No, I didn't get a new plane for Christmas!
We all rush around trying the find the perfect Christmas gifts for those we love... but sometimes, we are blessed... or maybe the trim gods smile on us, and the truly perfect gifts fall right into our laps.
After an exciting trip down to North Carolina, we had a nice Christmas Eve and morning with my parents. But by around noon, the clouds were clearing and our thoughts turned to flying. We knew that Christmas Day would be the best day to get in a flight as it was supposed to get rainy and cold the day after. So we invited my parents along for a little flightseeing. Mom was too beat to come (she's a present-wrapping fiend!), but Dad was definitely game for a flight. So he, Husband, and I headed out to the airport.
We found the plane tied down and ready to go (the line guy had come out after we landed on Christmas Eve and tied it down for us). Before takeoff, we put in an estimated waypoint for my parents' mountain house, though we figured we'd just be able to follow the roads along to get there. With so few roads in the mountains, it's pretty easy to find places. After take off, we flew along the GPS route for a few minutes till we picked up 321-- the road we take to get to my parents. It was pretty cool to see it from the air and see how close together everything looks compared to on the ground when things are separated by big mountains. Dad was getting more and more excited as we got nearer to the house. In just a couple of minutes, we saw the turnoff from the highway into the valley where the house is. We could see the new development of homesites, and picked out a few familiar farms along the road. Then, we saw first the long driveway (around .5 miles!) and then, finally, the distinctive roofline of my parent's house. As soon as he saw it, my Dad, who was moving from side to side in the back of the plane (he likes the pictures from the back), picked up his cell phone and called my mom. Soon, we could see her moving around on the driveway-- a white and red speck against the dark grey driveway.
We circled for a while-- maybe close to 10 minutes. Dad took tons of pictures-- I think around 40 or 50. Husband even took controls for a few minutes so that I could take in the sights, as well. It was so amazing to see this place that I have known since I was a little girl from the air. I could see the river and Mrs. Shore's house, and the horse pasture... it was really awesome. Flying in the DC area is always interesting and often challenging. But I will never be able to come fly over my own house or neighborhood here. Or-- as they joke about at the flight school-- I guess I could fly over it... exactly once. And I'd have a very interesting story to tell, though I might not get the chance!
After we soaked in enough of the house, we flew over the town, and circled Boone. Then we flew over to Sugar Mountain and circled Grandfather Mountain, pointing out familiar landmarks to each other-- like the viaduct, the Boone golf course, and Chetola Lake. We even picked out the tiny runway in Boone that's owned by the power company (we need to find out how to land there!). We finally turned back toward the airport when we saw some snow clouds in the distance.
We had such a great time-- and Dad was so impressed with the pictures (it was cloudy-- so they weren't the best-- but really cool, nonetheless)-- that we decided to go back up on Thursday for a quick flight with Dad before leaving for Asheville. The sun was out-- so Dad was able to get some great shots.
A week or so later, Dad called to tell me about a dinner he and Mom had hosted the night before. During the course of the evening, his guests (homeowners in the same valley) noticed some of the pictures out on the table. Apparently they were quite enthralled with the pictures and Dad had a great time showing them off. Though not always a talkative man, he talked for 10 minutes about being able to show off these pictures. And then it hit me. For a man who loves all kinds of maps, and who loves this little valley even more than I do... our flights on those two days were truly the perfect gift.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Riding the Wave
After our Thanksgiving travel experiences, Husband and I were watching the weather very closely for our Christmas trip down to North Carolina. After a weekend of clouds and rain, we were happy to see a clear forecast for Christmas Eve. Our plan was to take advantage of the nice weather and have a little fun on the way down to my parents. We knew there was a pretty stiff headwind forecast-- but figured that we'd still be able to get in a few stops along the way. The winds on the ground looked reasonable-- and seemed to be up and down the runway all along our route. W24, LYH, W90, and 0V4 are all within a few miles of each other, so our plan was to hit as many of these as possible before we got to our bingo time and needed to leave the area so we could make the Christmas Eve service with my parents.
Isn't it funny how most flying blogs start with something along the lines of, "the plan was to..." but rarely finish with completing that plan?!
After a good workout at the gym and a final check of all our gear, we loaded up and set out. By now, the winds were forecast for around 50 knots at altitude. We double checked with our flight instructor as we preflighted and decided that even though our progress would be significantly slower than desired, it would be fine to fly. We took off and started down to our first stop, W24. We could tell the winds were crazy soon after we were air born. The turbulence below the Bravo shelves was intense. So we were happy to leave the Bravo airspace behind us and climb up to our cruise altitude.
