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Stay Out of the Clouds
Recently, a former private pilot student of mine revealed some information during his biennial flight review that made my heart skip a few beats and nearly get stuck in my throat. He said he enjoys flying through clouds. Had this been one of my instrument students, I would have been happy. But this man never continued his training to receive an instrument ticket. (www.flyingmag.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Way back in '82 on one of my first couple of solo flights out of KADS I had turned to a northerly heading and was entering what was then the practice area north of Lake Lewisville. It was a beautiful day with some big puffy cotton-like clouds--perfect for flying. I saw one huge cloud well above me at about ten o'clock and was thinking "Boy, I'd love to be popping into that cloud about now!" but also recalling my flight instructor's consistent and firm advice that, until I got my instrument ticket, to consider that "All clouds are made of steel!" Just microseconds after thinking now wonderful it would be to pop into that cloud, an American DC-10 popped out of it! The cloud was just the perfect size to hide that beast of an aircraft, and the timing could not have been more perfect! It was as though the DC-10 was hiding, waiting for the thoughts of cloud-popping to enter my head before it popped out at me! YEOW! What a magic moment for me! Of course I was well below the cloud and well within the regs, but it was a true divine message. Within seconds I realized that DFW Approach and the DC-10 were talking about me when I heard the AA flight crew report me as being well below and no factor... I'll never forget that incident, and it's the reason I send my flight instructor a Christmas card every year to thank him for his skills and his time.
Thanks for sharing!
The DC 10 was most likely also in DFW's class B airspace. Last year I had a fool with a bonanza take off from T67 vfr ( hicks ) and fly right into the 1000' broken clouds, turn directly into our ILS at KFTW about 500' right in front of me. It was like he was trying to hit every cloud in a row...probably a new doctor showing off for his girl friend. Thankfully the tower and my G1000 both picked him up or it would not have been just another ILS for the logbook.
Tim, you're spot on about the DC-10 being in Class B (at that time a TCA) and there was no danger at all, but that thing looked magnificent coming out of that cloud. And your experience with the nutjob last year is truly scary! It's amazing to me how many so-called pilots make GA pilots look like fools to the public. And if there'd been some metal to metal, the howls from the public wanting ATC to have more control over those dangerous "rich private pilots" would be deafening, wouldn't it? Sadly, those types give the rest of us a bad name and on occasion will eliminate themselves from the ranks of pilots however they often take others with them.
I seem to recall an old quote that said something along the lines of "Stay away from clouds. That silver lining just might be a 747 heading the opposite direction"
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Sure will, but he could take some innocent bystanders with him.
In the air OR on the ground!!