Oh, no bites - just a nibble from cpxxx - How ya doing!
Yes, I can imagine the Irish Sea could be interesting, with weather and all. What always amazed me about crossing the Channel was that the weather on one side could be completely different from the weather on the other side. Le Touquet was prone to fog. The hotels there do a roaring trade from stranded VFR pilots, and I was sometimes one of them. Cpxxx, I take it your licence is issued by the Irish authorities? Do you have that IMC rating that we have here?
The one thing I made sure of for those overwater flights was to do what chairboy is doing, and get plenty of hood time in. Although conditions could technically be VMC, as you know it was often not possible to see anything. The condition which our CAA identifies as "empty vision myopia". One time I was flying Jersey to Southampton. It was CAVOK at Jersey and 8km vis. at Southampton. But in the middle, over the Channel - oh boy.
My intended heading was 010°, and I was trying to fly VFR. The sea seemed to be sloping away and when I looked at the DI I found I'd made an unintentional turn onto 270°! From that moment, I kept my head inside the cockpit, glued to the instruments while my passenger looked out the window. I'd descended to 1500' and Southampton gave a timely reminder that my minimum safety altitude in that sector was 2300ft - because of that TV mast on the Isle of Wight. I decided to climb to MSA, and it was awful. The sea was still visible, but that was it. According to Southampton, there was only one other aircraft in the area - another PA28 about 15 miles ahead of us going in the same direction. We continued for what must have been about 20 minutes, and then... we could see sailing craft in the waters below. It was the most beautiful sight! Came in over Southampton Water and landed. This was c1989 in the days before the A-G airspace. I forget what Southampton's airspace was called, but in the reduced visibility I asked for a Special VFR clearance to Enstone - my home base, right next to USAF Upper Heyford. As a VFR pilot (no IMC) I should not have asked for that clearance, although when I checked later I saw that Rule 36 allows ATC special dispensation to grant one to a VFR pilot.
You're right about the ditching of a 172 - not a good prospect. Low wing with retractable would be the least bad prospect. My latest plane was a TB10 - low wing, fixed gear. The thing is, surviving the ditching would only be the first part. As you know, those Channel waters are cold enough to kill, even in the summer. I wore a life vest, but my life expectancy in that water was probably around 2 minutes in the winter, maybe a whopping 4 minutes in the summer. I always kept an eye on where the surface vessels were, and there are many in those waters. There are also sharks - but blue sharks that eat plankton or small fish, ie not interested in a 200lb steak.
Mars01 said
"I miss my training days, always had a reason to fly. I'm sitting at work wishing I could find a reason to go up now lol. Thats the only bummer about getting done with your PPL, you fly alot less. I found I got pretty bored going up and puttsing around." Not baiting you, because you're an old friend
but I can't help noticing how our Aces High gameplay personalities carry over into real life. You are clearly very good and knowledgeable about your 152 - spinning, general handling etc. But where we differ is that I found my hours skyrocketed after I got my licence and bought a ½ share of a PA28-151 shortly thereafter. As in AH, I wasn't terribly interested in all that yanking and banking.
(And this was years before I knew my first flightsim!) I did some, of course, but as in AH it would not have held my interest. I wanted to
use the aircraft to go sightseeing! Tail wagging dog on occasion, but I loved every second. In my peak years 1989-94, 75-100 hours a year was typical for me. It was a different skillset from yanking & banking. My forté was route planning, NAV & MET, and doing those 250 mile flights - over water and mountain flights at my oxygen ceiling were of particular interest.
Chairboy has a lot to look forward to, especially if he were to spend a season flying around Europe. Might have to rob a few banks first though.
