Really liked all his narration of what was going on.
Reminder:
To follow VFR, it is internationally agreed that a pilot must be able to see a certain distance ahead of him. Generally, there must be no cloud within 1500 metres horizontally or 1000 feet vertically from the aircraft, and the “flight visibility” (the distance forward the pilot could see from the cockpit in flight) must be at least 8 km. The VFR therefore require the pilot to fly his or her aircraft to stay at least that distance from cloud and in conditions of at least that visibility.
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My Dad use to say that there's three things that kills pilots..Weather weather and weather.
USA FAA calls for one mile flight visibility and clear of clouds when below 1200 AGL in daytime for visual flight.
So, what our glider pilot did in this video is normal ops over here... right up until he went "popeye" (entered the cloud). It's the way freedom works. You're perfectly legal until you're not. That's why basic flight training in the US requires learning to handle "inadvertantly entering a cloud" as part of the curriculum. Bottom line: Don't enter clouds without an IFR clearance. But if you do, don't crash!
No amount of rulemaking and legislation will totally prevent the occasional mistake. Aviation involves humans and we will press the limits sometimes.
I'm glad there was no accident report... ...Too much paperwork.
Last edited by Baffin; Feb-04-2021 at 14:41.
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This is easily the scariest gliding video I've ever seen. The NZ gliding community is small enough too that I know someone who knows the pilots involved... fortunately I believe they are back flying and the glider was structurally undamaged.
Adding to what Baffin said, VFR visibility rules are slightly different in NZ - below 3000ft AMSL or 1000ft AGL aircraft remain "clear of cloud and in sight of the surface" with 5km vis. Above those alts it's 2km horizontal separation and 1000ft vertically, although gliders have an exemption to go to within 500ft vertically (check out this NZCAA poster). In these conditions I believe they were still legal to fly close to cloud (just within 1000ft AGL) and this is normal operations in NZ too but the real issue as Tim outlines in the Pure Glide video is drifting backwards behind the ridgeline into sinking air. Many pilots will go a lot closer that that regardless of rules to get the best lift but it has to be very carefully judged.
Training here also calls for training for inadvertent IMC and I imagine this video will become a big part of the syllabus in years to come. Cloud flying is technically legal here too for appropriately equipped and rated gliders and pilots but is very rare.
I've been away from ATAG for too long... hopefully this lets you guys know I'm still alive!
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