PilotEdge Forums

This may or may not have happened recently. I am being vague to protect the guilty. Apologies in advance if the post seems a bit...snarky.

Busy class B airport reporting IFR weather. Bad IFR weather. 700 foot ceilings, 3/4 mile visibility blowing snow, IFR weather. Nearby reporting stations report the same weather. PIREP's all morning talk about moderate icing in the climb with tops near FL250. Only the air carriers and biz jets are flying in this muck today. ATC doesn't see VFR targets or light GA aircraft on a day like today.

Our flight data coordinator has a few proposal strips (aircraft that filed an IFR flight plan but haven't gotten a clearance) for our surrounding uncontrolled airports. All day long they've been timing out. Most likely people deciding it's better to wait a day instead of trying to brave this muck. No big deal. After seeing how bad the weather is, it's a smart decision.

We observe an aircraft depart an uncontrolled airport 20 miles west of our primary airport on a VFR code. The "VFR" aircraft departed heading towards several aircraft vectored to an instrument approach. We (the entire radar room) observe the aircraft turn to the north, then to the west, and then the southwest all while flying about 500-1000 feet below our minimum vectoring altitudes.

Turns out this aircraft was one of our proposals, a Colombia going a few states west. The aircraft calls up our departure/satellite controller and asks for an immediate IFR clearance. Since the flight strip with this aircraft's information is at flight data (a 30 foot walk away), the departure/satellite controller told the aircraft to maintain VFR and stand by.

The pilot said in response, "just out of curiosity, what minimum vectoring altitude do you guys have to use out here?" The departure controller told him the MVA, and re-stated to the pilot to maintain VFR. The pilot responded with a simple roger (but magically climbed up to the MVA altitude).

After about a minute, controller gives the IFR clearance, ships aircraft to next sector, and a room full of controllers have great fodder for conversation. One guy mentioned how that could have turned into making the news easily, which led me to write up a few things we talked about:

<rant>

1) ATC don't like stupid. Stupid hurts. Stupid can kill. The time you save by departing into marginal, or (worse) into IFR conditions can create a huge distraction for you. You can hit stationary (obstructions) or non-stationary (aircraft) objects. Contrary to belief, ATC isn't sitting here with your flight plan ready, just itching for you to call so we can issue a clearance. We got stuff to do, like keep planes already in the system from hitting each other. But when you do stupid, you distract us from what we got to do. Because now we do what little we can to make sure your stupid doesn't kill.

2) When the stupid urge hits you, asking "innocent" questions tells us, "Hi! I'm stupid! I'm in the soup and I know I can't maintain VFR. But I'm gonna be crafty stupid and ask a 'curious' question so I don't kill myself!" When the weather is marginal or hard IFR and we are asked for a "vector to the airport" or "what's your MVA" we know you aren't curious. We ain't stupid.

3) Stupid not only kills, it creates anarchy. The ATC system works because it's orderly. When you call for clearance on the ground, we find a spot for you in the system. Granted, on a snow day, a small delay could allow snow to accumulate on your wings. Taking off VFR into hard IMC could take care of the snow issue, but now you're flying blind and hoping the controller isn't busy. Turns out, the controller wasn't busy - this time. 10 minutes earlier, he was up to his neck in airplanes. Lucky timing.

And last but not least...

4) When you are stupid and it works, it's blind luck. We could call it "stupid" luck. But it's nothing more. As stupid luck goes, this Columbia was 2 miles from getting into an Airbus 320's grill if he kept climbing. Keep being stupid and luck runs out. When it does, your stupid might take you out. If your stupid luck runs out the wrong way, it might take an A320 with you.

Please. Pretty please. Take the extra five minutes. Use some cell minutes. Do it the right way.

Or if weather is a factor, just don't go.

Thanks.

</rant>

Bad IFR weather. 700 foot ceilings, 3/4 mile visibility blowing snow, IFR weather. Nearby reporting stations report the same weather. PIREP's all morning talk about moderate icing in the climb with tops near FL250.

The aircraft calls up our departure/satellite controller and asks for an immediate IFR clearance

The pilot said in response, "just out of curiosity, what minimum vectoring altitude do you guys have to use out here?" The departure controller told him the MVA, and re-stated to the pilot to maintain VFR. The pilot responded with a simple roger (but magically climbed up to the MVA altitude).