MET INSIGHT
Flying over the sea can bring its own visibility challenges
excellent book Mountain Flying is to try to leave a good spacing between you and the cloud base above. If you ‘scud run’ just below cloud to try to maximise ground clearance you run the risk running into the cloud if it lowers further, visibility is reduced as humidity approaches 100% and the risk of carb icing rises. Drop just a couple of hundred feet and the view ahead can be much improved. Heavy showers and thunderstorms – An ‘I learnt about weather and flying’ moment was flying out of Madrid for Cordoba on our trip to Morocco. Six of us in three Robins had enjoyed perfect flying weather and fabulous views all the way down from Exeter. Madrid had proved a difficult arrival, with complex airspace, mountains to cross, and poor radio reception with difficult to understand controllers.
Having landed safely we were keen to fuel up, deal with the ‘please call the tower’ request, complete the long list of paperwork needed and press on to our overnight stop in Cordoba. Lulled into a false sense of security by perfect weather we departed over the Spanish mountains, happy to be
'I hadn’t checked the weather properly, after all what could go wrong, it was CAVOK?'
in the air again. Visibility unexpectedly deteriorated, the cloudbase lowered and then a flash of lightning ahead and to our left focused our minds.
A tense flight followed as we routed around the weather, eventually landing in Cordoba with a beautiful hazy sunset. As we landed the lady from air traffic ran out to say they had lost contact with one of our planes, an even more tense wait followed before we heard the welcome sound of a distant Robin approaching. It turned out that the loss of contact had been due to transponder finger trouble and each of the aircraft had successfully weaved their way through the weather. In the rush to get airborne I hadn’t checked the weather properly, after all what could go wrong, it was CAVOK? Looking back all the clues were there, afternoon thunderstorms over the mountains are frequent, and the thunderstorm risk was obvious from even
the most basic inspection of charts and TAFS. A year on this was definitely in the back of my mind when suggesting we stay on the ground in Albenga in northern Italy rather than press onto Sienna late in the day, over the mountains with limited weather information. Wind – I learned to fly at Compton Abbas and it remains a favourite destination, surrounded by the best of English scenery and not far from family. However you soon learn that just 10kt from the south can result in challenging turbulence as air spills over woodland to the south, whilst 20kt+ from the north is far more manageable with much of the crosswind easing as you flare. Learning to look at and read the terrain is a valuable skill for anticipating turbulence and local changes in wind direction, particularly in hilly and mountainous regions. I wont forget the turbulence immediately downwind of Ben More
SUMMER 2019 CLUED UP 27
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