IFR Fix: Sleepless in the stuff

Oddly, the story’s least critical detail was the reason I got to read it at all. The dizzy and depleted pilot had forgotten to close the IFR flight plan after landing—an oversight that led to the filing of a report with the Aviation Safety Reporting System, which can sometimes absolve an inadvertent violation or unintentional misstep.

The ASRS report showed that the anonymous Cessna 172 pilot—thankful to be alive to tell the tale—was a pretty good writer, who did a fine job of communicating the uncommanded ups and downs, steep banks, and “awful three point landing” that ended the vertiginous flight, which, significantly, was the pilot’s first single-pilot flight into instrument meteorological conditions. It was also “my first night IMC flight in many months.”

We’ll let the author take over telling the tale, setting the stage with the pilot's having “slept exceedingly poorly the previous night and ... operating with an unfamiliar GPS.

"Because of the high ceilings," the author wrote, "I did not believe the flight was risky.”

Once airborne, that presumption quickly collapsed.

“The moment I entered IMC I became spatially disoriented and I struggled the entire flight to control the airplane and work the GPS,” the pilot wrote. “I requested and planned to shoot the (GPS circling) approach, and continued to attempt to control the attitude of the plane while attempting to load and activate the approach. I was +/- 100 ft constantly and banked up to 30 degrees either side each time I looked away from my instruments. I had difficulty locating the airport environment, and during the circle, I struggled with my height, speed, and spatial orientation to the airport, which resulted in a circle that was too close to the runway. That resulted in excess energy and an awful three point landing and I barely slowed the plane enough for the last taxiway turn off. I taxied to the ramp and immediately shut down the plane, exited the aircraft, and attempted to steady myself.”

The pilot sat on the ground for a while, legs shaking, before leaving the airport by car with the family.

Remembering the uncanceled flight plan an hour later, the exhausted pilot called air traffic control, who underlined the “next time it’s a no-go” nature of the nightmare with news that police were at the airport, looking for the “overdue” Skyhawk.