[masraum]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Iconic photo:



I have written about the "fog" in the Central Valley before.

There was an Air Force Base north of Merced that would, for all intents an purposes, go zero/zero visibility when the Tule Monster hit. Castle AFB.

Instrument approaches are hard to get in San Diego so we'd head to Castle AFB when the Tule was covering the valley, all in bright sunshine on the way, contact approach and request a series of practice IFR approaches. We could see large towers sticking up out of the fog.

Just the coolest thing to be flying in completely still air, in the bright sunshine then descend on the glide slope into quiet darkness...eerie as well.

We'd hit the Missed Approach Point, not see a f'ing thing, execute the missed approach instructions and climb back into the sunshine at about 500ft.

I think I need a cigarette.

That's crazy! I understand "instrument approach", but I feel like it must be a bit crazy to not see ANYTHING until you bump into the ground. And that seems like the kind of thing you'd normally want to avoid in any sort of aircraft.