Our route took us right down the edge of the foothills of Virgina. While West Virginia is very mountainous (though someone from Colorado might not see it that way!), where Virginia and West Virginia come together is right where the mountains start to break up. From our perch, we could see flatlands over to our left (the East), and we could see the very straight long ridges to our right (the West), and below us was a mixture of both, showing up in scattered peaks and smaller hills. Flying along, Husband set the autopilot and we admired the view. A few times along the way though, we noticed a strange occurrence. We would start to lose airspeed-- and occasionally altitude. At the same time, our RPMs would decay. The autopilot would keep fighting it, and that seemed to make the situation worse. We discussed the possibilities. Was this some form of mountain wave activity? Was there something wrong with the airplane? We talked about landing, but every time we got really worried, the problem seemed to get better. So we tried flying a little further away from the hills... but how far was far enough?
We were thankful to see that our first destination was approaching-- but as we started our descent, the turbulence became intense. Given how we were getting bounced around, we decided maybe it wasn't the day to get a bunch of stamps in our aviation passports. After considering our various options, and realizing that we would need to land and refuel somewhere, we decided that we should cut our losses and land at Lynchburg. We'd at least get one stamp, check for the updated weather, and regroup. So, we called Tower and set up to land. Once on the ground, we ended up at Falwell Aviation-- the newest FBO on the field.
Falwell Aviation is run by a couple of brothers. One of them happened to be there when we walked into the FBO and offered to give us a tour. It was really interesting. He and his brother also own a airport W24-- the airport we were going to land at before we decided to come on to LYH. Apparently their family had owned a trucking business a long time ago. They put in a runway at their family farm, and started to use planes to ship some of the materials by air. Over time, that grew into an airport used as an alternate for the factories and airlines using LYH. Now, the family owns the airport, a flight school, and a whole fleet of airplanes. Pretty cool. You never know what you're going to find at an airport!
Back to the flying tale. After fueling up and checking the weather, we got ready to depart. On our runup, we noticed some strange fluctuations in the RPM. We were pretty confused at first-- but realized that we were doing the runup with our nose not facing into the wind. Oh yeah! That's right, M always taught us to face into the wind to do the runup. Hmmm. Maybe this is why. :) So we turned the nose into the wind, and tried it again. Yep. That did it. Things seemed fine. Quick call to Tower and we were on our way again. This time with me flying. We got off the runway and were about 10 miles off the airport, when the problem started again. This time, the drop in RPM, airspeed, and altitude was even more pronounced-- we lost our ability to climb. Unsure of what the issue was-- or the best way to deal with it, we told the controller we had just been handed off to that we were experiencing difficulty holding our climb and our altitude, and that we wanted to return to the airport. We both looked at each other at this point. We couldn't believe we were having to make a "return to airport" call. We were transferred back to Tower and told them what was going on. Another plane (I think maybe a commuter plane) was also approaching, but the controller had them extend their downwind a bit so we could come on in. We landed without issue and went back to Falwell. On the ground, we decided to give our instructor a call. We ended up talking to a few instructors-- and all agreed that based on the conditions we were seeing and our location, we were experiencing mountain waves. They gave us a few pointers on dealing with it-- to try and ride the wave, using power to keep us somewhat stable. We decided to give it one more shot. So after a quick text message to my parents, we called Tower and departed LYH. In the air, we found that by adding power as the RPM or airspeed started to decay, we could keep the altitude from decaying. It was definitely more work than usual, but we were able to feel confident in our ability to keep the plane flying and somewhat stable. As we continued south, the wave activity decreased, and things got easier. We landed safely in Morganton as the sun was getting low in the sky. Dad and Flyer were there waiting for us. We were pretty happy to see Flyer bound across toward us when we got out of the plane (the airport was empty).
Some lessons learned:
Isn't it funny how most flying blogs start with something along the lines of, "the plan was to..." but rarely finish with completing that plan?!
After a good workout at the gym and a final check of all our gear, we loaded up and set out. By now, the winds were forecast for around 50 knots at altitude. We double checked with our flight instructor as we preflighted and decided that even though our progress would be significantly slower than desired, it would be fine to fly. We took off and started down to our first stop, W24. We could tell the winds were crazy soon after we were air born. The turbulence below the Bravo shelves was intense. So we were happy to leave the Bravo airspace behind us and climb up to our cruise altitude.
