Watch FlightRadar24, they are all over the country all day every day. For such old air frames, they put a ton of hours on them.. I'm in New Mexico, and today I had one of the radar variants of the KC135 circling over me for most of the day that was out of Nebraska. For a few days last week, it was a KC135 out of Washington.
@@bobw53jrma There's a base in my town that they fly the refuelers out of, there's usually always atleast one up circling town (probably due to local refuelling tracks for atlantic crossings) when listening to local ATC those guys help out all the time, they have a lot of free time up there waiting between refuels, they're the unsung heroes of the sky for many!
A VFR pilot that didn't panic and trusted his instruments when he needed to, coupled with controllers and fellow aviators doing all they can saved a life this day.
@@ImpendingJoker Being scared and not panicing are two distincitly different things. he held it together enough to get help, keep the wings level and get somewhere safe. Just because he was scared to death and the stress of the situation was evident in his voice does not indicate panic. Further, those were quite obviously tears of happiness upon exiting the potentially life ending situation.
@@ImpendingJoker You can be scared and have tears in your eyes, that doesn't mean you're panicking. As well as fear you could also hear, a relatively calm mind, a man fully going against almost all his VFR training to fully trust his instruments, you could hear he was relatively situationally aware keeping track of his altitude, heading, attitude, gps, airspeed, managing communication with ATC, all with probably all sorts of illusions going on with his body that being a VFR pilot he's never experienced before, and while his aircraft is heavily icing over and having no idea how long it would be until he busted out of IMC. Id say the shaky voice and possible tears are heavily justified.
Wow! Great ATC controller and beautiful assistance from the USAF! That's an example of being there when needed and boldly stepping out to help! I'm former USAF Airborne radio operator and am proud that the new generation of aircrews are there are there when needed. Vietnam veteran here. Also earned my Commercial and Instrument rating back in the early 70's. God bless this pilot for hanging in there in extremely difficult conditions!
That’s a very a very knowledgeable ATC operator. We expect them to know everything about planes on the pilot side but reality most don’t have concepts of the pilot side. But this operator is really a god send for being so aware on this pilots struggles in IMC
This is a nice change of pace from the pilots that do not ask for help and end up in an even worse position. Glad the pilot was able to ask for help and let ATC do their jobs to help him get on the ground safe. Great job by Expo 091 as well.
SO MUCH THIS. Anyone who watches Scott Purdue's Flywire channel or Juan Browne's Blancolirio channel knows they both preach the need to be willing to declare an emergency early. ATC can only help if you let them, don't try to sort it on your own until it's too late. Love that this had a very happy ending.
@@AlyssaM_InfoSec Unfortunately too many people are afraid of "getting in trouble" or their ego won't allow them to do it and they end up dead. I'd add Pilot Debrief to those channels as well, he does fantastic work on his accident reports.
@@mortekaieve4729 yeah I hear you and agree about Hoover as well. The one time I had an issue I actually had Scott's voice in my head. Lost partial engine power just after take-off and didn't even hesitate. Plane was still flying and even gaining altitude but declared an emergency right away, got priority for "any runway" and got to the ground safely while ATC cleared everyone else out of the way.
Props to the Expo091 captain, for deciding to stick around to help out this guy. Civilian marine boaters get trained that it's one's duty to help another vessel in distress at sea. But at sea that makes sense - any surface vessel that's afloat, can act as a rescue vessel for any other one that's disabled, immobilized, or at risk of sinking. Not so much with aircraft... But I guess relaying radio intel is the least one pilot can do for another
Yeh. I'm neither a mariner nor an aviator but I did learn early in life from a navy grand father that the ocean doesn't follow your rules and will kill you if you don't follow it's rules, and you need all the help you can get. Videos like this show how, while the ocean is hard, being in the air is harder. At least I can put on an immersion suit and survive in the water. As far as I know, none has invented a suit to let me fly like a bird.
Well done to the ATC for helping that pilot in tough conditions he wasn't trained for - and well done for the USAF plane looking out for him, too. Nice that the pilot came back up on the ATC frequency to let them know he was safe on the ground, I'm sure they were so glad to get that news.
