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A balloon pilot participating in a balloon fest departed in VMC conditions and during climb at 1;200 ft became IMC. He declared an emergency; programmed his GPS for a known safe field and landed.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 911175 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201009 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | US |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | Mixed |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Balloon |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
| Flight Phase | Initial Climb |
| Route In Use | Visual Approach |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Single Pilot |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Commercial |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 6 Flight Crew Total 160 Flight Crew Type 160 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Airspace Violation All Types Inflight Event / Encounter VFR In IMC |
Narrative:
At the balloon fest the participating pilots had a scheduled weather briefing early that morning. Visibility was less than 3 miles so we were put on a weather hold and a new briefing was scheduled for and held 45 minutes later. Visibility at that time was greater than 3 miles and since conditions were improving; a flight was planned. My crew and I drove to a launch field 4 miles southwest of the balloon field and visibility continued to improve. We launched under clear skies with 3 mph surface winds from the northeast and winds aloft from the southwest. After ascending to 1;200 ft AGL at 2;000 ft per minute and heading northeast at 12 mph; I noticed patchy fog starting to move in beneath me from the northeast. I effected a descent rate of 200 ft per minute and by the time I reached 800 ft AGL; I could not see the ground at all. At this time declared an emergency and ascended to an altitude and wind direction to fly to the balloon field because I knew it contained no obstacles and was a safe landing site. I had programmed this field into my GPS and the wind direction was such that I had no doubt this was my best course of action. I landed at the balloon field without incident.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A balloon pilot participating in a Balloon Fest departed in VMC conditions and during climb at 1;200 FT became IMC. He declared an emergency; programmed his GPS for a known safe field and landed.
Narrative: At the balloon fest the participating pilots had a scheduled weather briefing early that morning. Visibility was less than 3 miles so we were put on a weather hold and a new briefing was scheduled for and held 45 minutes later. Visibility at that time was greater than 3 miles and since conditions were improving; a flight was planned. My crew and I drove to a launch field 4 miles southwest of the balloon field and visibility continued to improve. We launched under clear skies with 3 MPH surface winds from the northeast and winds aloft from the southwest. After ascending to 1;200 FT AGL at 2;000 FT per minute and heading northeast at 12 MPH; I noticed patchy fog starting to move in beneath me from the northeast. I effected a descent rate of 200 FT per minute and by the time I reached 800 FT AGL; I could not see the ground at all. At this time declared an emergency and ascended to an altitude and wind direction to fly to the balloon field because I knew it contained no obstacles and was a safe landing site. I had programmed this field into my GPS and the wind direction was such that I had no doubt this was my best course of action. I landed at the balloon field without incident.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.