Forced down in fog

I was heading to the LAA Rally at Sywell in Northampton on Saturday 2 September 2017, departing from Halfpenny Green, Wolverhampton - flight time 45 minutes. Prior to take off the weather was glorious, and the weather report along my route was all clear; sun shining, nil wind. I took off at 07:45 entering Birmingham airspace and Basic Service at 08:00. I flew around the controlled airspace as requested and decided to have a peep at Warwick Castle and then out to Southam to the Cement Works VRP, (Visual Reporting Point)

From nowhere, fog descended upon me and I flew around to find a way out. The cloud was coming down quickly and reduced my height to 500ft; that's very dangerous when you have no visibility.

Option 1: Turn back. I did, no way out, I was surrounded by fog.

Option 2: Fly through the fog to find the ceiling. No chance, that's how people die.

Option 3: Ditch it in a field: Time was running out as the fog was coming down very quickly. I did numerous patrols at very low level to inspect all available fields and landed. Unfortunately, from the air you can't see if the ground is hard or soft. Upon landing, I very quickly discovered to my horror that it was soft and filled with tractor tyre ruts; too late I was down, but thankfully alive and all in one piece.

I heard a friend on the radio in a fixed wing flying through Birmingham airspace at 4,000 ft so I contacted him by telephone. He informed me the fog layer was very thin and would burn off in 30 minutes.

I sat in the field and considered my options. Call a buddy with a trailer to get me out, or try to take off when the fog has cleared.

Getting collected would have taken a few days, but that was the safest option. Another option is to inspect the field to see if I can take off again. I walked around for and hour waiting for the fog to clear and finally found a possibility which was 300 metres long with a tree hedge at the end approximately 3 metres high. Hmmm.

I knew that with such a short take off and nil wind I'd be behind the power curve when first airborne so I took the aircraft to one edge of the field to give me the best option of flying around the inside perimeter of the trees to gain speed if I wasn't able to clear the hedge.

After a full aircraft and runway inspection, I marked out my abort point and started the engine. I'd made every safety precaution I could possibly think of and decided to attempt a take off.

After 10 minutes, engine temperatures and pressures were all good, prop was full fine and I started the pre-rotation process. The rough ground will sap all of the energy out of the rotors as it bounces so I needed to get off the ground as quickly as possible so I took all the power to the absolute limits, pre-rotation was faster than I'd ever been before, engine was full throttle and I let the brakes go and shot forward.

Thankfully, The nose wheel came up almost immediately, and she started to lift and take off. Phew, stage 1 complete, but this was the most dangerous phase. I was far below the power curve as my airspeed as 30 mph with the 3 metre hedge racing towards me.

My training took over and I pushed the stick forward, nose down flying less than 1 metre from the ground. My speed picked up rapidly, 40, 50, 60, 70 and I was close on the hedge now. At this speed I knew I'd have enough lift to clear the hedge so I pulled back very gently and flew clear of the hedge whilst still purchasing as much speed as I could muster. I circled the field as I knew it was free from obstructions and power cables.

At 90mph, I decided to climb, all readings were good and the aircraft was stable but I could only reach 400 ft due to the cloud base; still far too dangerous fly, so I back to square 1.

I tried to fly back home but the fog was cutting me off again. Here we go, I've been in the air a few minutes and now I have to find another field and do it all over again... and that's exactly what I did.

Now on the ground for a second time, I sat there for another 90 minutes waiting for the fog to clear.

After going through it all over again in the second field, I took to the air and continued my flight to Sywell. What a glorious sunny day for the LAA Rally... Who would have thought it!

Many lessons learned and an invaluable experience, although I'm not sure I'd want to experience it ever again, although I cannot ignore the fact that as a pilot, I probably will and I must be fully prepared for it as I was on this occasion.

I believe my favourite mantra saved me on that morning which is "Never compromise speed for height". I held my nerve at only 1 metre from the ground to gain speed which gave me all the flight control I needed. Trying to gain height without sufficient speed would have ended in disaster.

I continued to my destination and I met with my flight instructor, shook his hand and thanked him for everything he'd taught me.

He said, "Training is one thing, but you still have go away and make things happen for yourself in the real world."

And that really got me thinking about all kinds of training...

How about you?