Sonex 1284 - Into MVFR and Scud Running

[@gregmills4857]

Mike, let me start off with how thankful I (and many of others reading this) are that you landed safely and all turned out ok. Things happen for a reason I believe and you posting this video is not to help others but instead to get you the vision you need to turn your flying around, IMO. As a veteran pilot with thousands of hours flying/instructing in everything from a C-152 to a four engine heavy aircraft in combat, I'm saying you completely miss the point of what happened to you. The first thing to get clear is that everything you did after descending into the sucker hole was for pure survival, THE SITUATION NEVER SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN THAT FAR! You truly need to get with an experienced instructor and go through the initial flight planning, up to the various decision points you passed up continuing into a deteriorating situation. The equipment you have on your aircraft is infact awesome for a VFR aircraft. However, it is meant to enhance VFR flight, not increase its intended utility and that is VFR flight. The human factors, weather phenomina, and just plain circumstances were all against what you were doing. I admire your aircraft, share your passion for flight and wish you all the best however....................... If you continue the path you are on you will very likely have a serious accident. As a trained aircraft accident investigator I've watched a few of your videos. I see a person who seems to believe preparation gets you through crisis or misgivings. The truth is preparation should slow you down and keep predictable complications from happening, i.e. a canopy not locked and coming loose inflight. Good luck Sir, I truely hope you heed my advice!

[@quinnjim]

This is a great representation of why General Aviation has a terrible safety record. Flying in and out of clouds with high terrain all around. I lost a buddy to this kind of behavior.

[@AvgDude]

Hey kids… This is a perfect example of something a VFR pilot should never ever do on purpose.

[@choosetolivefree]

Yea. Pilots who knowingly choose to do this sort of thing always end up dead. Just a matter of time.

[@clementegarcia4261]

Hey hero, what about the training you received that specifies that you execute a standard rate of turn (20 degrees) while maintaining altitude till you complete 180 degrees in the opposite direction?

[@billrandell4641]

"I picked a fine day to stop chewing gum"

[@oregonsonex]

I really never went back and looked at what happened with the weather. The layer was only 500-1000' thick and CAVU above it. All of it burned off later that day, just 4-5 hours after the TAF. I expect ground fog in the morning between 7-9 am, just not in the afternoon!

[@SyberPrepper]

Thanks very much for the video. Loved all the details about the equipment and the Google Earth display was very cool too. I'm getting more sold on Sonex every day.

[@MrJDP1974]

The first three things that can save one's life if you are going to play with weather are a turn & bank/coordinator, vsi, and an airspeed indicator. Compasses are great if you lose a DG or if the t&b are not electric and you lose vacuum. I can't say I would be comfortable spending much time in any airplane without a t&b. I cannot recall in 30 years flying anything without a "ball" to step on. They sure as heck help keep the airplane flying, especially when you cannot see outside. Best of luck. Sounds like this one made an impression.

[@ericpretorious8965]

Thanks for the excellent post-flight debrief, Mike!

[@ericpretorious8965]

BTW, Mike: Did you eventually have "to answer to 'Big Brother FAA'"?

[@MarcinP2]

Thanks for the video but my hair stood up when i saw the instrument panel. Pilots used to fly in clods before artificial horizon was common on aircraft. Also a lot of accidents happened in old times so it's difficult even if you practice. On the other hand I doubt you have de-icing equipment on a light vfr craft so climbing out trough the clouds to a safe altitude would be a risk and you'd still have to descend to land. You say you never felt unsafe, have you upgraded the instruments as you said you have planned to?

[@JeepLove]

I believe kobes pilot faces these same issues.

[@kylerobinson8913]

That left turn into nothingness was crazy. Kobe accident was the first thing I thought.

[@stealhty1]

This was a Sick flight Captain Cool

[@renatosanchez1937]

The gentleman flying this Sonex, not only violated multiple FAA rules, like minimum distance below and from clouds, but came very close to becoming a statistic. Why people risk flying a VFR flight into IMC is always a mistery, but yet is one of the most common causes of fatalities in general aviation. When in doubt, fly some other time, and call a cab if needed.