Our route took us right down the edge of the foothills of Virgina. While West Virginia is very mountainous (though someone from Colorado might not see it that way!), where Virginia and West Virginia come together is right where the mountains start to break up. From our perch, we could see flatlands over to our left (the East), and we could see the very straight long ridges to our right (the West), and below us was a mixture of both, showing up in scattered peaks and smaller hills. Flying along, Husband set the autopilot and we admired the view. A few times along the way though, we noticed a strange occurrence. We would start to lose airspeed-- and occasionally altitude. At the same time, our RPMs would decay. The autopilot would keep fighting it, and that seemed to make the situation worse. We discussed the possibilities. Was this some form of mountain wave activity? Was there something wrong with the airplane? We talked about landing, but every time we got really worried, the problem seemed to get better. So we tried flying a little further away from the hills... but how far was far enough?
We were thankful to see that our first destination was approaching-- but as we started our descent, the turbulence became intense. Given how we were getting bounced around, we decided maybe it wasn't the day to get a bunch of stamps in our aviation passports. After considering our various options, and realizing that we would need to land and refuel somewhere, we decided that we should cut our losses and land at Lynchburg. We'd at least get one stamp, check for the updated weather, and regroup. So, we called Tower and set up to land. Once on the ground, we ended up at Falwell Aviation-- the newest FBO on the field.
Falwell Aviation is run by a couple of brothers. One of them happened to be there when we walked into the FBO and offered to give us a tour. It was really interesting. He and his brother also own a airport W24-- the airport we were going to land at before we decided to come on to LYH. Apparently their family had owned a trucking business a long time ago. They put in a runway at their family farm, and started to use planes to ship some of the materials by air. Over time, that grew into an airport used as an alternate for the factories and airlines using LYH. Now, the family owns the airport, a flight school, and a whole fleet of airplanes. Pretty cool. You never know what you're going to find at an airport!
Back to the flying tale. After fueling up and checking the weather, we got ready to depart. On our runup, we noticed some strange fluctuations in the RPM. We were pretty confused at first-- but realized that we were doing the runup with our nose not facing into the wind. Oh yeah! That's right, M always taught us to face into the wind to do the runup. Hmmm. Maybe this is why. :) So we turned the nose into the wind, and tried it again. Yep. That did it. Things seemed fine. Quick call to Tower and we were on our way again. This time with me flying. We got off the runway and were about 10 miles off the airport, when the problem started again. This time, the drop in RPM, airspeed, and altitude was even more pronounced-- we lost our ability to climb. Unsure of what the issue was-- or the best way to deal with it, we told the controller we had just been handed off to that we were experiencing difficulty holding our climb and our altitude, and that we wanted to return to the airport. We both looked at each other at this point. We couldn't believe we were having to make a "return to airport" call. We were transferred back to Tower and told them what was going on. Another plane (I think maybe a commuter plane) was also approaching, but the controller had them extend their downwind a bit so we could come on in. We landed without issue and went back to Falwell. On the ground, we decided to give our instructor a call. We ended up talking to a few instructors-- and all agreed that based on the conditions we were seeing and our location, we were experiencing mountain waves. They gave us a few pointers on dealing with it-- to try and ride the wave, using power to keep us somewhat stable. We decided to give it one more shot. So after a quick text message to my parents, we called Tower and departed LYH. In the air, we found that by adding power as the RPM or airspeed started to decay, we could keep the altitude from decaying. It was definitely more work than usual, but we were able to feel confident in our ability to keep the plane flying and somewhat stable. As we continued south, the wave activity decreased, and things got easier. We landed safely in Morganton as the sun was getting low in the sky. Dad and Flyer were there waiting for us. We were pretty happy to see Flyer bound across toward us when we got out of the plane (the airport was empty).
Some lessons learned:
- Mountain wave isn't just about sudden and violent drops, it can show up in other forms
- If it's gusty or high winds, it really matters if you keep your nose pointed into the wind
- ATC is really great about helping you out
- Your flight instructor can be a great source of information even after you get your license-- it's in their best interest to help keep you safe... but you have to let them know if you need help
- High winds at altitude can impact performance in some surprising ways-- it may feel smooth, but anytime there's something unusual in the flying conditions, you should keep an extra eye on things
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Suddenly I See!
It feels like a lot has happened since I last blogged! It will take a few posts to catch up on all the stories... but if I keep delaying the writing, it will just take longer. This first post is about not flying... but not to worry, some flying posts will follow as soon as I download the pictures!
