Ceiling and Visibility Zero

1980, Dayton Ohio

Thirty seven years and four days ago, General Stanley Czyzak and I are cruising along in an USAF Aero Club Piper Cherrokee. This is a nice four-place bird, one I flew often during my training for my Commercial Pilot's License. The General is my flight instructor, and we are now working on an Instrument rating. This rating allows you to fly when you cannot see where you are going. You can fly in the clouds if needed, and since that might happen, it makes sense to know what to do in case you need to do that some time.

There are two basic sets of rules pilots must follow. One is called "Visual Flight Rules" or (VFR), which covers flying when you can see the ground and other traffic in the air around you. This is basic flying and all pilots start off learning how to fly in these conditions. The other is called "Instrument Flight Rules" (or IFR). In this set of rules, the pilot relies on instruments in the airplane, and instructions from controllers on the ground to help navigate around in the airspace.

Today, the General (Stan to me in the cockpit) and I are flying in VFR conditions. The sky is pretty clear and everything is pretty nice up here. Earlier today, this was not so at all.

Averting Disaster

At about 7AM, Wright-Patterson AFB flight controllers had to help three local pilots get back on the ground in an emergency situation. The pilots were carrying highway traffic reporters from local radio stations. They were flying around Dayton and reporting on the morning rush-hour to local radio stations.

When they took off, everything was fine. However, just as they started reporting on rush-hour, a bank of lazy clouds rolled along over the city and basically rendered visibility zero in any direction. Those of you on the ground know this as fog!

Not good if you are a basic VFR pilot!

Those planes were trapped. They had no place to go, and no way to land! This had the makings of a very bad news story!

Fortunately (for them), the Air Force had a special landing system at WPAFB, one designed to let pilots land in conditions just like this. Those three pilots did just that, The Air Force controllers talked them down, right onto the center of the runway at WPAFB, and all were safe!

Back in the sky

Now, on that same day, Stan and I were flying along practicing flying in IFR conditions. Since it was a nice day, I had to pretend. I was wearing a special "hood", a plastic shield designed to block vision out the sides, and limit what you can see to just the instrument panel in front of you. That mimics how things would be if you were flying in the "soup" as pilots call it.

Stan: "Hey, Do you want to try a Zero-Zero landing like those pilots did at the base this morning?"

Zero-Zero means "Ceiling: Zero, Visibility: Zero".

Me: "Sure, sounds interesting!"

I learned log ago that anything the General suggested while we were in the air was bound to be interesting!

Setting Up the Approach

I had my hood in place, and we were about 20 miles from the base.

Stan: "Wright Pat Approach, this is Aero Club November 8234 Lima, requesting a Zero-Zero landing on runway two-three."

ATC: "Three four Lima, Zero-Zero landing is approved. Turn left to heading one-eight zero."

ATC stands for Air Traffic Control, folks on the ground who direct airplanes in the sky. We needed to turn to get on the direct path to the runway.

ATC: "Descend to 5000 feet and reduce your airspeed to 110 knots."

We were trucking along a bit faster than that, so we needed to slow down a bit.

ATC: "Three Four Lima, do not acknowledge any further transmissions. I will talk you through the approach. If there are any problems, abort the landing, and climb back to 5000 feet and contact the tower.

ATC: "Three Four Lima, turn right to two four zero, reduce speed to 90 knots. Begin your descent at 200 feet per minute."

ATC: "On course, on glide slope. Turn left to two three zero."

We are heading straight toward the runway.

ATC: "On course on glide slope, increase your descent to 250 feet per minute."

We are a little high, so I need to increase the descent rate.

ATC: "On course, on glide slope. 200 feet above the ground, one half mile to touchdown."

ATC: "Drifting left slightly, on glide slope, approaching the end of the runway. You are 100 feet above the runway."

ATC: "Over the threshold, 50 feet. Begin your flair."

I need to pull the nose up a bit so I do not drive directly into the ground.

ATC: "On course, 20 feet to touchdown."

Chirp! (That was tires touching pavement!)

Me: "Wow!"

I just touched down! And I never saw the runway at all! (Of course Stan was watching this whole event beside me, and he did see the ground. I ended up directly on the center line of the runway.

Amazing!

Flying is often called "Hours of boredom, punctuated by moments of stark terror!" I suspect those pilots earlier that morning experienced that terror, and marveled at the system that got them on the ground.

That was the coolest landing I ever made as a pilot. It was like parking your car in a garage with your eyes closed, while listening to someone telling you what to do over your cellphone! Try that sometime. No, wait! Don't do that. Your garage will thank you!

Modern Landing Systems

Aircraft today have a wonderful set of tools to assist in getting them where they need to be. Back in the 1980's that landing system was based on radar that could pinpoint the landing airplane in the sky. The radar was at the end of the runway, staring back up where the plane should be as it approached for landing.

Today, with GPS on almost everything that moves, the location of the airplane in the sky is easy to determine. i(GPS even tracks me when I jog!) Add to that a computer system that can tell the pilot exactly what to do to make the landing, and this approach into KC was not going to be hard at all, just different!

As we descended into the clouds, the bright sky faded from view, and it got pretty dark. I was staring at clouds rushing by, and could not see the ground anywhere.

Than, at the last second, I saw runway markers on the side of the runway, and we touched down about a second later. I would bet the pilot did not see much, if anything, of the runway, but he made a smooth landing right where he needed to be.

The passengers in the cabin started cheering. You could tell they were relieved!

Except for me! I was worried how the pilot was going to find the terminal!

Exit Time

As I leave a flight, I make it a point to tell the pilot how I liked his landing (assuming it was good!).

Me to the pilot: "That was a nice approach. I was more impressed with how well you found the terminal. That soup was pretty thick!"

He thanked me and smiled as I left.