“…a lone renegade patch of thick fog suddenly rolled in off the water and made a beeline for the runway. Elder expertly ducked the Cherokee Six under the ever-lowering cloud deck to make a safe landing at the last minute (I was positioned for the go-around). We went IMC on the rollout. A while later, after attempting several approaches, a brave rally Aussie Cessna 172 pilot finally managed a landing after the fog moved a hair. A harrowing experience to hear, yet not see, was the airplane barely above the runway in the fog. Prayers were whispered. Later the ceiling dropped to zero.”

This is an excerpt of a recently published article written by MayBay Beeler, a pilot under paid contract with Aviation Connection. In the article, she describes the arrival of non instrument-rated rally pilots at Havre St. Pierre Airport during the Eastern section of the rally to which I did not participate.

Since the runway at Havre-st-Pierre is less than 1 mile long (4,500 feet) and Cherokee Six airplanes have a typical ground roll distance between 600 and 1,000 feet, IMC on the roll-out seems to indicate visibilities well below the minimum 1 SM visibility required for any VFR operations anywhere in the world. Furthermore, Havre St. Pierre Airport offers METAR and TAF reports for planning purpose and AWOS for updated information at the airport (difficult to not be aware of the current weather conditions, if desired).

Prayers replacing airmanship — like may be checking weather data and/or having a backup plan (there is another airport just 34 NM away). According to NTSB statistics, VFR flight into instrument conditions ends in fatalities in 85% of all occurrences.

Something like that was predictable considering the behaviors I observed during the first section of the rally. As Bruce Landsberg, Executive Director of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation, said: “Mix ignorance with attitude and the results are almost guaranteed to be spectacular.” Apparently, prayers worked this time…

According to the same article, only 12 airplanes including 4 carrying paid members of the organization finished the rally out of the 30. That suggests that two third of pilots registered in the rally realized that this rally’s activities were not meeting their expectations.