I Learned About Flying From That: The Valley of Life

Terrence W. Stevenson

Monday, November 01, 2010 at 11:40 PM ET

Verified

Art by Barry Ross

Key Takeaways:

A pilot, determined to reach a hockey game, disregarded deteriorating weather conditions and repeatedly pushed aviation safety limits by attempting visual flight under low clouds.
He experienced multiple perilous close calls, culminating in a critical incident where he lost spatial orientation in a cloud, entered an uncontrolled spiral, and believed death was imminent.
Through a desperate return to instrument flying training, he regained control, landed safely, and later realized his survival was partly due to luck and the terrain.
The life-threatening experience served as a profound, albeit hard-learned, lesson on the critical importance of respecting and adhering to established safety procedures, which he had previously ignored.

See a mistake? Contact us.

The event happened in the middle of March, when the weather consists of winter storms and unsettled conditions. Weather, the nemesis for all pilots, almost became the leading contributor to what should have been the last day of my life.

I lived in Salt Lake City at the time, and I was just about to start my vacation with a trip to Bakersfield, California, to visit my family and attend some hockey games in Los Angeles. My brother and I are avid hockey fans, and we had tickets for a game that evening between the LA Kings and the Buffalo Sabres. I had to get to that game, or so I thought, and this was the cause of the forthcoming incident.