Definitely an Archie nominee. You could not possibly ask for a better controller than that in this situation, and on top of that to have EXPO there. They all deserve a lot of credit. Very impressive.
It doesn't say that. The Cessna 182 pilot that requested help from the ATC was a VR-rated pilot. The ATC had limited pilot experience, but not with Cessna 182.
What a great recording.. We have all got in a pinch at one time.... Pilot was pretty chill, fellow pilot a rock start and controller...what a PRO. Thanks all for being good people. Blue skies and Merry Christmas
This is a perfect example of why any GA pilot should get their instrument rating. Even if you don’t fly IMC, getting a pop up clearance with an approach can save your life
I'd say even if you don't want to get an instrument rating, go up with an instructor even for an hour and practice the basics just in case you end up IIMC.
@ exactly. I think the basics on how to shoot an approach should be taught in the PPL stage during the required instrument time. Most aircraft have GPS these days, and almost anyone can load and fly a GPS approach, even without a plate.
Dude... that controller needs a serious handshake. What a situation. Expo crew too. So much BS in the aviation world these days. Cool to see it all play out like it should and being helpful to other aviators
Another fine example of a ATC keeping their cool and getting a pilot back on the ground and to have a military pilot playing over watch. What a great combo, the pilot was lucky God, a flight controller and a military pilot were there.
I listen to a lot of these and quite often the pilots and ATC are "snarky: with one another. But when someone is in trouble ATC and other pilots are amazing!!
Wow, these guys are for sure on the permanent Xmas list! Glad it worked out. Most pilots don't end up having a chance to learn this lesson the hard way.
Inadvertent flight into ifr can really catch pilots off guard if they aren't trained to handle it. Add icing to that situation and it can go bad quick. Always know where the nearest VFR weather is if it exists. And once you find vfr conditions REMAIN vfr, do what is necessary. He should have considered increasing his stall margins with the ice accumulation. Sounds like he learned a valuable lesson that day.
Asking for help was the one right decision this pilot made, preceded by several poor ones. Disregarding worsening conditions, not having mastery of his instruments, not knowing icing altitudes, not planning for a diversion to a suitable alternate, not having live weather and visibility data onboard, the list goes on. In the interest of safety we must always be brutally honest with ourselves.
When I was flying, as a low time pilot, I was going from Milwaukee, WI to home, Cleveland, OH in the winter. Over Indiana, south of Lake Michigan, VFR, ran into lake effect snow (IFR). I was rated for IFR and told myself that as I went south to get out of it. Closer to Cleveland I was calling Flight Services (Findlay, OH) to get weather conditions and everything was IFR. They suggested I land there (which I had already decided) and I did and filed an IFR flight plan into Cleveland. In the air again I saw the air speed start to drop (altitude was fine) and maybe some ice on the struts. Thought to myself, if it drops and lower I'll stall ... and then it went to zero! But altitude was fine and I realized the pitot tube was blocked. Pulled the static air - nothing. Ah, turned on the pitot heat, good. I was making an NBD approach to Cleveland and overflew the radial. The tower asked what I was doing and I replied I had overflown and was correcting - I was landing, not going back up. Airport in sight, landed without further incident, the music came up, etc.
ATC rock…. We need more of controllers around the country. Tell your kids, finish high and go to pilot school…. Within a short time they will making this country better and making a ton of money….
Excellent controller. Kudos to Expo 91. Hopefully, this VFR pilot called a CFII to start on his IR training as soon as he had it tied down. And filed a NASA report lol
ATC & entire team are heroes for sticking with this. THis pilot was way too casual about flying; doesn't matter if you are in the air for 5 hours or 5 minutes, you'll be just as dead with the substandard equipment & his inadequate training. ano such thing as a short flight if you screw up.
I'm a little confused about the end. I assume that's a non controlled airport. The approach controller said left downwind to runway 6. But it looked like he landed on 24 instead. Is the radar lagging so we didn't see the turn for 6? Is it still at his discretion since it's VFR, so he just decided to take 24 and that's fine? Maybe stress was involved so he didn't fully comprehend the last message and was just happy to see a runway? My understanding is if an ATC hints at a certain decision, that's a clear indication that's probably the right thing to do. I would think twice or thrice before doing something else than what was suggested.