December is always a very busy month-- for everyone, I'm sure-- but is especially so because I make a lot of cookies. So I was really looking forward to our Christmas trip. Because of the gift of an additional holiday, we were hoping to fly down to Hilton Head for a quiet weekend before flying over to my parents for Christmas night, and on to other relatives after that. But it wasn't just the bad weather that kept us in town and on the ground.
The Wednesday before Christmas, I had a stinging sensation all day in one eye-- I thought maybe some dust from the construction on our house had gotten in my eye. A reasonable conclusion because I am very allergic to dust. The next morning, all seemed fine, so I put in my contacts as usual. By an hour or so later, as I drove to work, I noticed that my sunglasses seemed fogged over... so I took them off to clean them... and discovered that it wasn't my sunglasses! Everything was that fogged over... like flying with about 2-3 mile visibility! When I got to work, I tried taking out the contacts and cleaning them-- and even without the contacts, my eyes were cloudy. I attended a few meetings-- all the while my vision getting worse (yes, I know it was dumb!).
Finally, after the end of my second meeting, and realizing that I could no longer read, I decided it was time to take action. So I postponed the next meeting and headed to the eye doctor. Luckily, I caught him right before he left for lunch. After looking at my eyes for about 45 seconds, he sat up straight with a look of surprise and ordered me to take out the contacts... now! So I took them out and asked what was going on. Then he took another look at my eyes, and then told me that I had a chemical burn on both of my corneas. This was scary news... especially to a pilot.
Let me stop and say here that I know that my eyes are important for a lot more than just flying-- especially since I don't fly for a living. But at that moment in time, I couldn't let myself imagine losing my sight completely-- that was too horrible... so flying was the thing I thought of.
He put some drops in my eyes and asked if I was feeling any pain. I wasn't-- maybe just a little tiredness, like after your eyes have been dilated, but no real pain. Again, he seemed surprised. What he didn't tell me was that I would feel pain, and lots of it-- some of the most intense pain I've ever felt! After getting a prescription for some antibiotics (thank you, K, for filling it for me!) and a very surreal and careful drive home, the pain started to set in. I lost complete sight for about 12 hours, and then couldn't keep both eyes open for about 18 more hours. Finally- after about 30 hours, I was able to stand light again. And then by the next morning, my eyes felt normal, though I sure wasn't in a hurry to put in my contacts again!
The ending to this story? My eyes are now just about back to normal. By 48 hours after the trip to the doc, my vision was almost back to normal (almost 20/20 with glasses). By Christmas Day, I finished the antibiotics. By New Year's Day, I was allowed to wear contacts again for short amounts of time (less than 8 hours). By next week, I should be able to wear contacts like normal.
What was the cause? I still am not completely sure-- though most likely, I had something on my hands that transferred to my eyes when I put contacts in or took them out. It could have been hand lotion, some Vick's vapor rub I used one night, or even the peppermint oil in the peppermint marshmallows I made one night. (Apparently all of those substances get into your pores and don't always come out with a simple washing.) All I know is-- I'm telling everyone I know-- if you wear contacts, be sure to wash your hands with soap and water before putting them in or out... and think about what you've had on your hands! Your sight is too important!
December is always a very busy month-- for everyone, I'm sure-- but is especially so because I make a lot of cookies. So I was really looking forward to our Christmas trip. Because of the gift of an additional holiday, we were hoping to fly down to Hilton Head for a quiet weekend before flying over to my parents for Christmas night, and on to other relatives after that. But it wasn't just the bad weather that kept us in town and on the ground.
The Wednesday before Christmas, I had a stinging sensation all day in one eye-- I thought maybe some dust from the construction on our house had gotten in my eye. A reasonable conclusion because I am very allergic to dust. The next morning, all seemed fine, so I put in my contacts as usual. By an hour or so later, as I drove to work, I noticed that my sunglasses seemed fogged over... so I took them off to clean them... and discovered that it wasn't my sunglasses! Everything was that fogged over... like flying with about 2-3 mile visibility! When I got to work, I tried taking out the contacts and cleaning them-- and even without the contacts, my eyes were cloudy. I attended a few meetings-- all the while my vision getting worse (yes, I know it was dumb!).
Finally, after the end of my second meeting, and realizing that I could no longer read, I decided it was time to take action. So I postponed the next meeting and headed to the eye doctor. Luckily, I caught him right before he left for lunch. After looking at my eyes for about 45 seconds, he sat up straight with a look of surprise and ordered me to take out the contacts... now! So I took them out and asked what was going on. Then he took another look at my eyes, and then told me that I had a chemical burn on both of my corneas. This was scary news... especially to a pilot.
