Thread: Winter flying
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Unread 02-08-2021, 02:57 PM   #38
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Richard Flanders
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I've flown in more IFR than I deserved to get away with. Sometimes it's intentional, sometimes not. I climbed to 14,500ft to get over thick towering wildfire smoke over the Brooks Range once and fell asleep due to oxygen deprivation.... not for long....and woke up in hvy clouds and zero viz. I knew I was way above all the peaks and just nudged the stick into a slow 180deg turn with a finger while watching the compass and the VSI. Once I had it headed south I set it up to descend at 50fpm and just let it fly itself out of the clouds hands off and tapping the rudder to keep it on course of 180. That was a good learning experience; now I know how to do it if it ever happens again, which is very unlikely. And this was nowhere near the worst I have flown in. Wouldn't even make the top 10.
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