I had been planning this trip for some time prior to my departure on a sunny March afternoon on a China Eastern MD11 from Shanghai to Los Angeles.

Over the few years to this date I had been using most, if not all, of my holidays to complete my FAA licenses in the USA and build enough hours to work on my commercial license.

The previous trip was to finish my instrument rating so the thought of a long cross country from LA to Canada, to visit some long lost family there, didn’t sound too daunting. As I had planned it for March I had hoped the weather was not to be a big factor but in case of problems I could always fall back on the instrument rating to get me out of trouble.

I had booked a Piper Arrow II from “Air Desert Pacific”, the flying school I had been using at Brackett Field (east of the LA basin). N4826Q was a favorite of mine and I had already logged about 100 hours just in that aircraft to date so was very comfortable with it. 26Q was by far the nicest of the three Arrows the school owned.

All was prepared and, thanks to China Eastern for the free supply of business class tickets, I settled back in the front end and whiled away the 13 hour flight.

Arriving on approach into LA I could immediately see things were not as expected. The California coastline was totally socked in with rain and low clouds. The MD11 jostled and bounced down the approach as I peered out the rain soaked window desperate to see some sign of the earth. Unfortunately the first sight was just as we touched down. The crew must have flown to Cat 1 minimums to get in to LAX. I had never seen weather this bad before in California. Not a good start.

My plan had been to go to the hotel for a good nights sleep, up early next day and go with an instructor for a checkout and an instrument recurrency check. That should get me as best prepared as possible. I would then launch off the same day to get as far as San Francisco where I would overnight. My return flight to China was booked for 10 days later giving me plenty of time for the transit to Canada and flying around exploring the British Columbia area.

However when I woke early next morning, thanks to the joys of jet lag, the weather channel reports were not at all promising. A low pressure front had stationed itself all the way up the West coast of USA and into Canada and didn’t look to be moving for several days.

Even with an up to date IR I had no intention of flying that distance almost totally in cloud with just a wing leveler as an autopilot. Clearly this trip was going to have to be rescheduled.

I arrived at Brackett airfield around 8am eyeing up the 500ft cloud base surrounding the field. Calling for a weather briefing was no more comforting. All the coastline was socked in with cloud layers to 15000ft and icing levels of 6000ft stretching right into Canada. This was the decider. I called the China Eastern office and changed my flight back to China for two days later. That would give me a day to recover from the long haul and do the checkout and a day to do some local flying before heading back.

I spent the rest of the day doing my instrument recurrency around the LA area logging quite a bit of actual instrument time as well as simulated time. Was a useful day but pretty hard work being kicked around in the turbulence shooting different kinds of approaches to various fields.

So I resigned back to the hotel that evening with the plan to head out east the next day where the weather was much better. I decided to drop into Palm Springs for a $100 hamburger as I had heard the field was beautifully situated on the east side of the mountain ranges that transcribe the LA basin. The weather there being severe clear blue skies and it was only about a 1 hour flight.

Another pilot in the school had heard I had cancelled my Canada trip and asked if I would give up 26Q to him as he was going on a long cross country east bound. I was happy to do this but didn’t like the scrappy Arrow they left me with. It was pretty ropey to say the least with a lousy paint job and upholstery and ancient but serviceable avionics.
So the next morning I arrived to prepare N15379 for my short trip. Weather to the east was still looking ok and the mountains were clear albeit with a lot of turbulence. No problem if I’m on my own. Light to Moderate turbulence is usually more of a problem to passengers than the pilot. The weather up the west coast however was the same as the day before. ie  totally IFR.

Several students were gathered around the briefing/rest area looking suitably dejected due to the weather. I met the instructor who had checked me out the day before also looking a bit bored. Asking where I was planning to go I advised him that Palm Springs seemed a nice option given the weather.