Wasn’t Coeur d’Alene lake, Pend Oreille lake as he took off from Bonners Ferry on this leg. Also, Unicom at Bonners Ferry helped him find the Seattle Frequency and isn’t on the tape or the story.
You can look at thee weather preflighting but it isn't going to be as good as a phone call to a flight service station that can give advice through their experiences watching weather for year like where the icing is going to be over time and if you would be pushing your luck getting into the soup.
The lake he is flying over is Pend Oreille. The airport he left from, Boundary County, is just north of Bonners Ferry, and his intended destination is northwest of where he is in the video. He was way off course, especially if he actually flew into Canada.
Yet another example of how important it is to fly planes with a functioning autopilot and to have mastery of the system. AP, ALT, HDG would have made this a non-event.
That’s not a good idea if your getting ice. The first thing you should do in ice is to turn off the autopilot. It can mask issues and get you in even worse trouble.
When did Controllers become instructors..?? They're not trained or paid for it but... By Gawd... without that attention to detail and commitment, many idiotic, overconfident and woefully stupid so-called 'pilots' wouldn'd wake up tomorrow.... There is a problem with current training...
Expo91 is an Air Force Stratotanker. He came riding in like the cavalry.
Watch FlightRadar24, they are all over the country all day every day. For such old air frames, they put a ton of hours on them.. I'm in New Mexico, and today I had one of the radar variants of the KC135 circling over me for most of the day that was out of Nebraska. For a few days last week, it was a KC135 out of Washington.
@@bobw53jrma There's a base in my town that they fly the refuelers out of, there's usually always atleast one up circling town (probably due to local refuelling tracks for atlantic crossings) when listening to local ATC those guys help out all the time, they have a lot of free time up there waiting between refuels, they're the unsung heroes of the sky for many!
A VFR pilot that didn't panic and trusted his instruments when he needed to, coupled with controllers and fellow aviators doing all they can saved a life this day.
Didn't panic? You could hear the fear and tears in his voice more than a couple of times.
@@ImpendingJoker that's not panicking
@@ImpendingJoker That is called to be afraid.
@@ImpendingJoker Being scared and not panicing are two distincitly different things. he held it together enough to get help, keep the wings level and get somewhere safe. Just because he was scared to death and the stress of the situation was evident in his voice does not indicate panic. Further, those were quite obviously tears of happiness upon exiting the potentially life ending situation.
@@ImpendingJoker You can be scared and have tears in your eyes, that doesn't mean you're panicking. As well as fear you could also hear, a relatively calm mind, a man fully going against almost all his VFR training to fully trust his instruments, you could hear he was relatively situationally aware keeping track of his altitude, heading, attitude, gps, airspeed, managing communication with ATC, all with probably all sorts of illusions going on with his body that being a VFR pilot he's never experienced before, and while his aircraft is heavily icing over and having no idea how long it would be until he busted out of IMC. Id say the shaky voice and possible tears are heavily justified.
Wow! Great ATC controller and beautiful assistance from the USAF! That's an example of being there when needed and boldly stepping out to help! I'm former USAF Airborne radio operator and am proud that the new generation of aircrews are there are there when needed. Vietnam veteran here. Also earned my Commercial and Instrument rating back in the early 70's. God bless this pilot for hanging in there in extremely difficult conditions!
Thanks for watching our content,sir
Thank you for your service!
As a pilot I commend that controller for coming to the rescue of that scared pilot and I hope that he is rewarded for his efforts
That’s a very a very knowledgeable ATC operator. We expect them to know everything about planes on the pilot side but reality most don’t have concepts of the pilot side. But this operator is really a god send for being so aware on this pilots struggles in IMC
I loved this guy. Extremely professional
@@Flight_FollowerGod works in mysterious ways sometimes ! I am impressed with all you folks .
According to the linked article, he was brought on because of his piloting experience.
