zoidberg
Well-Known Member
There are met conditions which do not conform to the neat and tidy International Standard Atmosphere. Therein lie many of the 'gotchas'.
Many aviators have been 'gotcha'd.... including the crew and pax on Air France 447.
Expanding just a little on the summary of my saga above, we'd been toodling along at our assigned FL350 ( ~35,000 feet/~5 miles up ), but in thin high-altitude cirrus, so couldn't see. i.e. proper full-on IMC. I could hear from the elderly Radio Direction Finding (RDF) kit the very characteristic howls, squeals and crackling that indicate a nearby electrically-active thundercloud. Now B-I-G cumulo-nimbus cloud formation had been forecast - over 50,000 feet - and was quite typical of there and then. I well understood that one didn't mess with big Cbs.
Due to this, I told my Pilot In Command - a young and supremely confident type with well <1/10 of my hours on type - of my concerns and requested that he climb up into clear air so he/we could have a look. He ignored me.
( Edit: 'The freezing level (0C) is c 5,000 above that.' Only in the rarified air of an ISA lump of atmosphere. In such extreme Cbs, up to 35,000 feet above that. And full-on 'icing conditions' were commonly/frequently experienced by RAF and RAFG aircraft, probably FAA as well, in much lower altitude bands. That's what we had type-specific Icing Letdown Procedures which were practiced, Standards-checked, and used for real 'when ah were a lad'.
There have been lots of aircraft accidents when Pilots I/C have not taken airframe icing concerns sufficiently into their decision-making. e.g. Is this another case of 'old lessons, hard-learned', being forgotten by brash youngsters...? e.g. articles/flight-icing )
Really good aviator-pilots don't ignore suggestions of concern, whatever their origin. They listen attentively, then THINK about what was said.
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