He suggested that six others were about to leave in two Piper Archers to fly up for a $100 hamburger at San Lois Obispo Airfield and why don’t I join them? KSPB is situated near the west coast about 150nm north of Santa Barbara and about 2.5 hours flying time from Brackett field. I immediately queried this as the weather reports were so bad with reported icing levels still at 6000ft however he retorted that we could file IFR, as the others were doing, and that reports were for cloud layers so we could stay clear of cloud by flying between the layers and avoid any icing. Further to this he offered to come with me for company as his students were not flying that day due to weather.
Sometimes in flying you feel you are going a bit beyond your limits and alarm bells start to ring. They were bellowing loudly in my ears at this time however I was naïve enough to think that if the instructor was happy with the situation then so should I.

We looked at the enroute chart that required at least 7500ft MEA (Minimum enroute altitude) to clear the mountains to the north of the LA area so we filed IFR for 8500ft via Van Nuys and several VORs marking the airways to the north. I hurriedly got my paperwork ready so we could get away and arrive not too long after the two Piper Archers that had already departed. Although the Arrow is about 30kts faster than the Archer it was doubtful we would catch them up as they had about 45 minutes lead on us.

The IFR departure route from Brackett is quite complex and we were almost immediately in cloud just after take off. I managed the departure route pretty well and we were soon on our airway still climbing to get out of the cloud layer. The front windscreen was already showing some slight traces of icing and I did several checks of the pitot heat switch to ensure it was on.

N15379s engine was nothing like as powerful as 26Q engine and was struggling to give us an acceptable climb rate once we got past 5000ft. However we broke out of the layer at 7000ft and continued to 8500ft sandwiched between layers. The icing build up had stopped on the windscreen but didn’t clear. Fortunately nothing had appeared on the airframe that I could see.

Just under 2 hours later we started the descent to join the ILS for KSPB runway. In thick cloud again we were given vectors to the ILS and bounced our way down keeping the needles as close as centre as possible. We were monitoring for any ice buildup which thankfully was melting due to the warmer temperatures as we got nearer the ground.

We broke out at about 1500ft right on the centerline feeling suitably pleased with ourselves and were soon parked up at the ramp and found our way to the restaurant area. There was however no sign of the two Archers. We never did see or hear of them again that day and I have no idea where they eventually went to.

After sampling the excellent food we requested another weather briefing which gave a similar story with cloud bases reported as 1500-2000 feet in places on our route back. My instructor suggested we attempt the transit back VFR under the cloudbase on the basis that it would be more comfortable that way. If the bases came down there was enough airfields along the way that we could land and file IFR from there. I asked about how we would cross the mountains but he suggested we went along the coastline and round them. Blindly I agreed to his suggestion but very soon after takeoff the cloudbase was dropping and I was very unhappy to continue. We agreed this wasn’t working and identified a nearby airfield to stop in and file and plan an IFR route along the same route we had come up.

After our short stop I was much happier with being IFR again as we were back in the ATC system however due to the lousy climb rate it was taking some time for us to get to the MEA of 7500ft. I did a few orbits to ensure we didn’t reach the mountains prior to achieving the MEA. Also we were back in thick cloud being jostled around a lot and taking on ice again. I leveled at 7500ft but we were still in cloud and the ice buildup was becoming a real concern. I had no forward visibility at all and could see about a half inch of ice on the wing leading edges. Hence full throttle was just providing me enough power to hold altitude…for now.

Again alarm bells were ringing in my head as I knew we were now over the mountain range and I was already as low as I was allowed to go. If the icing continued we would have an emergency on our hands. To make things worse the aircraft was really being kicked around in turbulence and if I took my eyes off the instruments for more than 2-3 seconds I would find we had entered a 30deg bank one way or another. Just flying the plane was becoming a full time job.

The instructor at this stage seemed to clam up and wasn’t helping in any way. He just kept muttering to himself and fussing about the fact the door was leaking cold air and it was blowing on his neck.

I took over the radio and asked Socal approach if we could have lower as we were starting to take on ice but they advised it was not possible given our current position over the unseen granite clouds lurking below us. I kept looking at the instructor for direction on the best way out but he seemed to have distanced himself from the situation and started to look a bit worried and started playing with the door again.

