I Learned About Flying From That: Three Laws

Chester Peterson

Friday, August 09, 2013 at 07:47 PM ET

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** To see more of Barry Ross' aviation art, go
to barryrossart.com.**

Key Takeaways:

Despite an initial clear weather forecast, a cross-country flight quickly deteriorated due to unexpected severe weather, leading to lost navigation, near-zero visibility, and critically low fuel.
The flight instructor's decision to attempt to fly around the weather, rather than turning back or landing, worsened their predicament, placing them in a perilous, disoriented situation.
After the author recognized a landmark, they made an emergency landing with less than a gallon of fuel remaining, leading the author to establish personal flying laws emphasizing having an escape plan and skepticism towards weather forecasts.

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I encountered a minor problem while working on my private pilot ticket: Members of the Des Moines, Iowa, company’s flying club kept crashing their airplanes!

In one case, a member got into weather he couldn’t handle in a Tri-Pacer with minimal instruments. So he put her down in a cornfield. He wasn’t hurt, but the wings were torn off the light airplane. Then, a month after it was airworthy again, a member who hadn’t paid his member dues for two years but still had a key flew it. Whatever he did (we think he overleaned, causing the engine to detonate), he also found a handy cornfield in which to land. The Tri-Pacer survived all right, but the engine was completely trashed.