Let me stop and say here that I know that my eyes are important for a lot more than just flying-- especially since I don't fly for a living. But at that moment in time, I couldn't let myself imagine losing my sight completely-- that was too horrible... so flying was the thing I thought of.
He put some drops in my eyes and asked if I was feeling any pain. I wasn't-- maybe just a little tiredness, like after your eyes have been dilated, but no real pain. Again, he seemed surprised. What he didn't tell me was that I would feel pain, and lots of it-- some of the most intense pain I've ever felt! After getting a prescription for some antibiotics (thank you, K, for filling it for me!) and a very surreal and careful drive home, the pain started to set in. I lost complete sight for about 12 hours, and then couldn't keep both eyes open for about 18 more hours. Finally- after about 30 hours, I was able to stand light again. And then by the next morning, my eyes felt normal, though I sure wasn't in a hurry to put in my contacts again!
The ending to this story? My eyes are now just about back to normal. By 48 hours after the trip to the doc, my vision was almost back to normal (almost 20/20 with glasses). By Christmas Day, I finished the antibiotics. By New Year's Day, I was allowed to wear contacts again for short amounts of time (less than 8 hours). By next week, I should be able to wear contacts like normal.
What was the cause? I still am not completely sure-- though most likely, I had something on my hands that transferred to my eyes when I put contacts in or took them out. It could have been hand lotion, some Vick's vapor rub I used one night, or even the peppermint oil in the peppermint marshmallows I made one night. (Apparently all of those substances get into your pores and don't always come out with a simple washing.) All I know is-- I'm telling everyone I know-- if you wear contacts, be sure to wash your hands with soap and water before putting them in or out... and think about what you've had on your hands! Your sight is too important!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Love those Pics!
Since it's a slow time of year for my flying (too much bad weather, too much time spent making pretty and tasty holiday cookies, and too much time in general merriment...), I thought I might post some backlogged pictures from our trip to Nashville at Thanksgiving.
Niece G met us with her father, B, at the plane when we landed. We haven't taken her up yet-- her mom wants her to be a little older-- but I have a feeling she'd make a good pilot some day!
Here we are back at the airport, preflighting for our trip home. As you can tell-- Flyer (the dog) is all ready to hop in the plane. B, G, and Nephew H are taking a few minutes to look at the planes and the equipment around the airport.
And here's a nice group shot of Husband, his mom, and G and H before we loaded up and took off. Maybe one of these days we'll convince Husband's mom to go up with us!
The river coming into Nashvile-- with the dam visible.
Niece G met us with her father, B, at the plane when we landed. We haven't taken her up yet-- her mom wants her to be a little older-- but I have a feeling she'd make a good pilot some day!
Husband and Brother J took a little excursion (via the plane) to J's home in Chattanooga. While there, J showed Husband around their new house, the farm that he manages, and around town. The picture on the left is stacks of shitake mushrooms growing! They brought back a ton of them for us to take home. Yummy! (I'm glad I didn't have to figure out if this is ok to take through security-- also glad I didn't have to think about whether the pumpkin cheesecake I took down to Nashville counted as a gel!). The picture on the right is J showing off his gasoline engine-powered bike. Yup, you read that correctly. J attached a small weedeater engine to a bike in order to provide easy and quick transportation around the farm that he manages. Crazy!
Here we are back at the airport, preflighting for our trip home. As you can tell-- Flyer (the dog) is all ready to hop in the plane. B, G, and Nephew H are taking a few minutes to look at the planes and the equipment around the airport.
And here's a nice group shot of Husband, his mom, and G and H before we loaded up and took off. Maybe one of these days we'll convince Husband's mom to go up with us!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
And It Rains Some More.
Rain, rain go away,
Come again another day...
But not on a day I want to fly! Weather in the area is keeping all the birds on the ground. I hope it lifts before Christmas! (For the first time ever, I'm NOT dreaming of a white Christmas!)
Come again another day...
But not on a day I want to fly! Weather in the area is keeping all the birds on the ground. I hope it lifts before Christmas! (For the first time ever, I'm NOT dreaming of a white Christmas!)
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Ambassador of the Skies
So, when the weekend rolled around and we started discussing where to fly, we decided we should try to get a few more airports in our passports. Saturday was gorgeous-- clear blue skies with great visibility and lighter winds than predicted. Weather wise, we could go just about anywhere! We picked a line out of JYO to the southwest, and identified a few airports along the route. Our thinking was to land at different airports and get as far as we could by 4pm, and then to start heading back so we were sure to make it back to JYO before dark. We also made the pledge to not just rush in and out of each airport (sort of like leaving the car idling), but instead to take the time to look around each airport and discover each ones personality. Oh-- and we also decided it would be fun to take a picture of the plane at each airport-- something that captured the essence of the airport. I'm not a great photographer, so we'll see just how well that idea turns out! But for now, we'll give it a go!
