Jump to content

LEZ, IFR and weather: what are reasonable limits


finaltable

Recommended Posts

Continuing on my original discussion; I am looking to commute between two places that see little cold weather (KAHN&KLBX) but fairly regular rain, especially on the Georgia side. In talking with my CFII, he told me that for the normal GA pilot, the primary benefit of IFR training is not to fly in awful weather but to be able to still fly when the conditions become marginal VFR and to be able to safely extricate oneself from deteriorating conditions. I am going to be doing all my flying with a Garmin 496 so I should have pretty good forewarning of the conditions I am approaching and the altitude capabilites of the LEZ should give me a fair number of options when dealing with weather.

 

For the people who fly in places where that white stuff falls out of the sky or conditions are less than sunny all the time such as the Northwest what have you found are the limits of what is comfortable (read: still feels safe) when flying an LEZ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I realize now that my question doesn't really have an answer and I don't know what I was expecting when I asked this question. Weather can be a very subjective thing but IFR very clearly defines things like visibility and ceiling. Both airports have ILS landing capability and given that both are fairly low traffic airports the likelihood of me taking off, having checked weather pre-flight at the destination, monitoring enroute and then having conditions degrade to the point of preventing a landing in four hours is extremely low. Should I plan to do this, year round, I really need to become intimately familiar with icing conditions in winter months and weather behavior at both locations from approximately 3-8PM local time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Continuing on my original discussion; I am looking to commute between two places that see little cold weather (KAHN&KLBX) but fairly regular rain, especially on the Georgia side. In talking with my CFII, he told me that for the normal GA pilot, the primary benefit of IFR training is not to fly in awful weather but to be able to still fly when the conditions become marginal VFR and to be able to safely extricate oneself from deteriorating conditions. I am going to be doing all my flying with a Garmin 496 so I should have pretty good forewarning of the conditions I am approaching and the altitude capabilites of the LEZ should give me a fair number of options when dealing with weather.

 

For the people who fly in places where that white stuff falls out of the sky or conditions are less than sunny all the time such as the Northwest what have you found are the limits of what is comfortable (read: still feels safe) when flying an LEZ?

It sounds like your instructor is not too confident in his own IFR capabilities and is using his instrument instructor's license as a cash cow (?). You need to find an instructor who is confident in his/her own abilities and who can teach you well.

I Canardly contain myself!

Rich :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really need to become intimately familiar with icing conditions in winter months and weather behavior at both locations from approximately 3-8PM local time.

Well, you certainly don't want to fly a Long-EZ in any ice, or heavy rain, if that's what you're hoping for. Light IMC conditions would probably be OK but I would not want to be breaking 100 ceilings and landing on wet runways with gusty crosswinds in one of these.

My airplane has IFR equipment but I never fly IFR. Still, the equipment has come in handy a couple of times (and I have an instrument ticket). Without an autopilot, these airplanes are not good instrument platforms.

-Kent

-Kent
Cozy IV N13AM-750 hrs, Long-EZ-85 hrs and sold

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It sounds like your instructor is not too confident in his own IFR capabilities and is using his instrument instructor's license as a cash cow (?). You need to find an instructor who is confident in his/her own abilities and who can teach you well.

I'm not worried about my CFII. He has over 7,000 hours of total time including a type rating for the Citation Jet, which he flies as a charter pilot. He used to have a primary job as a corporate King Air 350 pilot and one of his former students is a guy who now flies F-16's for the Air Force. His point, and I think a valid one, is that most GA pilots simply don't fly enough to make flying hard IFR something with which they gain a great deal of experience, so the average GA pilot becomes safer and more knowledgable in the flying they do by getting IFR certified.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not worried about my CFII. He has over 7,000 hours of total time including a type rating for the Citation Jet, which he flies as a charter pilot. He used to have a primary job as a corporate King Air 350 pilot and one of his former students is a guy who now flies F-16's for the Air Force. His point, and I think a valid one, is that most GA pilots simply don't fly enough to make flying hard IFR something with which they gain a great deal of experience, so the average GA pilot becomes safer and more knowledgable in the flying they do by getting IFR certified.

I agree with his point aout most GA pilots don't fly enough to make flying hard.... However if you intend to fly IFR, hard or not, it behooves you to remain current and safe by donig it often, whether by simulation (hood, computer) or actual. I know that when I took my training, my instructor insisted that I had at least 20 Hrs of actual before I took the practical.

 

Each person must make his own decision as to his abilities, etc for each flight, including the ability of the aircraft. His point in what he said was not a reflection on the aircraft but on pilots in general. Of course we all know that the new sport-pilot rating pilots shouldn't be flying because they don't have the knowledge and experience that the rest of us do, and that low time pilots shouldn't really be flying into congested or towered fields because they do not have the experience that the rest of us do etc, etc, etc.

 

It is the individual and his/her capabilities that is the crucial factor here.

 

Is it better to scud run or to file.

 

Yes our birds are not iceophiles, nor do they like rain. They also don't like to land on water. So keep away from these possibilities.

 

If you get an instrument ticket, use it, learn from it, or don't get it and have a false sense of security which may get you dead.

 

Of course, these are just my thoughts. I long ago stopped worshiping those with more hours, ratings, experience and aviation jobs than I. I do, however try to understand the logic behind their blanket pronouncements.

 

Get the ticket, fly the ticket, get lots of actual cloud time in its quest, and remain or get current and PROFICIENT before exercising the privileges when you are PIC.

 

Safe flying

I Canardly contain myself!

Rich :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whip, Whip, Whip (the sound of beating a dead horse).

 

Many multithousand hour corporate types, and even most non-corporate types, instrument rated or not, consider those of us who build and fly experimental aircraft somewhat on the lunatic fringes (fortunately this is happening less and less)

 

Will your instructor give you basic or instrument training in an experimental?, will he even fly in an experimental??

 

The fact that he does or doesn't do the above says more about him/her than the experimental certification, doesn't it?

I Canardly contain myself!

Rich :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whip, Whip, Whip (the sound of beating a dead horse).

 

Many multithousand hour corporate types, and even most non-corporate types, instrument rated or not, consider those of us who build and fly experimental aircraft somewhat on the lunatic fringes (fortunately this is happening less and less)

 

Will your instructor give you basic or instrument training in an experimental?, will he even fly in an experimental??

 

The fact that he does or doesn't do the above says more about him/her than the experimental certification, doesn't it?

Though he has been a corporate pilot he is a long, long way from being the corporate pilot type. He firmly believes that far better planes can be had in the kitplane/homebuilt world than commercial; when I talked to him about my mission requirements he said only a canard is going to do that well at a reasonable price. He owns a Bonanza, which would certainly do the job, but it's going to burn 15+ gph to do it. One of the planes that shares a hanger with another one of his planes is an IFR equipped Velocity RG, he has flown it and speaks very highly of it. If I owned an experimental he wouldn't hesitate to give me instruction in it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information