Scudrunners

https://energeticcity.ca/2017/10/privat ... mmit-lake/


PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. — A private airplane that was forced to ditch on the Hart Highway north of Prince George is causing a visual distraction for motorists this afternoon.Cpl. Craig Douglass with the Prince George RCMP said that the pilot called 911 at around 12:15 p.m. Wednesday to report that he’d been forced to make an emergency landing on Highway 97 roughly 50 kilometres north of Prince George because of bad weather. Cpl. Douglass explained that the pilot was uninjured, and requested police assistance to block the highway so that he could take off once again. Cpl. Douglass said that, likely due to continued bad weather, the pilot has not been able to take off, and has moved his Cessna 172 off of the highway so that it is not blocking traffic. He added that the RCMP’s involvement in the case has concluded for the time being, unless the pilot calls to request police involvement in closing the highway for another takeoff attempt. Cpl. Douglass explained that the aircraft is largely serving a visual distraction near Summit Lake on Highway 97, but travel on the highway is otherwise normal. At this point, there’s no word on when the aircraft will be removed from the side of the highway.

A friend of mine was working in the area at time and heard about it so he went over to see for himself.
He actually wound up meeting our intrepid hero, this is the airplane:
[img width=500 height=375]http://i65.tinypic.com/a4almx.jpg[/img]


The guy decided to fly his 172 from Fort St. John to Prince George in this weather:


[img width=500 height=401]http://i66.tinypic.com/oaabk9.png[/img]


[img width=500 height=401]http://i68.tinypic.com/2881tmd.png[/img]


For those unfamiliar with the geography there are a lot of high hills between Fort St John and Prince George, and the area
is not known for its pleasant and mild weather patterns. Frankly, given how nasty the weather was at the time I'm surprised
he made it as far as he did. I think he got very lucky, he would not have been the first to find himself splattered across the
Hart Ranges while attempting to make that route in poor weather. My friend said that the guy wasn't down very long before
he took off again and the weather had not really improved much when he did. 

Trying to wrap my head around this. 


Given: we don't teach GFA's as part of FAA PPL ground school.
This dude, being from Redding, Ca and registered plane in Kotzebute, AK should probably know to ask about weather. 


After making an incredibly stupid choice to fly in 8-1200 foot ceilings in 1 sm, light snow, in mountainous terrain should, by all accounts, be a Darwin Award  recipient.


However he was smart enough to set her down on the road. 


What the fook,..?

[quote]This dude, being from Redding, Ca and registered plane in Kotzebute, AK should probably know to ask about weather.[/quote]

Can't speak for Alaska, but I can tell you that pilots out
here have really no experience with wx.  It's blue sky
pretty much every day.

I found it very interesting that for a number of years,
there was no rain.  Normally it rains in the winter, and
not in the summer.

Then, it did rain.  And there were clouds.  And I was
astounded that there seemed to be a fatal light aircraft
crash pretty well every day it got cloudy, because even
the instrument-rated pilots out here don't fly in wx.

If the visibility goes below 10 miles, or the wind goes
up over 10 knots, all the little airplane pilots stay on
the ground.  Eric and I find that pretty funny, as you
might imagine.

I went flying last weekend, and before I took off a guy
said, "Gosh, it's windy".  I replied, "I don't care".  In
retrospect, even though it was quite true, I should not
have spoken the truth, because his feelings probably
got hurt.

But I really don't care about the wind, or low vis.  I
lived in the lee of the great lakes for fucking decades
which has rotten wx.  Not as bad as the east coast
of course, I might hasten to add.  The east coast has
the shittiest wx I have ever seen.  Maybe there's
someplace on earth with shittier wx than the east
coast, but I can't think of any.

Iraq has the shittiest weather on the planet.

I flew through a God-damned cloud of pure oil smoke today. 

I'll take a Forrest fire any day of the week over an oil fire.  Fuck that. Fuck it right where it fucking hurts. 

Now that's of my chest, (because I can feel the cancer growing)

I'd agree.  The East coast weather is also no fun.  A few years ago I was landing in St John ahead of a Westjet bird. It was VFR (night) and arrival asked if we wanted a visual.  I promptly said no, and sure as shit, the fog followed us in on short final, and was 1/2 mile when we landed.

Sounds like a real toilet.  Sorry you have to breathe that crap.