IFR San Luis Obispo with my Love (Full ATC)

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krellis
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Re: IFR San Luis Obispo with my Love (Full ATC)

Post by krellis »

AndrewM wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:31 am I did an approach in extreme precip just a few days ago. It was RNAV 23 KLWM. One of the more difficult approaches I have done because it was just bucketing down with rain and moderate turbulence. The red on the NEXRAD on the photo was directly over the field when I landed. Luckily I had good proficiency prior to executing this approach.

The plane, however, was VERY clean when pulled into the hanger from all the rain! :) IMG_1233 (1).jpg
Glad you were "proficient" and landed safely.

As a 20K hour professional pilot, I'm not sure I would be bragging about flying an approach in a single engine piston airplane into "extreme precip" and using FIS-B or XM weather as a tactical weather source.

The DA-40 is a great instrument airplane and very safe, but the laminar flow wings are affected by precip.

I suggest you may want to rethink your aeronautical decision making. I would have given you a lot more credit had you shown better judgement and diverted until the weather improved. Just my opinion, though.
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Colin
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Re: IFR San Luis Obispo with my Love (Full ATC)

Post by Colin »

One pilot's "bucketing down" might not actually be another's "extreme precip."

I've never flown into red on the XM screen. I've skirted around the edges of yellow and, when I've seen it in person, sometimes ducked through 7 minutes of it as long as I had a high ceiling, good clearance below me and a good out behind me. I wouldn't head toward an airport if I had to land in yellow, certainly not in red. But as proficient as I am, I am also very risk averse.
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AndrewM
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Re: IFR San Luis Obispo with my Love (Full ATC)

Post by AndrewM »

Prior to departure I spent quite some time on the phone with my CFII (also an airline pilot) and went through all the en-route weather, and briefed on various decision points to divert, and what those scenarios could be given the conditions. It was a great exercise to go through. In the end we agreed to launch, but with clearly defined decision points and "out" points. My decision was to try one approach, knowing it was 1,200 ft ceilings. If they were below 1,000, I would not have pressed on. Also, I asked ATC for a routing that allowed me to scope things out prior to commencing the approach... the conditions allowed me to have a visual with the airport on the route I requested prior to commencing the approach, so that also was a factor in my thinking, and if things were headed in the wrong direction, I knew literally right next to the field there was much better weather I could reach very quickly and establish a hold till things got better, or divert to another airport.
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Re: IFR San Luis Obispo with my Love (Full ATC)

Post by Soareyes »

mfd.jpg
You were there and had more information and it worked out well.

For the sake of stimulating conversation that may help newer IFR pilots, here are some thoughts from looking at just this G1000 weather map.

I fly through Nexrad green and yellow but never red.

Lightning symbols scare me.

In addition to Nexrad and lightning I like to have cell movement arrows showing on the map.

If I've been watching red precip moving towards my path of flight I will divert and fly around it. If it looks like we will arrive at the destination at the same time I will divert and either hold or land somewhere else. I never want to fly in a thunderstorm much less fly an approach in one.

If I have to choose between landing just before or just after a thunderstorm I would choose after. But it depends on the size of the storm and how quickly it's moving. I've done both recently. Ahead of a storm you generally have more lightning and the possibility of gust fronts and shear.
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Re: IFR San Luis Obispo with my Love (Full ATC)

Post by CFIDave »

Last year I flew through red in cruise (10,000 feet) because I knew it was all non-convective precipitation, and there was no scalloping or sharp edges with multi-color gradients showing on radar.

The rain was really intense -- so much so that after landing I noticed that it peeled off some of the black vinyl "Diamond Aircraft" logo and lettering on the nose of the DA62. I won't be making that mistake again.

But my plane was REALLY clean! :D
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Re: IFR San Luis Obispo with my Love (Full ATC)

Post by AndrewM »

Dan, Thanks, I really do appreciate your comments and insights. Very helpful. I asked ATC to deviate me a little south of LWM vs the track you see on the screen, which is the solid green part you can see, then asked for a left turn north which is where I could visually see the field, but still asked for the RNAV just in case I lost visibility. At that point I knew I had a quick out into better weather once the approach commenced.

If I see solid red, never going to fly through that, it's just what happened for a short time on this one. My decision making will likely be different if such a situation were to occur again, and I think clouded by the fact on that left turn north, in visual contact with the field, some decent weather was right there.

Thanks again Dan.
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