AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2018 - 102

P&E

NEVER AGAIN

After what seemed like an eternity, we broke
out of the clouds at 8,500 feet. Ahead was
brilliant clear sky with Jacksonville and the
coast in sight.

102 |

5,000 feet; on and on we climbed. At 6,000
feet it got worse because we busted out
of one towering cloud and then plunged
right into another. The intermittent brief
flashes of bright light and billowing cloud
edges were extremely distracting and disorienting. It took all my concentration
and willpower to ignore all this and stay
focused on the instruments.
After what seemed like an eternity,
we broke out of the clouds at 8,500 feet.
Ahead of us was brilliant clear sky with
Jacksonville and the coast in sight. We leveled off at 9,500 feet. I called Jacksonville
Radio to report that we were "with

them" VFR level at 9,500. They cheerfully said good morning and gave us the
latest Jacksonville info and the forecast
to Miami, which was clear skies. The rest
of the flight was smooth, pleasant, and
uneventful.
So what had happened? Had someone
confused cloud bases with cloud tops? I
will never know. Carly swore the briefer
had said ceiling (cloud bases) at 8,000
feet. That turned out to be close to where
the tops were. I have gone over this scenario many times during my subsequent
years of flying and always concluded that
I had made the right choice. The regret I

had was that we did not call Jacksonville
Radio and tell them what we were doing.
In essence we conducted 45 minutes of
illegal flight. But I had my hands full and
did not need the further distraction of
radio communication.
I remain ever so grateful to my instructors who were wise enough and caring
enough to expose me to that concentrated
three hours, 45 minutes under the hood.
This experience reinforced my faith in my
ability to control an airplane using instruments, although I redoubled my efforts to
never incur a repeat until I got my instrument rating.
AOPA
TOM HAACK holds commercial single- and

multiengine land and flight instructor
certificates and instrument ratings.
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never_again).

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2018