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Houston Controller Talks VFR Pilot Stuck On Top Down To A Safe Landing
It was no leisure flight Sunday for Mark Nelson when he found himself trapped above the clouds over a heavily populated area. His only way down? To put his life in the hands of an air traffic controller. (www.khou.com) さらに...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Glad he's OK, but I'm really not happy to see him talking with the news at all about this incident. The viewing public will now have THIS guy as their impression of GA pilots rather than someone who represents the intelligent views I'm reading below. Would an instrument rating help him? Possibly, but his decision-making on the ground is where his real weakness lies - in my opinion.
what I found comforting was, that when the weather turned into instrument conditions, the amateurs, the vfr pilots were absent from the skies, and everybody up there was presumed to be more competent. Now this guy ruins that thought, and he does not seem to be apologetic at all. 90 days suspension seems hardly adequate.
Whatever you say about pilot judgement the controller should be nominated for this years Archie award!
On top of everything else he should get from the FAA is a bill for the ATC's time to talk him down. Some may say "well that's his job" (ATC), and that's true, but the time it took him to bail this D/A out of his own mistake, he could've been doing his real job - directing the rest of the A/C whose pilots were following the rules.
I don't agree. Some pilots already fail to declare an emergency when necessary, possibly due to a fear of "paperwork." We don't need to compound that error by making pilots think they'll be on the hook for outrageous fees if they declare an "unnecessary emergency."
Yes, I agree that what happened here seems to have been his fault, and that the time that ATC took to help him was probably expensive and could even have come to the detriment of other aircraft, but that's what emergency services are for. They exist to save lives, and not just for "deserving" victims of happenstance.
To know whether the special attention actually cost anyone anything (aside from possibly clearing airspace during the event; I'll grant you that), you'd have to know whether the ATC system had the reserve capacity to deal with the normal load of traffic plus this one emergency. If it did not, and the emergency hurt other users, then you have an argument, but I'd also say that the system is designed with far too little capacity. If it did have the capacity, then no harm came to those "following the rules," and the argument doesn't hold water.
The punishment (retraining, et cetera) should help make sure that this doesn't happen again, but shouldn't cause others to do something even worse in the future.
Yes, I agree that what happened here seems to have been his fault, and that the time that ATC took to help him was probably expensive and could even have come to the detriment of other aircraft, but that's what emergency services are for. They exist to save lives, and not just for "deserving" victims of happenstance.
To know whether the special attention actually cost anyone anything (aside from possibly clearing airspace during the event; I'll grant you that), you'd have to know whether the ATC system had the reserve capacity to deal with the normal load of traffic plus this one emergency. If it did not, and the emergency hurt other users, then you have an argument, but I'd also say that the system is designed with far too little capacity. If it did have the capacity, then no harm came to those "following the rules," and the argument doesn't hold water.
The punishment (retraining, et cetera) should help make sure that this doesn't happen again, but shouldn't cause others to do something even worse in the future.
Well, I say again, if he didn't break out til 7-800 feet, that's CATI country on big iron, depending on how far out he was when he broke out. By his own admission, he wasn't very far. It is good that all ended well but he just cast an arrogant impression that because he flew it every week, he was entitled to it and seemed to be taking superstar status from it rather than repentance in the fact that he screwed up by not having an IFR or at least working toward it. South Texas weather is not always pleasant. What will happen next time?
It's frightening, but 700 AGL is above minimums for a typical NPA (including VOR/DME Rwy 4 at KHOU). Though, of course, if it's that low, I'd certainly want to be on a precision Cat 1 approach instead.
But that's not the point. Yes, I agree that the rip he gets should make sure that he doesn't do this again. I just disagree that the right way to do that is to assess fees for emergency services.
Assessing fees (and getting the FAA to compute those fees based on services rendered) is to head down a very dark path indeed. The best that could come from it would be that some unfortunate people would die due to delaying emergency requests. The worst would be a general fee-for-service that ends up hurting everyone for a very long time to come.
Let's not do that.
But that's not the point. Yes, I agree that the rip he gets should make sure that he doesn't do this again. I just disagree that the right way to do that is to assess fees for emergency services.
Assessing fees (and getting the FAA to compute those fees based on services rendered) is to head down a very dark path indeed. The best that could come from it would be that some unfortunate people would die due to delaying emergency requests. The worst would be a general fee-for-service that ends up hurting everyone for a very long time to come.
Let's not do that.
Well there are 46 comments/opinions on here and mine will make 47, but most of them have NOT BEEN supportive of his actions. Personally, if I would have seen 7-800 feet, I'd have just lined up on the CAT 1 and been done with it. Ok City can handle him as they see fit.
I'm certainly not supportive of his actions as reported. I don't know how anything I've written could be interpreted otherwise.
I'm taking square aim at the notion of "fee for service" applied to emergency services. There are certainly examples of this outside the aviation industry, and, for all I know, they may well work reasonably well there. But given the nature of the industry, many of us have to work with ATC all of the time, so it's not at all the same relationship as between (say) an ill-equipped hiker lost in the woods and a park ranger.
I think having a pay-per-use fee for ATC services is a monumentally bad idea because of the way the system works, and I'm not at all willing to entertain the idea that apparent bad decisions on the part of a VFR pilot changes that fundamental equation.
No part of the camel's nose, please!
I'm taking square aim at the notion of "fee for service" applied to emergency services. There are certainly examples of this outside the aviation industry, and, for all I know, they may well work reasonably well there. But given the nature of the industry, many of us have to work with ATC all of the time, so it's not at all the same relationship as between (say) an ill-equipped hiker lost in the woods and a park ranger.
I think having a pay-per-use fee for ATC services is a monumentally bad idea because of the way the system works, and I'm not at all willing to entertain the idea that apparent bad decisions on the part of a VFR pilot changes that fundamental equation.
No part of the camel's nose, please!
Everyone of us will get in trouble of some kind and need some help of some kind at some point or other in our career. We don't by any means, as you say, want to discourage asking. It just don't need to be routine.
by routine are you saying this has happened with this pilot before? no quite sure of the comment.i am curious to all these assumptions, did he get a briefing or we are not sure and did they tell him IMC at destination or IMC at his alternate because the controller said he should have broken out at 2,000' so somebody was advertising weather or pirep for that comment.. until than i will reserve my opinion.
All I am saying is that it doesn't get to be routine with him and that is the impression he cast. A PPL should get weather of some type before leaving. Had he at least looked at it, he would have seen wx over there. It did not just come up. Several IFR pilots have commented on here that they were over there and it had been there awhile, certainly more than is 2-3 hour flight over there. He didn't look. If he had've, he'd have stayed on the ground. I'm outa here for the ball game. WPS