[@oregonsonex]

+Renato Sanchez Renato, I partially agree with you. If you read the description, I did not plan on being in IMC. The weather briefing I received did not call for it either. The mistake I made was 1) trusting a 3 hr old forecast, and 2) stretching the fuel of my flight so that my options became limited. If I had realized the weather below the clouds was bad MVFR (or maybe worse), I probably wouldn't have made this decision. My decision to post the video was to help others avoid getting into the situation I found myself. Best made plans...

[@Feuergraf]

I think this was airspace Golf, so stay free of clouds and minimum visibility 1.6 km

[@wf4919]

@Mike 3) flying VFR on Top into deteriorating weather...hope and a prayer that it's clear beyond and below 4) Taking a sucker hole below the clouds........hope and pray you can pick your way through it in non flat terrain. 5) Scud running 6) Not talking to a FSS (Flight service station) en-route when forecasted weather turned out to be worse. DUDE...talk to somebody before pressing over weather. FSS is a huge resource. If the weather sucks now but is forecasted to get better always assume the worse. Have a plan to check the weather enroute. At a minimum once an hour would be my rule of thumb if there is any doubt. 7). You should always land with 30 mins reserve fuel (45 mins night)...those pesky FARs...... 8). Plan an alternate airport with good weather now and even better forecast...but always bewilling to change.....again by updating along the route with the FSS. That is a lot of holes in the Swiss cheese...... I think your personal limits should be a little more conservative than the FARs...given the aircraft. basic VFR is not great weather.....especially if you don't have any instruments. There are a lot of "If I had" s in this post. Your description of the events seems to lean too much on Technology and not enough of lessons that were learned in blood. I almost lost my roomate in college due to this very situation...VFR on Top and forecast weather not becoming a reality (they are called weather guessers for a reason). Luckily he had been shown how to do an ILS...and was in an instrument rated A/C...and even then barely saved his own ass. The problem people get into is experience...... the weather always seems to do this or that so it SHOULD be fine when I get there......so they keep pushing. Anyway, thanks for sharing......lucky to walk away from it.

[@Charon58]

After reading the description I have a harsher opinion of what happened here. As an ATP rated pilot and CFI-I with thousands of hours of flight time, I would urge Mike Kelley to quit flying. All pilots make mistakes and inexperienced pilots make some pretty dumb ones. The question is, do they learn form them? A pilot who is not IFR rated, flying in and out of clouds (9:03), in hilly terrain at very low altitudes, in a plane that is not depicting attitude, who figures he will switch to attitude depiction when and if he gets into the clouds, who calls the FAA "Big Brother" after totally disregarding not only explicit FARs but basic common sense, who seems proud that he "knew where he was at all times" only because he was totally dependent on a GPS moving map and finally states "I never felt like I was in an unsafe situation" when he was clearly lucky to survive, does not have the basic self assessment skills to learn from his mistakes and should not be flying. You just can't fix stupid.

[@oregonsonex]

Wow...pretty harsh, and maybe deservedly so. Repeating my earlier comment "My decision to post the video was to help others avoid getting into the situation I found myself" It's been nearly 3 years since that flight. I'd never been in that type of situation, and certainly learned a lot from it. Sorry if you thought I was boasting...I intended nothing close to it. I would add that I think I'm a safer, and more careful pilot now because of that flight.

[@waynesimpson2040]

I prefer flat fields and or roads on my route...two engine outs and both times I set down non eventfully in grassy fields😉.... I worked for quality aircraft salvage for years out of groveland Florida and I've picked a lot of fields that were in one piece and I picked them out of forest terrain. You can guess the rest of my story. Just saying when possible keep feilds or roads in reach.😉👍

[@1958trickyricky]

how do you gly with google earth

[@alvarogil6921]

Hey, what program did you use to make that simulation in Google earth from your KLM file? Super cool. Id like to make a tour like you did with an airplane in Google earth with a KLM file I recorded.

[@johanswart1257]

Not even the birds were flying that day........be careful Sir, lest the ground shalt rise and smite thee!

[@necomar]

Dangerous flight. Does not apply distributive attention, has no active artificial horizont, only pay attention to the weather screen

[@Charon58]

Yes, that is what is so frightening about this video. He has moving map on the screen and no artificial horizon active. At one point he partially enters a cloud. He is only seconds away from complete disorientation at low altitude.

