Small Plane Question

[Johnny_L.A]

@Rick

It was winter of 73 or 74. It was raining hard… looked up and a Cesna passed over me at maybe 100 feet of altitude.

Scud running.

[GusNSpot]

@Rick

It was winter of 73 or 74. It was raining hard. I was in Glendale Ca up near the mountains. I was running in to get a pizza when I heard a small plane.
I looked up and a Cesna passed over me at maybe 100 feet of altitude.
I remember thinking he was about to crash but I didn’t see or hear anything. No news reports of a crash the next day.
I assume that he was trying to make BUR which was about 5 miles away.
I have never forgotten that image of the white underside of that plane so low in the rain. That had to have been white knuckle time for the pilot.

A hundred feet??? A pipeline patrol pilot will get a nose bleed that high and if caught by the company, they will get fired.

50’ & a ¼ mile is considered good VFR when on the pipeline.

[Ranger_Jeff]

Don’t they need to go on oxygen at 100’?

[GusNSpot]

@Ranger_Jeff

Don’t they need to go on oxygen at 100’?

No but they had to cut their drinking in ½. Effects of altitude you know…

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

The slightest bad weather, or even heavy clouds, can cancel aerial photography flights.

[GusNSpot]

@Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor

The slightest bad weather, or even heavy clouds, can cancel aerial photography flights.

Only over the work site. Flying at night and in IFR conditions to get there at the correct sun angle / date they want the pictures taken etc. was not at all unusual for our company.

Sometimes even haze can halt some work. If I can’t see the ground, the camera can’t either unless was RADAR, & even IR can be problematic.