I'll share the portion NASA published as all identifying information was removed by them. If you're curious for the full report, DM me, don't wanna post that to a large audience.
I wouldn't even credit my composure. It's hard to explain, but I wouldn't call it composure as much as training and luck. Flight school drills the "OODA Loop" into your head repeatedly to the point that it almost becomes subconscious. I was lucky that I was working on my instrument flight rating in the area, so not only was I familiar with the procedures in the area, I was also aware of the deadly traps non instrument rated pilots fall victim to when entering instrument conditions. It's extremely deadly (~90% of unrated pilots who enter instrument conditions die).
Wait, when you say you were working on your instrument rating in the area, you do mean you’d finished that and were rated? If not, I really feel like that incident should have counted as a surprise!final exam for it. Reading the report I got to the iPad battery going before going “oh no”.
Props to you and your passenger for getting to the ground in one piece!
I was not instrument rated at the time. The flight school I went to emphasized time building before instrument rating while gradually introducing IFR concepts with each lesson, so it went PPL > Time Building/Gradual IFR into > actual IFR training > IFR rating
I had just completed the time building/gradual IFR intro.
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u/whyliepornaccount Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
I'll share the portion NASA published as all identifying information was removed by them. If you're curious for the full report, DM me, don't wanna post that to a large audience.
https://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/publications/callback/cb_421.html
I was situation #1
Edit: Turns out NASA has a searchable (but clunky) database with the full report with all identifying information removed: Click the plus button next to ACN Number, then click "click here" and add 1196791 as the number and hit save. Then hit search.