Thread: Evector fatal in imc

The NTSB is reporting two fatalities on March 5th in an Evector Lite Sport that crashed in IMC conditions enroute from Indianapolis to Pennsylvania. My prayers go out to the families of the deceased. This incident is another reminder to all of us instrument rated and non, to get the hood on and get some practice. My preference is to go out at nite with my safety pilot and put the hood on for an hour. Its amazing how quick you can get rusty.

Originally Posted by scrapman1959

The NTSB is reporting two fatalities on March 5th in an Evector Lite Sport that crashed in IMC conditions enroute from Indianapolis to Pennsylvania. My prayers go out to the families of the deceased. This incident is another reminder to all of us instrument rated and non, to get the hood on and get some practice. My preference is to go out at nite with my safety pilot and put the hood on for an hour. Its amazing how quick you can get rusty.

The survival rate for VMC into IMC is about 15%. That applies if you are Instrument rated or not.

The statistics show that if you unexpectedly encounter IMC, even an Instrument pilot has poor survival prospects.

The best defense is recognizing the conditions that would take you from VMC to IMC and avoid.

In any case, CT pilots are not legal if they request pop-up IFR in order to fly IMC. IFR flights are allowed in the CT only under VMC.

Very sad. Some hood practice is always a good thing to do once in awhile. Throw in some unusual attitude recoveries as well. Remember you have to take a rated safety pilot with you when flying under the hood. Dont forget the autopilot (if you have one) it can really save your life in a inadvertant IMC encounter.

Eric

"The survival rate for VMC into IMC is about 15%. That applies if you are Instrument rated or not."

Could you cite a reference for this? Hard to imagine that 85% of IFR pilots who fly into IMC conditions from VMC die. Isn't flying into IMC what IFR is all about?

Originally Posted by markfnkl

Isn't flying into IMC what IFR is all about?

Mark,

It is what it is all about, when you have a plan for it. Minimum altitudes are kept, etc. If it's a non-intentional VMC to IMC situation, the odds change drastically. Doing an immediate 180 is needed. You can also engage the autopilot, and have it do the 180, and hopefully you also have a GPS with terrain display. Caught unawares, basic reactions kick in, and those are not good, and can quickly kill you. That is what training is all about, and many IFR rated pilots are not current or proficient enough to manage the situation. An example of our basic reactions versus training is when the engine quits on takeoff. Our basic reaction would be to hold the nose up, where training and constant preperation is needed to get the nose down immediately.

I would have to say that the 85% fatal statistic is very inaccurate. I suspect that besides the three times I have found myself in IMC and got out of it ok without reporting it, many other pilots do the same thing so all those incidents are not counted in the 85% fatal statistic. As a matter of fact probably the only ones that do get reported are those pilots who have lost control of the airplane and call up ATC when they know they are in serious trouble.