This is a nice change of pace from the pilots that do not ask for help and end up in an even worse position. Glad the pilot was able to ask for help and let ATC do their jobs to help him get on the ground safe. Great job by Expo 091 as well.
Great Teamwork
SO MUCH THIS. Anyone who watches Scott Purdue's Flywire channel or Juan Browne's Blancolirio channel knows they both preach the need to be willing to declare an emergency early. ATC can only help if you let them, don't try to sort it on your own until it's too late. Love that this had a very happy ending.
@@AlyssaM_InfoSec Unfortunately too many people are afraid of "getting in trouble" or their ego won't allow them to do it and they end up dead.
I'd add Pilot Debrief to those channels as well, he does fantastic work on his accident reports.
@@mortekaieve4729 yeah I hear you and agree about Hoover as well. The one time I had an issue I actually had Scott's voice in my head. Lost partial engine power just after take-off and didn't even hesitate. Plane was still flying and even gaining altitude but declared an emergency right away, got priority for "any runway" and got to the ground safely while ATC cleared everyone else out of the way.
@@AlyssaM_InfoSec Good call and glad you're ok. Which runway did you go for?
"focus on the heading, keep your wings level"
solid advice
Props to the Expo091 captain, for deciding to stick around to help out this guy.
Civilian marine boaters get trained that it's one's duty to help another vessel in distress at sea. But at sea that makes sense - any surface vessel that's afloat, can act as a rescue vessel for any other one that's disabled, immobilized, or at risk of sinking. Not so much with aircraft... But I guess relaying radio intel is the least one pilot can do for another
Yeh. I'm neither a mariner nor an aviator but I did learn early in life from a navy grand father that the ocean doesn't follow your rules and will kill you if you don't follow it's rules, and you need all the help you can get. Videos like this show how, while the ocean is hard, being in the air is harder. At least I can put on an immersion suit and survive in the water. As far as I know, none has invented a suit to let me fly like a bird.
Give that controller a round of applause! Excellent job by both him and the pilot. Great teamwork!!!!
Great Teamwork
Well done to the ATC for helping that pilot in tough conditions he wasn't trained for - and well done for the USAF plane looking out for him, too. Nice that the pilot came back up on the ATC frequency to let them know he was safe on the ground, I'm sure they were so glad to get that news.
Absolutely. It was a great teamwork
Wow! That's a tear jerker!!! Awesome job by all parties. I'm glad he's safe
Same here
The pilot is very lucky to get a Controller like him
@@Flight_Follower very!!!
Yeah it got me too. You could just hear the emotion in the pilots voice. Great job on the controller and USAF
Have to say when they relayed his wife is on the way to Coeur D’Alene airport. I got something stuck in my eye…
Definitely an Archie nominee. You could not possibly ask for a better controller than that in this situation, and on top of that to have EXPO there. They all deserve a lot of credit. Very impressive.
Brilliant
Great work by all parties. Someone not afraid to seek the help they needed and a great ATC and help in the air
I think it’s great that the description says the ATC was a VR pilot. It’s great that a sim can help an ATC controller do their job better.
It doesn't say that. The Cessna 182 pilot that requested help from the ATC was a VR-rated pilot.
The ATC had limited pilot experience, but not with Cessna 182.
VR = Visual Rules (aka VFR) - Not "Virtual Reality"
This should become part of training ATC ops. This guy is magnificent. He knew just what to do to save this pilots bacon😍
This ATC is excellent
What a great recording.. We have all got in a pinch at one time.... Pilot was pretty chill, fellow pilot a rock start and controller...what a PRO. Thanks all for being good people. Blue skies and Merry Christmas
The aviation community is just awesome. I’m assuming the other aircraft was military. Well done all around
Kc-135
Yep, the other guy was US Air Force
USAF
Amazing job for everyone involved. Glad the pilot was blessed with such an outstanding controller and spoke out that he needed assistance.
USAF ... our cavalry 🙂 turned that huge bird around, God Bless You ! Course ATC was great.
