18 SA Flyer MagazineIn August, I published the first
instalment of my extracts from
Matt McLaughlin’s ‘Flying the
Knife Edge’, where he described
his chagrin at being justly accused
of flying like a cowboy. I like
his book so much, I'm pillaging
another of his stories as part of
my extended break from writing
my own stuff for this column.
I trust that this will whet your
appetite enough to go out and
buy the book!T
HE next story I have
selected is a frightening
tale of Matt as a young
pilot dicing with illegal
IMC.
Matt writes:
One morning, the third
in a row where none of us had launched, I
got sick of the waiting game and decided
to try to get up to the jungles. It was a
really miserable day, with low scud almost
down to the ground, and limited visibility
in light showers. There was a tiny break in
the cloud in the Moresby circuit area and
I could just make out the base of Mount
Lawes, five miles to the NNE. It was worth
a crack.
Jimma and I loaded up the Cessna 206
and I taxied out to the runway, obtaining
clearance for a departure, climbing on the
050 radial from the Port Moresby VOR
(VFR route Golf). I was licensed and
approved to operate under VFR conditions
only, but this flight didn’t stay VFR for long.
Soon after takeoff from Runway 14R,
as I completed a reversal turn and picked
up the 050 radial at about 1,000 AGL, I
encountered thin wispy layers of cloud and
then, almost immediately, the cloud closed
in around me.
My frustration at having been grounded
for two days got the better of me, so rather
than turn back, I kept climbing, completely
blind and now outside the bounds of mylicence. What I was doing was technically
illegal, but I still considered it safe enough,
as my Cessna 206, P2-CBL, was equipped
with a VOR CDI (course deviation indicator)
display, and a digital DME (distance
measuring equipment) readout.
I was able to fly on instruments alone,
closely tracking the 050 radial and keeping
an eye on the DME. I knew that as long as
I stayed on this course and climbed to at
least 3,000 feet by seven miles, and 6,
feet by 25 miles, I would be above the
terrain. This was the theory anyway.
As I left the Moresby control zone, I
was handed to the area controller, who
instructed me to continue tracking via
VFR route Golf and climb to 7,000 feet.
As the altimeter needle passed 4,000,
5,000, 6,000 feet and I focused on tracking
the radial to the north-east of Moresby, I
became more and more uneasy that I had
still not broken out of the cloud. What if
the weather went all the way up to 15,
feet? I’d never break visual, and never know
exactly where I was. Having experienced
seven months of PNG flying, I knew that
putting myself in this situation was asking
for serious trouble.
A couple of minutes after l had checked
in on the area VHF frequency, I heard
another aircraft making initial contact with
the controller. It was TNA pilot Sarge,
climbing out in a BN Islander right behindme. I found out later that he was being
followed by newbie Cameron Gibbs in
TNA’s Cessna 185, P2-TAC. The TNA lads
had seen me launch and figured that if I
was stupid enough to give a ‘jungles run’ a
go, they would too. Monkey see, monkey
do.
Sarge called me on the VHF: “Charlie
Bravo Lima, this is Charlie Bravo Tango.
How’s the weather up ahead?”
I couldn’t tell Sarge the truth – I’d
be incriminating myself. “CBT, I’m visual
in-between layers.” This was my secret
squirrel way of saying – it’s shitty, I’m fully
IMC and I recommend you turn back.
Sarge didn’t get it and continued
upwards and onwards, as did Cameron
behind him. It really was the blind leading
the blind, with me up front feeling my way
through the clouds. By now I was very
uncomfortable with the state of affairs.
Fanged butterflies performed aerobatics in
my stomach as I levelled off at 7,000 feet,
approaching 25 DME Port Moresby. I knew
that the 12,000-foot-high wall of the Owen
Stanley Range lay obscured by the cloud
just 10 miles ahead.
Just as I was about to give up on this
madness and do a tail-between-my-legs
reversal turn for Port Moresby, I popped out
on top of the cloud layer. I quickly gained
my bearings, with the Brown River to my
left, Mt Shera and the airstrip at Naoro toattitude for altitude
Guy Leitch
'FLYING THE KNIFE EDGE'
Part 2 - Illegal IMC