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Now here’s something that’ll grab your attention, if not your imagination. The title of this piece is strictly indicative of my overly opinionated self so feel free to derive your own conclusions from it. The story is that it’s kinda sorta fiction, yet kinda sorta real. The names, prices and most places have all been omitted to protect the innocent (and myself). But before you form any preconceived notions here, read on. The reality part of this thoughtfully conjured up episode is quite real. And if you think it couldn’t happen to you, think again. It quite literally did happen to me.
The Warrior has introduced countless people to the joys of light airplanes.
Are you smitten with the notion of owning your own aircraft? For those of us who have been there, you surely know this can eventually morph into an absolute overwhelming urge, the flames of which can only be extinguished by virtue of acquiesce to your pressing desire. But it’s 2024 and we happen to live in “Priceoutofsightville, USA.” So you look, and you look, and you look some more. Finally, all of that looking finally pays off. Alas, I think I found it! The aircraft is a late 70s model Warrior II, and it’s located in the southeastern part of the country. It has a mid-time engine (O-320-D3G rated at 160 hp), fairly recent annual inspection and 24 month pitot-ptatic/transponder test. It’s equipped with ADS-B Out (GTX335), a WAAS enabled GNS 430, along with a KX-155. Two navigation radios, with #2 being localizer only, round out the avionics.
You’re thinking to yourself, not too bad a deal—the price is right, mid-time engine, and it’s IFR capable. You know from past experiences that “good deals” like this generally don’t last very long so you contact the owner, wire him the required refundable deposit, and find a local mechanic that’s been highly recommended to do a pre-buy inspection for you. Additionally, you also contact a nationally recognized aircraft title search company that verifies the chain of ownership and provides a list of airworthiness directives associated with the aircraft. Everything checks out, and you are one happy camper!
A friend reminds you of a couple additional nuggets of due diligence to be reckoned with—a hangar and insurance. Luckily, your friend just so happens to have a friend with some hangar space available at your home airport in Pueblo, Colorado. With 375 hours of PIC under your belt, and an Instrument Rating to boot, you discover that your insurance premiums are a bit high but doable. The only thing remaining now is to get all the funds put together and find a way out to retrieve your new “pride and joy.” That big day finally arrives, and not being able to contain yourself for much longer, you decide to bite the bullet and fly down via the airlines.
The seller picks you up at the airport and now it’s just a quick trip to his private grass field to finally meet your new best friend. Following a few laps around the patch you are sufficiently satisfied and impressed with your new acquisition and proceed to consummate the deal. The VMC ride back to Pueblo in the Warrior is both pleasant and enjoyable, and you feel quite confident that you indeed made the right choice. The honeymoon is in full swing now, and you find yourself spending quite a bit of time out at the airport flying the Warrior. As the month of May winds down and gives way to June, you can’t help but notice some serious performance reductions in the Warrior. She seemed to really jump into the air back on the East Coast, but this 200 fpm climb rate is crazy.
Your plan is to use the Warrior to frequently visit family north of Denver with your wife and five-year-old son. The thought of driving I-25 has very little appeal and you’re hopeful the Warrior will be able to serve it’s intended purpose. You have a mechanic that you’ve been introduced to check everything out on the Warrior, but aside from some fouled plugs emanating from poor leaning practices (the previous owner didn’t recommend that you lean too aggressively), everything appears to be in good working order.
Having been born and raised in Southern California you are a relative new comer to Colorado. A job opportunity brought you here, and so far you are enjoying the laid back lifestyle and lower cost of living. That said, you earned your Private Pilot Certificate and Instrument Rating back in SoCal, as the local pilot’s fondly refer to that part of the country. Outside of the marine layer that incessantly taunts the coastal areas, back home your experiences with density altitude are minimal. The good news is that your IFR currency is within prescribed limits and you consider yourself proficient by virtue of dealing with that SoCal marine layer on a regular basis.
The day finally arrives for that long awaited trip up north to visit family. Following a check of the weather, NOTAMS and TFR’s, you are confronted with some decisions to make. The weather is VMC but it’s hot, and the density altitude is really creeping up there.
You do a quick weight and balance check on ForeFlight and discover that you’re just inside the envelope, but with full fuel, you are really pushing it. Next you look at NOTAM’s once again and notice that Runways 8R and 26L are closed. And a quick check of the ATIS on your trusty Sporty’s handheld VHF radio reveals that Runways 35 is currently in use.
Your CFI-I back in SoCal always taught you to look at the approach plate for the departure airport as well as the departure procedure/takeoff minimums/ODPs. He was quite insistent that you never forego this process saying, “what you can’t see and avoid can kill you.” Not only that, you just never know what kind of surprise ATC will spring on you when you’re picking up your IFR Clearance, so preparation is everything! With his words still dancing in my head, I decided to do just as he implored. Here’s what I found:
From the looks of that T in the inverted triangle, I’d better take a closer look at the departure procedure. That T means NON STANDARD TAKEOFF MINIMUMS, but to understand what non standard is, I’d better have a firm grasp on what is considered standard.
