Hugh McFarland
Houston TRACON
20
On September 16, 2014, longtime Houston TRACON
NATCA member Hugh McFarland received a call from a
distressed pilot who had become stuck on top of solid
Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) weather. The pilot was only
Visual Flight Rules (VFR) certified, and had encountered
the weather conditions while en route from Kerrville, Texas,
to David Wayne Hooks Airport, just north of Houston. After
flying towards Houston for almost two hours, the pilot knew
he needed more help.
After McFarland received the call from the pilot, he
immediately began to make a plan to get the pilot safely
on the ground. The weather the pilot was stuck on top of
was almost 8,000 feet thick, and the conditions extended
hundreds of miles around the Houston area. There was
almost no chance the pilot could have flown his Cessna
172 to an airport with reported VFR conditions with the
remaining fuel he had on board.
The decision was made to attempt a descent through
the weather and have the pilot land at Houston Executive
Airport (TME).
As a Beechcraft Baron aircraft owner and certified
multi-engine instrument rated pilot himself, McFarland
understood how critical it was that the pilot be able to land
at TME. For 20 minutes, McFarland acted as the pilot's
navigation equipment and eyes through the weather. He
prepared the pilot for the descent into TME, helped the pilot
load up his GPS with the airport's information, constantly
reminded the pilot of his airspeed, bank angle in the turn,
to stay calm, to breathe, to trim the aircraft, and to ensure
the carburetor heat was on to prevent icing, among other
things.
McFarland: N59G, you're doing great, just keep the wings
nice and level and airspeed about 85-90 knots, enrichen
the mixture just a little bit more. Not all the way, but just a
little bit.
McFarland: N59G, if you're having to apply carburetor
heat, go ahead and pull the carburetor heat knob out.
N4859G: Carburetor heat has been out, thank you.
