As a general and deliberately naive comment: this approach is finally flown by the AP [which don’t disconnect :-)], and the pilot just has to do the right input and don’t panic.
So, my question is (to the pilots who routinely fly in such conditions): what are the reason(s) for so much stress ?
- the aircraft is inappropriate ?
- the pilot is not used enough to such weather conditions ? (I mean, after 100 times, you should feel relax with the same conditions)
- the pilot is not used to such big airport ?
- the situation is objectively dangerous ?
- the technic is inappropriate ?
when would you cancel in such a situation ? Well before the approach with the whole weather map ? When he gets the “weather hole” ?
There are a few moments where he had a nice visual of the ground. One then needs to finds a way outside the worst precipitation, since the visibility will be poor there. But one you are VFR in Golf/Echo, you will be much more flexible then when IFR in the Frankfurt area. But one should know the area and its terrain somewhat, which was probably not the case here.
Re the stress: once you will fly in such strong turbulence (it was certainly strong, the camera just didn’t pick it up), you will know why he got stressed. Even if you know its not imminently dangerous, it will stress you a lot. Adding to the stress: the fear of hail, lightning strike. And here: the really big and busy airport.
petit cessna: every flight should be like your first flight. there is no “relax” in flying instrument approaches, let alone in these conditions as single pilot IFR into a major airport. the aircraft is fine and the pilot has flown into many large airports before. the situation is definitely dangerous but his flying was correct at all times. i agree with the fact he shouldn’t be worried about the turnoff but it’s easy to say when you don’t have a heavy jet behind you, his intentions were correct. as it was said in the forum by someone else, when you are cleared to land it’s your runway regardless of whether at LFAT or JFK.
regarding the AP yes it is a huge help but the G1000 and the AP can be complicated (and that version has no keypad which doesn’t help) and input mistakes can happen very quickly it is not a question of “just” doing the right input. that is the wrong mentality. you constantly have to cross check that the AP is doing what you expect it to do and that adds a layer of stress and workload.
he did a very good job given the circumstances and was never in a state of panic… simply heightened awareness :)
Those of us who fly non-commercial single pilot, whether IFR or VFR do not have a senior captain sitting next to us showing us the ropes. We also fly a lot less that commercial pilots. Then we post a video on YouTube and all of a sudden it is the entire community who criticise our performance, not always in very flattering terms. 
Our only recourse to increase our competency is to seek training and read all we can find including critical comments about videos on YouTube
I am sure we all have had learning experiences. I often do a retrospective analysis of my flights, or parts of my flights to learns from potential mistakes I made, but I do not necessarily post them on YouTube.
boscomantico wrote:
once you will fly in such strong turbulence
I have. Was much stressed during, and exhausted after the approach, when finally landed.
Hence my apparently naive question: will a commercial pilot feel much less stressed because he is well accustomed to those weather conditions, OR the situation, with this plane, really needing the help of luck to end up nicely ?
pashab wrote:
there is no “relax” in flying instrument approaches, let alone in these conditions as single pilot IFR into a major airport.
I insist on the deliberately naive dimension of my question, maybe even provocative, with the only intention to learn. JasonC, who seems to fly in such conditions, doesn’t feel good with that video, and I would have like to know why.
pashab wrote:
the G1000 and the AP can be complicated
My set-up is similar (except for weather radar), and I know how much work it is to monitor all that.
What I wanted to express is my idea that an experienced / commercial pilot may have a spare style of actions.. I mean doing just the right thing at the right moment, no extra, a bit like on radio, when we can hear people telling their whole life, and others just giving the essential bit of information.
pashab wrote:
he did a very good job given the circumstances and was never in a state of panic… simply heightened awareness :)
I agree with that.
Aviathor wrote:
do not have a senior captain sitting next to us showing us the ropes.
That’s why I am asking !!! Plenty of senior captain here, so we need your point !!!!!
Aviathor wrote:
Our only recourse to increase our competency is to seek training and read all we can find including critical comments about videos on YouTube
Completely agree here. My remarks shouldn’t hide my humble consideration for what he does with his DA42 and that really impresses me.
boscomantico wrote:
Adding to the stress: the fear of hail, lightning strike.
So, back to the original point. Did he avoid that thanks to LUCK, WEATHER RADAR, or BOTH ? :-D
It’s hard to judge how heavy weather was from the video because one can’t see turbulence. I flew through similar stuff (but I guess less heavy) yesterday (LYBE-LDZA) both on departure and arrival but the temperature was much higher and no airframe icing was possible. I was able to visually avoid everything on departure and en-route as well as majority on arrival except few showers on establishing ILS. Maybe in my case canceling IFR would’ve been better decision but it didn’t came to my mind I was too focused to handling turbulence, checking plates, frequencies etc.
Did he avoid that thanks to LUCK, WEATHER RADAR, or BOTH ? :-D
Luck mainly. Definitely not the radar since he doesn’t appear to be using it correctly.
What would be interesting is a look at the wx data before that flight. I don’t suppose we have the date and time?
Attitudes to risk do vary but I would not fly into such wx.
Also doing that with passengers will scare the s**t out of most of them and that alone will terminate your flying career pretty quickly.
I am not sure how cancelling IFR would have helped, unless the cloudbases are high enough to enable a run below the cloudbase.
A camera fixed in the cockpit won’t show turbulence at all.
If you look at the downlink radar picture he shows early in the video there is a cell right on the arrival. I would not be very comfortable with that but if I was flying I would have left my onboard radar on 10-20nm range the entire time while flying through the IMC until I could avoid visually.
I am sure he learnt a lot from it.
Jason, do you feel stressed when flying in such conditions ? Or has it become a routine ?
Considering the cell on the approach path visible on the downlink, would you have request different routing for the arrival in advance ?
Sure he must have learned a lot.
And we (I) did too, thanks to his posting.