This is a perfect example of why any GA pilot should get their instrument rating. Even if you don’t fly IMC, getting a pop up clearance with an approach can save your life
I'd say even if you don't want to get an instrument rating, go up with an instructor even for an hour and practice the basics just in case you end up IIMC.
@ exactly. I think the basics on how to shoot an approach should be taught in the PPL stage during the required instrument time. Most aircraft have GPS these days, and almost anyone can load and fly a GPS approach, even without a plate.
Dude... that controller needs a serious handshake. What a situation. Expo crew too. So much BS in the aviation world these days. Cool to see it all play out like it should and being helpful to other aviators
Totally agree
Another fine example of a ATC keeping their cool and getting a pilot back on the ground and to have a military pilot playing over watch. What a great combo, the pilot was lucky God, a flight controller and a military pilot were there.
Great job done from all
I listen to a lot of these and quite often the pilots and ATC are "snarky: with one another. But when someone is in trouble ATC and other pilots are amazing!!
Amazing all round. Congratulations, everyone involved
❤❤❤❤ 🇬🇧
Fantastic job by ATC
Wow, these guys are for sure on the permanent Xmas list! Glad it worked out. Most pilots don't end up having a chance to learn this lesson the hard way.
Very true! Glad to see it worked out
Heroic ATC but also the Expo 091 pilot!
Inadvertent flight into ifr can really catch pilots off guard if they aren't trained to handle it. Add icing to that situation and it can go bad quick. Always know where the nearest VFR weather is if it exists.
And once you find vfr conditions REMAIN vfr, do what is necessary.
He should have considered increasing his stall margins with the ice accumulation. Sounds like he learned a valuable lesson that day.
What a great story! And great content, Flight Follower! This channel deserves a lot more attention and appreciation!
Thanks a lot sir
Definitely a candidate for an Archie award
Undoubtedly
Another reminder to *do your homework* before flying in possible icing conditions.
This guy got a rare second chance at life.
Pilot is extremely lucky. Absolutely there is no shortcut for safety
Airman’s Medal for the Expo crew.
Good pilot. Left his ego on the ground, got help when he needed it.
Asking for help was the one right decision this pilot made, preceded by several poor ones. Disregarding worsening conditions, not having mastery of his instruments, not knowing icing altitudes, not planning for a diversion to a suitable alternate, not having live weather and visibility data onboard, the list goes on. In the interest of safety we must always be brutally honest with ourselves.
Always nice to have somone watching over you!
Great job from all involved.
Awesome controller great team work Expo thank goodness everyone is safe
Outstanding work.
Lovely! This is what aviation is all about. But boy do we need to come up with better safety technologies for smaller aircraft!
If I, God forbid, would ever end up in icing soup like that I sure hope I get a controller as good as this one. Absolutely stellar job!
Fingers crossed!
Airmen at work ! Good stuff you guys -
Great teamwork
Just wow! What a save. 🙂
Brilliant controller
Lake Pend Orielle and that area of Northern Idaho have some crazy weather to contend with
So nice to get a good news video.
This controller deserves a raise.
What a great job by everyone, so glad to see this one end up safely on the ground!!
Refreshing to hear a good ending.
He landed safe. Amazing
Glad he made it. Surprised he wasn't given a number to call.
When I was flying, as a low time pilot, I was going from Milwaukee, WI to home, Cleveland, OH in the winter. Over Indiana, south of Lake Michigan, VFR, ran into lake effect snow (IFR). I was rated for IFR and told myself that as I went south to get out of it.
Closer to Cleveland I was calling Flight Services (Findlay, OH) to get weather conditions and everything was IFR. They suggested I land there (which I had already decided) and I did and filed an IFR flight plan into Cleveland.
In the air again I saw the air speed start to drop (altitude was fine) and maybe some ice on the struts. Thought to myself, if it drops and lower I'll stall ... and then it went to zero! But altitude was fine and I realized the pitot tube was blocked. Pulled the static air - nothing. Ah, turned on the pitot heat, good.
I was making an NBD approach to Cleveland and overflew the radial. The tower asked what I was doing and I replied I had overflown and was correcting - I was landing, not going back up.