After our trip to Nashville, we totalled up our logbooks. We found that Husband has around 130 hours and I have roughly 175... which is a pretty big difference. The delta in our hours is completely explicable-- I got my license a month before Husband-- and therefore flew him all over during that month; I tend to fly and he navigates if we're uncertain where we're going or think we'll need to closely watch weather; and Husband just enjoys looking out the window more while I really enjoy flying the plane! But-- I realized I need to be more purposeful in giving him more PIC time- so Husband was PIC for the whole flight instead of switching seats like we usually do.
Our first airport of the day Front Royal. Front Royal is basically just on the other side of the ridge-- so we've both flown over it many times (probably at least 25). In fact, I can remember my early pilotage attempts with M occasionally ended up with me hopelessly lost over Front Royal, thinking I was over Wincester or Charlestown or somewhere. Despite it's proximity, neither of us had ever had a reason to fly there. So we were pleasantly surprised to find a nice little airport. Our practice is to give each other "airport" briefings before we approach an airport--we go over the elevation, traffic pattern altitude, runway length and width, frequencies, and any unusual characteristics of the airport or area. For FRR, I noticed that the chart showed a right traffic pattern -- but instead of a runway number, it had an asterisk. In the AFD, I found the explanation: right traffic is only for gliders, ultralights, and gyrocopters. Yup, we were going to be mixing in glider airspace! Knowing how windy it was supposed to have been, I figured we wouldn't see any ultralights, but sure enough, when we tuned in CTAF, there were gliders in the pattern.
It took a few radio calls and a lot of looking (those things are hard to spot!), but we finally figured out where both gliders and the tow plane were... and Husband took us down for a nice landing. As we taxied in, one of the gliders came in and landed-- a very cool sight! Even cooler, as we walked toward the FBO, the tow plane took off with another glider. It was amazing how quickly they both got off the ground and in the air-- and by this point, it wasn't really even that windy.
Inside the FBO, they had a display of all sorts of miscellaneous military equipment-- most of it aviation related. We talked to the guys who were coordinating the glider activity and learned that they are out there most weekends between March and November. You can buy a sort of pass (I think it's actually a club membership) and then pay a fee for instructor and glider time. Husband wants to come try it some weekend. I might even try it-- though I tried hang-gliding once-- the kind where you're towed behind a plane up to altitude... and didn't like that at all!
Our next airport was 8W2-- New Market. It was only a short hop, so I had my hands full trying to find the frequencies and get the radios and airport briefing set up. After a little discussion as to which way to enter the pattern-- and which runway to use (no AWOS), Husband got us set up for a nice landing. When we got out of the plane, we could hear some music playing over the loudspeaker... but didn't see anyone around. We peered through the windows of the FBO and were about to declare our hunt for a stamp a bust, when we saw the stamp in the window of the FBO. I decided to try the door just in case-- and sure enough, the door to the FBO was unlocked. So we let ourselves in and got our stamp! For this picture-- we didn't see much that would be of interest to others... but I did spot what appeared to be big chicken houses right next to the runway! (My mother's father raised chickens, among other agricultural pursuits, so we have something of a family legend about chicken houses and coops.) So of course, the picture above shows the chicken houses under the left wing. It's always a little surprising to me that GA airports seem to often be in bucolic places!
Our last airport of the day was VBW-- Bridgewater. Husband did a great job of getting us into this airport. We still haven't done that many real-world short field landings... so I get a little nervous with fields shorter than around 2800 or 3000 feet (I know that this would not be short to many 172 pilots-- but JYO's 5500 foot runway has spoiled us!). Husband has more confidence on these (maybe because of my experience landing on a 2500 foot runway with a tailwind and wet pavement... not so smart!), and he did very well with the 2600 and 2700 foot runways that day.
As we taxied off the runway, we were surprised to see rows of King Airs and other larger aircraft-- including the DC3 in the picture above. Most looked to be in flying order, though they were in varying stages of repair. What we couldn't figure out-- how had they gotten into this little strip?
