A VERY LOW TIME PVT PLT; ON A LONG XCOUNTRY; ENCOUNTERED IMC IN THE VICINITY OF FFA AND DECLARED AN EMER IN ORDER TO RECEIVE VECTORS.

2000-05 · NASA ASRS report 474747

Date: 2000-05 · Aircraft: Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172

Anomalies: deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|inflight-event-encounter-vfr-in-imc

Synopsis

A VERY LOW TIME PVT PLT; ON A LONG XCOUNTRY; ENCOUNTERED IMC IN THE VICINITY OF FFA AND DECLARED AN EMER IN ORDER TO RECEIVE VECTORS.

Narrative

I OBTAINED A STANDARD BRIEFING FROM THE FSS ON JUN/XA/00 AT XA00Z FOR MY FLT FROM FCI TO FFA -- FIRST FLT WITH RETURN TO FCI. AT THIS TIME THE WX RPT PREDICTED VFR CONDITIONS FOR THE ENTIRE DAY. LATE AFTERNOON RAINSHOWERS; WITH CEILING ABOVE 3000 FT HAD BEEN INDICATED IN THE FORECAST ALSO. FOR THAT REASON; I PLANNED TO RETURN EARLIER THAN PLANNED ORIGINALLY. THE FLT TO FFA WENT SMOOTHLY AND I ARRIVED AT XD00Z. ABOUT 15 MINS AFTER DEPARTING FFA; FIRST FLT IN VFR CONDITIONS ON JUN/XA/00 AT XI00Z; THE CEILING DROPPED TO LESS THAN 800 FT. AN ATTEMPT TO RETURN TO FFA FAILED BECAUSE OF DETERIORATING WX CONDITIONS. AFTER CIRCLING IN A HOLE IN THE CLOUDS FOR 30 MINS; MAINTAINING VISUAL GND CONTACT; THE WX CONDITION GOT WORSE AND I DECIDED TO CALL 121.5 TO DECLARE AN EMER. MY POS AT THIS TIME WAS 7 MI FROM ECG ON THE 180 DEG RADIAL FROM VOR-ECG IN CLASS E AIRSPACE. ZDC AND A MIL HELI INSTRUCTED ME TO FLY HDGS AND ALTS TO BRING ME SAFELY TO SUFFOLK WHERE I LANDED THE AIRPLANE AT SFQ. IN ORDER TO BRING THE AIRPLANE BACK TO FCI WHERE I RENTED IT FROM; I CALLED MY FBO TO ASK FOR AN INSTRUCTOR TO BE FLOWN TO SFQ TO HELP ME TO FLY MY PLANE BACK. WE ARRIVED AT FCI AT ABOUT XK30 LCL TIME.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

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