Looks like a fun flight. I filmed an inversion recon flight of Mt. Jefferson a few years ago.

Nosedragger wrote:Looks like a fun flight. I filmed an inversion recon flight of Mt. Jefferson a few years ago.

You revpilot on BCR?

whee wrote:

Nosedragger wrote:Looks like a fun flight. I filmed an inversion recon flight of Mt. Jefferson a few years ago.

You revpilot on BCR?

affirmative

Cool.

Cool video.

Cary

I agree with Gump, and I nearly always choose good VMC on top in preference to "scud-running". If we didn't do either in Scotland, we wouldn't fly many days a year.

FAR 23.561 requires the airplane structure to protect the occupants from fatal injury up to 9 g deceleration. For a STOL airplane that means about six feet to decelerate from a minimum controllable airspeed of, say, 35 knots. It's a quadratic function, so double the speed requires four times the distance.

So, strategy taught here for engine failure while VMC on top:
1. If the cloud base is known to be at least a few hundred feet above ground, spiral to break cloud at the top of the green arc. The excess kinetic energy will allow a slightly wider choice of landing sites after breaking cloud.
2. If cloud/mist is down to ground level, configure he airplane for CFIT survival (minimum controllable airspeed) and hope to hit something with at least six feet of "give" and/or with a glancing blow. The last person I know who did that walked away without a bruise or scratch.

The key to CFIT survival is the "C" - maintaining control at minimum speed - as if for a backcountry landing.