In any case, as we got out of the airplane, a security guard in a little cart drove over towards us. We waited for him to drive up-- worried that maybe we had missed a NOTAM or something! But when we told him that we were hoping to get a stamp, he told us to hop on and drove us over to the office. He took us in and gave us the stamp. As we walked with him, we asked about the planes out on the ramp. Apparently, there's an aircraft restoration business at the airport-- which explains all the old airplanes! We asked if we could take a picture of our plane with the DC3-- and he said sure. Then, after hesitating for a moment, he also told us to come with him and took us to the door of a hangar attached to the office. There, in the hangar, was a beautifully restored/maintained T-6 Texan! Our jaws dropped! I asked if I could take a picture-- but he was worried he might get in trouble (I hope I don't get him in trouble for writing about this-- he didn't let us loose in there or anything, just showed us from the door). Still, it was awesome to see in the hangar.
After ogling all the planes again, Husband taxied our plane over across the little gravel strip and positioned it so I could get a picture with the DC3, and then we started back out. BTW-- the picture at the top of this post was the sky behind the airport as we departed. This is a beautiful picture-- but it doesn't even begin to do justice to the sight. Though it seemed really early and still very light, I knew that the sun would soon be setting-- and our plane would eventually turn into a pumpkin. So despite Husband's desire to go to just one more airport, he turned us toward home and we headed back to JYO.
We were rewarded with a great sunset as we entered the pattern. It's tough to tale a good sunset picture-- especially from a plane! But this gives you an idea.
I must say-- we started the day not knowing what to expect, but ready for the adventure of exploring new airports. It was really cool to see the different personalities of each airport along the route-- and all were within 75 miles of JYO. It really gave us an appreciation for what GA has to offer... and made us wish, not for the first time, that JYO weren't within the ADIZ and could have a little more of a relaxed atmosphere. But then, that's what make JYO unique!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Homeward Bound-- Part 4 of the Long Journey
I realize that it probably seems like I've spent a lot of posts talking about one trip. But we learned so much on each leg, that it felt right to devote a post to each leg. So we've finally made it to the trip home (though I have another post started about a side trip that Husband took with one of his brothers while we were in Nashville... but I'll save that for another time).
We had planned to depart on Sunday-- but were keeping an eye on the weather, knowing that we might need to leave early to make it back. Saturday, we double-checked the weather and decided that though the forecast showed clouds, it looked reasonable for getting home. By Saturday night, though, the forecast had worsened. We decided that our best chance to get out of Nashville and back home was to leave as soon as it was light on Sunday. So we set the alarm for 5:45, warned B that we'd be waking him early to take us to the airport, and went to bed. Husband woke up Sunday morning and checked the forecast. The 6am forecast (put out around 20 minutes before 6) showed that contrary to prior forecasts, the clouds would be at a nice high height of 8000 feet for the whole morning. After a quick (and admittedly sleepy) conversation, we decided to sleep another hour and then get up and go.
Of course, delaying our departure by an hour meant that the family was up and about before we left... so it was really delaying the departure for two hours. Just before we left, Husband checked the weather again. Oh no! Soon after we checked the 6am, forecast, they issued a special (codeword: speci) forecast. This new forecast showed the ceiling was dropping by the minute! We started going double time to get packed up and out of there.
By then time we were ready to go, almost everyone decided to join us at the airport for a sendoff (that was really nice!). So we bundled up G and H, B's two kids who are 4 and 2, and Husband's mom, S, and B, and headed for the airport. The fun part of this is that we got to drive one of the cars out onto the field to load the plane. I know that sounds silly, but it was still cool! :)
We got a little more fuel, did a preflight, and took a few pictures of the gang with the plane (I'll publish them as soon as I get them off the camera!). One more look at the forecast seemed to be in order. We didn't like what we saw, but decided to give it a try. We looked at the minimum safe altitudes in the area and decided that if we were able to get up over around 2000 feet, we'd continue. If we couldn't make it to 2000, we'd turn around and land again. After hurried goodbyes, we got in and taxied out to the runway for departure, with me flying and Husband in the right seat. As we roared down the runway (can a Cessna roar?!), Husband waved to the family watching us. We were off... but not for long. We knew that there were towers not too far off the end of the runway, so were prepared to turn a bit early to stay well clear. We made the turn to the East, and just seconds later-- at around 1700 feet, ran straight into a layer of clouds. We were both a little surprised-- we'd had brushes with clouds on the trip down, but had always had a bit of warning beforehand. This time, there was no warning. I think the difference was that the clouds on the other day were puffy cumulus types. The clouds on this day were stratus- thick layers of clouds. After a moment of breathlessness, I had the plane in a turn and descending back to pattern altitude. But I was pretty worried because I knew from studying the chart-- and looking at the screen in front of us, that there were some other towers I needed to avoid. Unfortunately, on the other side was a TFR that I needed to avoid. So I told Husband to keep an eye on those towers-- both on the map and on the screen, and let me know if I started to come anywhere near them.
