Scud running - too close to CFIT

[Anon]

Somewhere in the UK, not too long ago:

I wanted to fly out to a grass strip about fifty miles away from the home base. Bright sunshine started the day and good weather was forecast. Home strip was misty at first and then cleared to sunshine. I took off and headed west to the strip at 2200'. This meant heading into wind and after about 8 miles clumps of cloud appeared - I diverted round the side of these and carried on, expecting them to burn off soon. But instead of reducing they got thicker. I descended down to around 1500' below some and could still see large breaks in the cloud - it was getting better. Or so I thought.

I was soon only a few miles from my destination and thought that the wx would clear away for a pleasant flight home. But then the clumps of cloud were getting more frequent and suddendly a wall of cloud was approaching. I climbed away in a 180, realising that I was getting in a dangerous situation - there were still gaps in the cloud and I could see the ground. But the situation was changing quickly.

I'm only VFR qualified and I fly a very basic aeroplane - of the Evans VP1 type. I called the local radar service and they gave me a steer back to the home base.

Learning points:

Weather can change very quickly and it caught me out.
Orographic cloud pushed off hills is dense.
Radar services can save your life.

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[Flintstone]

This will make you wince then. If you don't want to see it all fast forward to 1' 20". Oh, and watch to the end.

Bonanza

[greggj]

Oh dear, that was close. Afaik weather can change any time, and its not like clouds are floating around and you can avoid them. They literally can appear out of thin air.