Airport in sight, landed without further incident, the music came up, etc.
Some of the best controllers I’ve ever heard!
ATC rock…. We need more of controllers around the country. Tell your kids, finish high and go to pilot school…. Within a short time they will making this country better and making a ton of money….
Comradeship of airmen everywhere...
Excellent controller, that has to be one of the hardest jobs in the world
Wow what a nice job!!
Icing in the clouds is nightmare fuel. Glad it ended ok
very, very lucky escape. incredible 👀
ATC 🙏
Absolutely 👍
Excellent controller. Kudos to Expo 91. Hopefully, this VFR pilot called a CFII to start on his IR training as soon as he had it tied down. And filed a NASA report lol
He made is home because they all remained calm....in addition to the support level of all parties.
ATC & entire team are heroes for sticking with this. THis pilot was way too casual about flying; doesn't matter if you are in the air for 5 hours or 5 minutes, you'll be just as dead with the substandard equipment & his inadequate training. ano such thing as a short flight if you screw up.
This is great.
Well done to all but a special mention for ATC
I'm a little confused about the end. I assume that's a non controlled airport. The approach controller said left downwind to runway 6. But it looked like he landed on 24 instead. Is the radar lagging so we didn't see the turn for 6? Is it still at his discretion since it's VFR, so he just decided to take 24 and that's fine? Maybe stress was involved so he didn't fully comprehend the last message and was just happy to see a runway? My understanding is if an ATC hints at a certain decision, that's a clear indication that's probably the right thing to do. I would think twice or thrice before doing something else than what was suggested.
Dude really lost his way if he was heading for Priest and ended up over CDA lake.
Wasn’t Coeur d’Alene lake, Pend Oreille lake as he took off from Bonners Ferry on this leg. Also, Unicom at Bonners Ferry helped him find the Seattle Frequency and isn’t on the tape or the story.
All we really have is each other.
I wonder what the road conditions were like? It's about an hour drive from Bonners Ferry to Priest River. Why risk flying in these conditions?
I guess Priest River was his home airport, so he probably flew to Bonners, and therefore wouldn't have a vehicle other than the plane.
What did his wife say after he kissed that Bloke 🤣🤣🤣👦🏿👍🏿
Nice question 🤣🤣
You can look at thee weather preflighting but it isn't going to be as good as a phone call to a flight service station that can give advice through their experiences watching weather for year like where the icing is going to be over time and if you would be pushing your luck getting into the soup.
This looks like north Idaho about Lake Pend Oreille
The lake he is flying over is Pend Oreille. The airport he left from, Boundary County, is just north of Bonners Ferry, and his intended destination is northwest of where he is in the video. He was way off course, especially if he actually flew into Canada.
Never would have happened on my watch.
Cant this be done flying IFR?
The pilot didn't have an instrument rating, so IFR wasn't possible.
Yet another example of how important it is to fly planes with a functioning autopilot and to have mastery of the system. AP, ALT, HDG would have made this a non-event.
That’s not a good idea if your getting ice. The first thing you should do in ice is to turn off the autopilot. It can mask issues and get you in even worse trouble.
Did he ever pay up on that big kiss?
Your wife is coming - oh damn lets go back to imc.
😂😂😂😂😂
🌞🌻🌝🌝🌕
When did Controllers become instructors..??
They're not trained or paid for it but...
By Gawd... without that attention to detail and commitment, many idiotic, overconfident and woefully stupid so-called 'pilots' wouldn'd wake up tomorrow....
There is a problem with current training...
Lucky for everyone involved, you are perfect
The OP is 100% right. As pilots we must hold ourselves to higher standards of knowledge, planning and proficiency. Don’t be like this guy.
Cheesy and crass thumbnails...
😆😆
It’s honestly ridiculous how some people managed to get their pilot’s license
Do you have your pilot's license?
@ I have my PPL yes. And I don’t suffer from get-there-itis.
Great exchange and coordination! Well done to all involved!
“And your wife’s headed towards airport” -savage Expo 091 🥹🥹 6:11
😃😃