I Learned About Flying From That: Beware of the Super Cell

Daniel Mack

Sunday, July 29, 2012 at 01:16 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

An inexperienced pilot in 1985 narrowly survived a supercell encounter during a Gulf Coast flight, largely due to a non-functional weather radar, pressing on despite worsening conditions, and following another flight's path into a rapidly building storm.
During the severe weather, the aircraft sustained significant damage, the pilot temporarily lost control, and the passengers were terrified, highlighting the extreme dangers of severe thunderstorms.
The near-fatal experience taught the pilot crucial lessons about trusting gut instincts, ensuring functional weather equipment, diverting when conditions are severe, and not blindly following other aircraft into dynamic weather.

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It’s really weird how certain memories stick like fish in a hot iron skillet. So it is with a memory from my past, early in my flying career.

“Miserable” is the only description that fits for that Gulf Coast summer morning in July 1985. Don’t get me wrong: The sun was shining brightly, but the temperature and dew point were the same, and both were in the upper 70s. Anyone who is a pilot knows that, when those two numbers are in the 70s and low 80s, it is a recipe for boomers. I had a long day ahead, six legs and all single-pilot. I was to leave PNS (Pensacola, Florida) and fly to MSY (New Orleans, Louisiana) for the first leg, MSY to PFN (Panama City, Florida) for the second, then to TPA (Tampa, Florida) for the third, JAX (Jacksonville, Florida) for the fourth, back to PFN for the fifth and finally back to PNS.