Right at this moment the main door that he was playing with suddenly burst open. I cant describe the surprise as all my charts, approach plates and any other bits of paper that were on my lap just disappeared out the door and snow start blowing round the cockpit. It took me a few seconds to understand what had happened and when I looked back at the instruments we were in a 45deg bank to the right.

At this stage I realized I had enough and had decided the instructor had lost any usefulness and some control was needed. The icing was still getting worse and now I had no enroute charts to look at either.

I righted the aircraft and immediately called SoCal Approach asking for Priority handling due to icing and airframe problems. SoCal immediately vectored us towards the coastline and advised us to hold altitude for as long as possible. I had already started a slow descent by now as I didn’t have enough power to hold altitude. However I was aware that the terrain would be 2000ft below us so I could afford a few hundred feet below MEA in relative safety.
I advised them of the situation and that I had lost my enroute charts and could they vector us for a diversion to the nearest field with an ILS approach. After a few moments while they radar identified us they gave us a vector to Santa Barbara (KSBA) and after about 3-4minutes cleared us down to 5500ft. I guess their radar showed us to be almost clear of the mountains by then.

As we stepped down to 5500ft the icing stopped building up and I was comfortable to know that it would start to melt once we lost more altitude. Fortunately my approach charts for KSBA were still safely in the side pocket and I pulled the book out and gave it to the instructor to get the ILS chart for me. He had not said a word during all this time but just fumbled for the chart and gave it to me.

Reaching 2000ft large pieces of ice were breaking off the wings and disappearing behind very close to the tailplane. My bigger concern was that the windscreen would clear in time so I could complete the approach. At this stage it was still completely glazed over. However by 1500ft I had the localizer centred and had just intercepted the glideslope and noticed streaks of water dribbling up the windscreen. We were over the sea by then and the turbulence had almost disappeared. By the time we broke out of cloud at 700ft there was no trace of the ice anywhere on the plane and the runway lights appeared straight ahead beckoning us down. It was a fantastic sight and my relief was immeasurable.

We taxied in and shutdown and an ethereal silence settled on the cockpit. The instructor didn’t move for a while and, through clenched teeth, I muttered “Will you please open the door and step out ”. We walked into the FBO in abject silence. Neither in any mood to discuss the situation we had got ourselves into.

After a very welcome cup of coffee I checked the weather again and found an IFR route that had a lower MEA which would take us down the coast to just north of LAX then inland direct to Brackett while keeping us below the reported icing levels.

My instructor had started talking again by now and we discussed our options. However he was very reticent and agreed with most of my suggestions without much discussion.

So about an hour later we were off again tracking the coast at 3000ft IFR. The turbulence wasn’t so bad and I had a crisp new enroute chart on my knee again.

The route back took us a bit longer but by the time we crossed over Santa Monica just north of LAX the clouds were breaking up and we were able to cancel IFR and continue VFR from there back to Brackett.

By the time we shutdown on the ramp it was pretty dark and I had no opportunity to see if the two Archers had got back from where ever they ended up. We had logged a total of 5 hours flight time for a burger!!! 3.7hrs logged actual IFR time.

There wasn’t much of a goodbye between us. He was very keen to depart for home. Clearly he had been a lot more shaken up with the events than I had thought. Thinking about it later having the door open on his side and looking out into that cloud at over 7000ft would have been quite a shock to anyone especially the way the aircraft was being thrown around at the time.

I was at the school first thing next morning to drop off the keys and say my goodbyes to everyone. Both Archers were there on the line but I never saw the pilots or found out what their experiences where. Just looking in the logbooks though they got back a long time before we did!!

As a follow up I went back to LA again 4 months later and did the flight to Canada on my own. This time the weather was perfect all the way and 26Q performed perfectly. But that’s another story I can bore you with later.

What did I learn from this?