So why bother to look at an approach chart for your departure airport? My response would be, “what if __________________?” Fill in the blank yourself. Page L1 of the Terminal Procedures Publication states that for “certain operators” one statute mile of visibility is required for aircraft having two engines or less.
Inasmuch as I personally find that wording to be somewhat illusive, it does essentially mean that Part 91 operators (our mystery pilot) has none and can depart with zero visibillity. Why would anyone want to do that? My simple response to that is,“don’t ask me!” Or perhaps “if you have to ask you probably shouldn’t be going.” Let’s just have a look at those takeoff minimums.
For Runway 35, we see a takeoff ninimum of 400-2 or standard with a minimum climb of 343’ per nautical mile to 5,200′. Remember, the basic assumption is that you are IFR and have a limited ceiling and visibility. Ostensibly the reason in this particular case is more than likely due to a big mound of dirt directly in front of your flight path, not to mention a great big old TV tower at about your ten o’clock. Let’s break it all down here: 400 feet of ceiling (broken/ overcast/obscured) means that you’ll remain under that cloud deck until your altimeter reads 5,200 feet and you will also need to have 2-1/4 miles of visibility. That’s a big difference from standard isn’t it? But wait, next comes that little conjunction “OR,” which is used to link alternatives. Now you have a choice to either abide by the aforementioned ceiling and visibility requirements OR you must have standard takeoff minimums WITH a climb gradient of 343’ per nautical mile to 5,200’. Remember seeing that 5,200′ in the previous set of conditions? I’ll bet it has something to do with that big old mound of dirt and that TV tower.
At this point let’s try to make some sense out of all of this stuff. First off, in order for 343’ per nautical mile to have any useful value, I’ve got to convert it to something I can use, (i.e., feet per minute). Assuming the mighty Warrior can produce a groundspeed of 90 knots, you take that number, divide it by 60, and you’ll end up with 1.5. Multiply 1.5 by that 343’/nm and you’ll get 515 feet per minute. Woah, can my Warrior do that?
In the time it took me to write all of this, the Density Altitude moved up to 8000’! Based on our friend’s previous experience of 200 feet per minute, I believe he’s decided to drive and brave the miserable traffic on Interstate 25. I feel badly for him.
CONCLUSIONS:
First, if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. East Coast airplanes don’t belong in Colorado, unless your plans always take you East of I-25.
Second, even if you are a VFR only pilot, it doesn’t hurt to look at some of the information that we’ve just been discussing. Who knows, you might end up at a strange airport having to make a night departure. Don’t you think information such as this would be helpful? It might save your life and that of your family.
Third, and most important, DENSITY ALTITUDE KILLS! Please don’t ever forget that. Every single year people die needlessly due to high density altitude exceeding the performance capabilities of their aircraft.
Fourth and last, in this age of information we live in, there’s absolutely NO EXCUSE to ever depart an airport without checking weather including densitity altitude, NOTAM’s, and TFR’s. It’s your Pilot in Command responsibility under 91.103. Ask yourself, can I safely land or depart a particular airport given my weight and balance situation? Can I safely land or depart given the density altitude and runway length? Does my aircraft have the performance necessary to pull this off? The answer to that question may surprise you.
FLY SAFE!
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I flight instructed in the area and have done that particular flight (KPUB to KBJC) many times in low performance airplanes. The route doesn’t have any mountains in the way – just gentle elevation changes. There is that big tower by KPUB but it is easily avoided VFR. I agree you would need more climb rate to be able to do the departure procedure in the heat of summer. And I agree a low climb rate is disconcerting. But flying the departure procedure is rarely done because there is little flyable IFR in Colorado at any time of year – because of thunderstorms in the summer and icing in the winter. You could count the number of days a year of safe IFR on one hand. You could fly that route VFR probably 80% or more of the time in the Warrior. Most of the bad days it would be wind, not clouds, that would prevent it. You might get a slightly higher percentage with a different small piston aircraft but it wouldn’t be significantly different. The secret in Colorado is not a different airplane – it’s just fly early in the morning.
I finished up getting my license in Colorado. My training aircraft was a 172, so I was quite comfortable doing so. However, what I noticed was a longer take off distance, and a slower climb rate.
I initially thought that it was because of the heat, the altitude, and the density altitude. Yes, those all played into it. But this was the first time I ever flew a 172 with extended range fuel tanks!
Something else to consider when taking off in an aircraft….
Great story Tom! To the point of Density Altitude, it doesn’t have to be during the summer months. I speak from experience having an encounter with DA on April 1 and 50°F. Field elevation, barometric pressure and wind changes contributed to a DA of over 11,000′. Even with a capable airplane, I had pretty degraded climb performance with a full load of fuel and my wife aboard. After a debrief with my CFI, I always look at DA no matter what time of year.