Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Kerr
Pilots, do you ever see a plane coming from behind with flashing blue lights?
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In my prior life, I was an air traffic controller, both USAF and FAA, and while working down in LA, we had a student pilot on a cross country solo who got his weather briefing, and decided he could fly VFR (visual rules) over to our airport 90 miles or so away. He decided to get on top of the clouds for better visibility, climbing up through some "holes" in the clouds.
By the time he got over to our area, we were in a solid overcast with the bottoms of the clouds around 2500 feet and the tops around 3000-3500 feet. When he finally admitted he was in trouble, he was low on fuel and the only place to land was in our area, so we set him up on a straight course, had him descend at a low rate of descent, and kept all traffic away from him. He indeed made it out of the clouds and immediately left our frequency. We simply called the General Aviation District Office (GADO), told them what had transpired, and they met the pilot when he got out of the airplane. He was lectured at great length, but no ticket.
The saying in law enforcement is that you might outrun my car, but not my radio. The same thing happens with airplanes.
