Unexpected IFR

Paris12Man · #1 09-12-2016, 02:05 PM

I wanted to share my experience which happened this morning about 400' AGL right after T/O.

This morning was beautiful and a good day to go flying in N.E. Texas. The reported weather at Paris/Cox airport was Clear, Visibility 10+, Temp and Dew Point were two degrees apart. Fog crossed my mind, but I had plenty of gas in case something changed and fog showed up at my home airport.

My airplane is hangered and I had the oil heater on during the night to reduce the amount of time for engine warm up. Prior to T/O, the aircraft was outside in the elements about 10/15 minutes before takeoff. The engine run-up was normal and checklist was completed without issue. Therefore I began the T/O roll.

I was turning cross-wind when I noticed the canopy to begin to fog up. I always have a clean rag with me and I causally reached for it. I also opened up the outside vent on the pilots side. Forward visibility now was 100% gone! I still had some side visibility though. I immediately finished trimming the aircraft for climb then wiped my rag on the inside of the canopy and I expected the fogged up window to clear up.....to my amazement, the fogging was on the outside!

Now my altitude was about 600 AGL I headed in the general direction for Paris/Cox airport (much bigger airport than my home field just in case) and only about 2 miles away. I past 1000 AGL and the fogging effect cleared up as quickly as it appeared. I continued on my short flight plan and made several landings and T/Os in the local area without any issues.

I've been flying a pretty long time but I've never had that happen to me before. I guess it was the temp of my canopy and dew point temp but not sure. Just wanted to share and let everyone know to be prepared for the unexpected.

charger81 · #2 09-12-2016, 02:09 PM

Wow, now that's scary!

Steve Melton · #3 09-12-2016, 02:14 PM

the best thing a GA pilot can do is get an IFR rating in my opinion.

snopercod · #4 09-12-2016, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paris12Man

Forward visibility now was 100% gone!

Yikes! You did good to keep your cool and fly the airplane. I've never had my canopy fog up (or ice over), but I worry about it. I guess I need to run a cabin heat duct up through my glareshield.

funflying · #5 09-12-2016, 05:01 PM

Keeping your cool!

I had a similar incident but I was still on the ground and could just shut down.
I was in Missouri on a visit and had parked overnight in a covered structure. It was cool and humid that early morning. I started my RV6 and within minutes the canopy completely fogged over. I shut down and wiped off the canopy. I then waited about an hour for the ambient temp to warmup some and tried again. No issues, none that day, or ever again.

I live in Colorado and in the winter sometimes I get a little fogging initially but once I'm going the little bit there disappears.

walldan · #6 09-12-2016, 06:25 PM

In the fall when we have cold nights this happens to my truck when I drive to work.

kamikaze · #7 09-12-2016, 06:31 PM

Condensation appears on the outside after take-off??

I see it all the time in the morning after a chilly evening in the fall, but never as you're climbing ...

Some sort of inversion layer?

SuperDave · #8 09-12-2016, 08:27 PM

I had it happen in the winter in Florida. Everything fogged over at less than 500 feet AGL and finally cleared at 1500'. This was in a glorified ultralight with no AI or even a compass, just had to hold everything steady and wait and wait and wait...
The thought that went through my mind was, "This is how people get killed".
I've been leery of that situation ever since. Lots of moisture down low and an inversion as I recall.

RFSchaller · #9 09-12-2016, 10:28 PM

That must have been a surprise! Just proves that altitude is your friend. .. It should clear the canopy and if it doesn't at least there is left stuff to run into the higher you go.

Bob'sRV6A · #10 09-13-2016, 12:43 AM

It was a hot sticky night, I was flying copilot in a Marine H46. We were tooling around, single bird and decided to climb to 10,000 feet to cool off (10K is max altitude for a Marine Corp Helo without parachutes--I had never been that high in one). We did really cool off and enjoyed the city lights for a few minutes, then decided to auto rotate all the way down--maybe 2500 fpm descent or so. At some point, maybe 5 or 6 K, the wind screen fogged up completely. We were surprised and IFR all at the same time. Amazing what a cooled windscreen will do when subjected to a hot humid atmosphere.