This is very different from a no compromise high performance laminar airfoils used in competition sail planes for instance.
From http://www.n91cz.net/Interesting_Technical_Reports/NASA-81-tp1865.pdf
A flapped natural-laminar-fkw airfoil for general aviation applications,
the NLF(l)-0215F, has been designed and analyzed theoretically and verified
experimentally in the Langley Low-Turbulence Pressure Tunnel. The basic objective
of ccxnbiningthe high maximum lift of the NASA low-speed airfoils with the
low cruise drag of the NACA 6-series airfoils has been achieved. The safety
requirement that the maximum lift coefficient not be significantly affected with
transition fixed near the leading edge has also been met. Comparisons of the
theoretical and experimental results show generally good agreement.
The most important result is that the new natural-laminar-fkw airfoil
achieves maximum lift coefficients similar to those of the NASA low-speed airfoils
even with transition fixed near the leading edge. At the same time, the
new airfoil with transition fixed exhibits no higher cruise drag then canparable
turbulent-flm airfoils. Thus, if the new airfoil is employed in an aircraft
design and laminar flow is not achieved, nothing is lost relative to the NASA
low-speed airfoils. If laminar flow is achieved, a very substantial profiledrag
reduction results.
The Lancair will get a bit more drag, but the lift will stay put even when the foil is 100% turbulent.
At around 9:20 you can clearly see the ground and that the cloud layer is thin in that area. Could have descended below the clouds easiy, almost without touching clouds. The procedure he used is unsafe in IMC, especially in a Lancair.
What I find interesting is his determination to proceed forward. Even a forward that isn’t directly on his planned route is continued, without ever thinking “this isn’t working out, I’m turning back.”
Once he found himself in a difficult situation, he was willing to turn 45 degrees left or right, but right up to that point he still had the option of doing a 180 but he never took it. At the point (9:50) where the narrator says that the situation is now an emergency, and he looks for an IFR clearance and says “don’t take too long”, he could still have done a 180. There was no cloud to his side preventing a 180 turn in VMC and there was nothing to suggest that the weather had changed where he’d come from.
Having said that, I recognise the mental assumption that the weather has changed everywhere, rather than you’ve flow into an area of worse conditions. I think it comes from the mental process of trying to find your way towards a destination, rather than being actively thinking about turning back. It’s like thinking that another aircraft came “out of nowhere” or “suddenly you were surrounded by clouds from nowhere”. They didn’t come from nowhere, you went towards them.
One Q I find intriguing is why he (commendably!) went open with this. Most pilots would have never written about such a flight (well, not without dis-identifying everything and probably after the passage of some time so nobody can work it out) especially in the USA where the “FIKI” concept is defined (well, to some degree, anyway) and AIUI the FAA has taken action under it.
I guess that he applied for the NASA reporting scheme exemption and/or US homebuilt pilots have immunity from a variety of actions.
As regards my view of what he did that was bad, by far the worst was the lack of oxygen which effectively halved his operating ceiling and crippled his wx avoidance options. What he did was equivalent to flying a PA46 with one of the windows removed and no oxygen. But then a large % of the European pilots who fly at a decent altitude (most of them hold an IR) don’t use oxygen either! And I got the impression this quite cool guy does this all the time and is familiar with it, which is fine until one day it won’t be.
A good lesson is the time it takes to get an IFR clearance – even in the USA where it is probably the same controller – relative to how fast you are moving along with the wx. In Europe it could take 10-20 mins, IME, or you may never get it (a common thing in the UK, IME) or you may not get it before you are dead.
He has a YouTube channel with many aviation clips….I’ve seen him (an Aussie expat in the US) online quite a few times…can’t remember the channel ….often with a screw up highlighted…
[edit] The YouTube channel is PilotWorkshops
I don’t understand why he was so keen to cancel IFR early in the flight, as soon as he was on top. Then leave himself struggling to get IFR cleared again later. He knew before the start of the flight that it could be challenging and not consistent VFR conditions. Why not stay IFR throughout and work with the controller as necessary to get the required routing and level.
