Strategy & Tactics: Part II

Richard L. Collins

Sunday, August 06, 2006 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Despite advanced weather technology, general aviation pilots consistently fly into thunderstorms, resulting in an average of eight IFR accidents annually, regardless of pilot experience level.
Effective thunderstorm avoidance requires proactive planning and tactical in-flight decisions, leveraging both visual cues of building or "mean-looking" clouds and advanced weather data (Nexrad, lightning information) to make early deviations and avoid dangerous storm characteristics like steep rain gradients.
Patience and conservative decision-making are paramount, especially during departure and approach where storm outflow and wind shear pose significant hazards; if inadvertently caught in a storm, the priority shifts to maintaining aircraft control (wings level, pitch, maneuvering speed) over altitude.

See a mistake? Contact us.

I have been studying general aviation accidents for almost 50 years and it is amazing that over all this period of time we have lost eight, plus or minus a few, IFR airplanes to thunderstorms each year. It’s amazing because when I started there was little or no radar information on thunderstorms available, where now our cup runneth over with radar and lightning information. In 2004 there were eight airplanes lost in storms. They were high-value singles, light twins and a turboprop twin. All likely had some manner of weather-avoidance gear.

Apparently we need to step back and examine how all the available information is used, both in planning, the strategy part, and in flying, the tactics part. Tom Benenson, who is handling strategy, remarked when I told him to don his combat boots before writing that maybe we should call it “Shock and Awe.” Maybe, because it is shocking that some pilots don’t recognize thunderstorms for the awesome things that they are. But we’ll stick with “Strategy and Tactics.”