[@oregonsonex]

Point taken...Mea Culpa. However, it was not "weather" I was watching, but rather terrain avoidance. Yellow is terrain at same altitude and red was terrain above me (yes...I was flying down a valley at that point). The camera doesn't show it, but I had decent visual contact with the ground, even though there was some fog. I have a split screen mode where I can display terrain and HSI at the same time, but I never felt it was necessary.

[@necomar]

Sorry, you do not need your apologies, you were flying the plane and only you knew what situation it was in. I made the comment because I did not see the artificial horizon active with clouds so close. (An analogue compass is missing, since if the display fails, the compass can help keep the course and the horizontal wings on the ground). Good and safe flights

[@richardstone8268]

When you start seeing things you don't like along the route, the best strategy is still the 180. ATC is a viable source for weather along the route depending on altitude, Flight Watch for ops below FL180 although unavailable below 5000 ft. depending on terrain. Lastly, you can tell if there's going to be the potential for fog by checking the temperature and dew points along the route. So many ways to keep from getting into a bad situation. Thankfully, it worked out!

[@SM-nm1oc]

Hi there I noticed you are wearing a Faro headset, what is it like..!! Is it ANR or PNR.? Appreciate your feedback

[@oregonsonex]

Yes I have a Faro ANR set. I think they are comfortable and a good value. In my plane, the high cabin noise causes the ANR batteries to wear out fast so I had to make a modification to use 2 external D cells rather than the standard 2 AA. This lets me go a couple of months without having to change them. I would recommend.

[@FoxHotelLima]

Nice flying. Is there no artificial horizon available?

[@oregonsonex]

+FoxHotel Lima Yes there is, but the terrain avoidance was more important to me! I didn't have much issue keeping it "blue" (grey) side up. If I went total IMC, I would have switched screens and probably switched on the wing leveler.

[@idrisea3247]

That ended well. Sorry for the hateful comments. Scud running is legal, but that was pretty close. I think you said if became too scary you could just climb up through the cloud layer.

[@DumbledoreMcCracken]

If you had an engine out, what would you have done? It looked like the terrain offered limited safe landing options, and the plane would have been totally destroyed in the process. How did you plan to maintain separation from fast moving IFR traffic? I only have a glider certificate (and my experience is very limited), but I would have never decided to go up in those conditions. I hate powered planes because they sucker you into believing the engine will continue to turn, and you'll be able to out-climb *any* sink. It is a sucker's game to fly powered, especially like that.

[@MegaGoldring]

Nice maneuvering! Great to have color coded terrain map. I probably would have just increased altitude and gone back :) Kudos to you though.

[@fluffskunk]

Holy jeez dude, EFIS is wonderful and all but you could have really used an analog attitude indicator, would have reduced a lot of butt-puckering!

[@oregonsonex]

Tery - I have an attitude indicator on another screen, but never really needed it.

[@fluffskunk]

Well, glad you got down safe, but man it's tense watching you flying blind with just the weather on your panel.

[@oregonsonex]

Tery - That's not weather. The colorization is terrain avoidance. Red is objects (land) above me and yellow is objects at my altitude. That's why I'm weaving between them. Watch at about :32 and I explain.

[@fluffskunk]

Oh... TIL.

[@chrismurphy8071]

Centerline!

[@bryanstephens3562]

9 minutes of terror. I bet ya learned a little something from that.

[@tonykoenig1548]

Get a instrument rating and fly a instrument rated airplane. Pilots die every year over this type of flying, A concerned ATP and A&P

[@garyfischer4357]

Oh brother...

[@esathegreat]

flying soap box

[@michaeljohnson2922]

Sometimes in life you have to man up and deal with the cards you're dealt. You did a fine job.

[@dood646]

Holy cow, almost everything this guy does is dangerous. Stuff you probably shouldn't put on youtube...

[@samtuck6400]

Lucky

[@Mike-01234]

I'm not a pilot I talked to a few I know who do lot of cross country flying one has an RV-8 they say if you fly regularly there is always weather to deal with sometimes have to take some risk little IMC maybe scud running.