AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2022 - 100

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We started the aircraft, received our
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clearance, and taxied out to the runway.
Everything was going perfectly. Our first
sign of trouble was on the climbout; we
entered the overcast layer and found it
thicker than our weather reports had
anticipated. We broke out of the cloud
layer and climbed to 6,000 feet. At cruise
altitude, the OAT read considerably lower
than the other instructor's information
and what the weather briefings said. We
were not into a freezing level, but we were
getting dangerously close. Contending
with this new, first-hand knowledge that
the weather was far worse than anticipated,
we decided to press on to Waco and
attempt to shoot the approach.
We continued the flight above the
clouds and noticed that the cloud tops were
getting higher. We started receiving vectors
to Georgetown, or do we use the three and
half hours of fuel we have left flying around
central Texas looking for a hole to punch
through or a higher temperature? After
careful consideration, we chose the former.
We would attempt the approach, and
if we started getting icing again, we would
go back up and look for possible diversions.
ATC gave us vectors and descent at our
discretion. The cloud layer and temperatures
did not look promising. Finally, we
could not put off our descent any longer;
we started down. Again, the OAT started
dropping. We reached the cloud layer, and
nothing was in our favor, so we started back
up again. Then, almost out of nowhere, the
cloud layer broke, and there was an opening
right on the approach path. It was the
first promising thing we had seen the whole
flight, and we took it. We continued the
We should not have been in the air that day,
no matter what the reports said or who else was
sharing the sky with us.
and, anticipating possible icing, requested
all descents at our discretion. Then, the
time finally came to descend into the
clouds and shoot the approach. We began
our descent and monitored the OAT. Now,
common sense and weather theory would
anticipate an increase in temperature with
a descent, but that's not what happened
in this case. As we descended through
the ever-thickening cloud layer, the OAT
started to plummet. My instructor peered
out onto the wing, and to our horror, we had
started picking up a layer of rime ice on the
leading edge. We halted our descent and
began a rapid climb back up to our cruising
altitude where we knew what the temperature
was going to be, and notified ATC of
our new intentions to go back home.
Now that we were back above the
clouds in temporary safety, we would eventually
have to go back down. We dialed up
the ATIS frequency and got the weather.
Ceilings at Georgetown were getting lower,
cloud layers were getting thicker, and temperatures
were dropping. Do we continue
100
AOPA PILOT / December 2022
approach, made an almost perfect landing,
and went back inside to beat ourselves up
in the debrief.
We learned many lessons on this flight,
but the key takeaway was the unpredictability
of the weather. Meteorology and
weather theory are such massive parts of
pilot training, especially in instrument training,
yet nobody can say for sure what the
conditions will be up in the air. All the risks
associated with weather genuinely make it
the most dangerous hazard to aviation. We
spent well over an hour scouring through
imagery, briefings, and pireps. We examined
all the risks, assessed their severity, and
still, we made a wrong decision. We should
not have been in the air that day, no matter
what the reports said or who else was sharing
the sky with us. Sometimes, when there
is a doubt, the best thing to do is cancel the
flight. Had a hole not opened up for us on
our approach, who knows where we would
have ended up.
Preston Harrison is a CFII/MEI in Spring,
Texas.
Fits On A
Plane!
http://seaeagle.com http://claroxan.com/optimis7
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2022

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