Short Final

Editorial Staff

Sunday, February 04, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

A pilot encountered severe "very low IFR" (Instrument Flight Rules) conditions while approaching Stennis International, with widespread bad weather affecting surrounding airports.
Air traffic control (ATC) informed the pilot they had no radar coverage for the approach, contributing to a tense situation.
A humorous exchange between the pilot and ATC effectively defused the high-stress environment.
Despite the challenging conditions and lack of radar visibility, the pilot successfully completed the landing.

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Flying back from St. Augustine Fl (SGJ) to Stennis International (KHSA) just before Christmas, my destination was very low IFR. The whole region and surrounding airports were either very low IFR or Zero Zero. Planes were going missed at Gulfport (KGPT) and surrounding airports and tensions were high with the controllers. I was cleared for the ILS 18 into Stennis and headvised he did not have radar this way.

Tower: “…and I can’t see you”

Comanche XXXX: “I can’t see you either!”

We both laughed and it changed his stressed tone, and I did make the landing.

Charlie Horton