Thread: My JFK Jr moment

Imagine being able to see the ground but not the horizon. Imagine the horizon being tilted 20 degrees to what you perceive to be the horizon.

The METAR's were all VFR, HZ and 5mi visibility. It didn't look like that from the air. The low sun was shining over clouds and fog on the Lake Michigan shoreline creating an orange haze everywhere. I could see the shoreline and sailboats in the water at 2800 MSL, but the horizon didn't exist, except for some shadows of the clouds through the haze. I did a U-turn to get out of this and go back to Waukegan, the last airport I could see, and the turn was, shall I say, disorientating. I decided to watch the Dynon and the 496 and remember that hood work.

I decided to make one more try into the twilight zone (literally). I could see down 3-4 miles in each direction, but I had to go out to sea (lake) to avoid the TFR around Chicago downtown. Some fog had apparently blown in off the lake (I could still see waves and boats on Lake Michigan).



One more line of fog lay in front of me, so I decided to climb to 3000 from the 2800 MSL I was cruising at. Lo and behold, Northern Indiana appears over the fog, to great relief.

GPS technology makes flying in conditions like this less dangerous, but always make note of the last field you saw and how to get back there. I'm considering a backup GPS 196 for insurance.

Originally Posted by opticsguy

I'm considering a backup GPS 196 for insurance.

Try the 96 or 96C - they run on 2xAA batteries, very small, easy to carry for backup.

Once you commit to GPS, you'd better have a backup and a couple sets of batteries - just in case. We've got a Garmin 396, and I use a Lowrance Airmap 1000 (black & white) as my backup. Once in a while, I'll use the Lowrance for practice, since it's a little different than the Garmin.

I looked at the Airmap 600 at Airventure. Screen was kind of coarse, but for 6 bills it wasn't bad.