Risk evaluations.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Flying has many risk factors of which the weather is one of the most important factor to evaluate and make the go no go decision.

Much of my flying involved long distance trips sometimes over the ocean and sometimes over hours of desert flying.

There were three high risk kinds of IMC flying , snow and freezing rain, dust storms in the Sahara Desert and penetrating the ITCZ.

For me of the three the most difficult and in some ways the most dangerous was the dust storms.


How do the rest of you feel about these issues and do you have any other kinds of concerns about weather?

[TwinOtterFan]

Well I only have about 10 minutes of flying under my belt, but in my current situation icing is the only real concern I've had, I don't fly far from the airport and I'm vfr.

Dust storms though... I can't even imagine, is there any level of prediction for that? I assume certain conditions make them more probable, but do you have much warning?

Also I'm curious what does that do to an engine? I know in Afghanistan the sand destroyed the helicopters.

[Slick Goodlin]

I’ve never seen it myself but a situation that came up in conversation just yesterday was one where the other guy was doing an approach to a reserve during a fire evacuation. Flying through smoke was to be expected, some summers all of Northern Ontario seems to be in smoke, but as he got down to minimums he said there were red embers flying past the plane. Ultimately he went missed and back at base said the leading edges of the plane were all caked with a thin layer of ash.

[Big Pistons Forever]

I hate fog. Of all the weather phenomena, the weather guessers seem to have the most problems predicting it and at least on the coast, it can take out a whole bunch of airports simultaneously ; particularly the surface fog banks that form right at sunrise.

A long time ago I flew a Ho on a schedule bag run between Victoria and Vancouver. There were a few October mornings where I carried Calgary or Prince George as my alternate. The freight guys were not happy about my bumping freight to carry the extra gas, but I made it clear I did not care what they thought.

[Squaretail]

I’ve never seen it myself but a situation that came up in conversation just yesterday was one where the other guy was doing an approach to a reserve during a fire evacuation. Flying through smoke was to be expected, some summers all of Northern Ontario seems to be in smoke, but as he got down to minimums he said there were red embers flying past the plane. Ultimately he went missed and back at base said the leading edges of the plane were all caked with a thin layer of ash.

Smoke has always been the worst, additionally to it being unpredictable, the nature of its spread means keeping fuel for a long away alternate. Besides being so bad a few times I've kept the O2 mask on to the ground. Of note, the soot makes apparent how the vgs work, staining patterns on the wings. Ash can also be really reflective if you got the strobes on. One updraft was also so bad I had to clean needles and spruce cones out of the cowl, and those were picked up at 20,000'. No amount of febreeze gets that smell out of the airplane.

In terms of regular weather, Winnipeg has always generated the worst, and one condition that I was warned of, and encountered once: blowing mud. The combination of the silty dust left behind by the floods, and summer showers leave the airplane coated with that slimy, silty, opaque crap. Combine that with the clouds of bugs the plane would audibly murder by the millions, the slurpy mixture was nothing short of horrific. In terms of risk assessment, just avoid Winnipeg if you can.

[TwinOtterFan]

Was stationed at 17 Wing a few years ago for about a year. Wasn't the worst posting I ever had but then I never had to deal with blowing mud lol.

[W5]

Had a mudstorm in Saskatoon one time. Dust storm turned into a thunderstorm and brought down all the dust in the form of mud. The windshield wipers on the poor Convair weren't designed for that.