After a minute, we were clear of the clouds, the towers, and headed back to the now familiar JWN pattern for runway 02. We landed without incident and as we taxied off the runway, Husband's phone began to vibrate. His brother was calling to see what was happening-- they had all watched us and saw that we had quickly entered a cloud. We reassured him that we were ok, and that we were going to go take another look at the weather and decide what to do.
Looking at the weather and the charts, it was pretty clear that weather north of Nashville was reasonable for VFR flight, but weather south, east, and west was not. So we knew our only chance was if we could get north. The question was whether or not to try for it. Husband started calling AWOS for various airports to see if we could get more accurate information for what was happening. I headed out to talk to some pilots who had just landed to see if they had information on conditions north of the field. They had actually just flown in (IFR) from West Virginia-- pretty much exactly the route we wanted to go. They confirmed that if we could make it out of the immediate area, conditions were much better elsewhere. We also determined that the weather was likely to deteriorate throughout the day, so it was basically now or "never". Talk about pressure!
Here's where the fun begins. We had to decide what to do-- take off again and take another chance on the clouds? Or hang it up and wait for better weather? Or find another way home-- which likely meant leaving the plane, the dog, or both in Nashville. What would you do?
At first, I said no. This is the sort of thing that gets pilots killed. Husband was willing to acquiesce and leave it at that. But we decided to think about things with the idea being that we should not go-- which meant that instead of thinking of why we shouldn't, we were thinking about why we should. What we decided is that:
We had planned to depart on Sunday-- but were keeping an eye on the weather, knowing that we might need to leave early to make it back. Saturday, we double-checked the weather and decided that though the forecast showed clouds, it looked reasonable for getting home. By Saturday night, though, the forecast had worsened. We decided that our best chance to get out of Nashville and back home was to leave as soon as it was light on Sunday. So we set the alarm for 5:45, warned B that we'd be waking him early to take us to the airport, and went to bed. Husband woke up Sunday morning and checked the forecast. The 6am forecast (put out around 20 minutes before 6) showed that contrary to prior forecasts, the clouds would be at a nice high height of 8000 feet for the whole morning. After a quick (and admittedly sleepy) conversation, we decided to sleep another hour and then get up and go.
Of course, delaying our departure by an hour meant that the family was up and about before we left... so it was really delaying the departure for two hours. Just before we left, Husband checked the weather again. Oh no! Soon after we checked the 6am, forecast, they issued a special (codeword: speci) forecast. This new forecast showed the ceiling was dropping by the minute! We started going double time to get packed up and out of there.
By then time we were ready to go, almost everyone decided to join us at the airport for a sendoff (that was really nice!). So we bundled up G and H, B's two kids who are 4 and 2, and Husband's mom, S, and B, and headed for the airport. The fun part of this is that we got to drive one of the cars out onto the field to load the plane. I know that sounds silly, but it was still cool! :)
We got a little more fuel, did a preflight, and took a few pictures of the gang with the plane (I'll publish them as soon as I get them off the camera!). One more look at the forecast seemed to be in order. We didn't like what we saw, but decided to give it a try. We looked at the minimum safe altitudes in the area and decided that if we were able to get up over around 2000 feet, we'd continue. If we couldn't make it to 2000, we'd turn around and land again. After hurried goodbyes, we got in and taxied out to the runway for departure, with me flying and Husband in the right seat. As we roared down the runway (can a Cessna roar?!), Husband waved to the family watching us. We were off... but not for long. We knew that there were towers not too far off the end of the runway, so were prepared to turn a bit early to stay well clear. We made the turn to the East, and just seconds later-- at around 1700 feet, ran straight into a layer of clouds. We were both a little surprised-- we'd had brushes with clouds on the trip down, but had always had a bit of warning beforehand. This time, there was no warning. I think the difference was that the clouds on the other day were puffy cumulus types. The clouds on this day were stratus- thick layers of clouds. After a moment of breathlessness, I had the plane in a turn and descending back to pattern altitude. But I was pretty worried because I knew from studying the chart-- and looking at the screen in front of us, that there were some other towers I needed to avoid. Unfortunately, on the other side was a TFR that I needed to avoid. So I told Husband to keep an eye on those towers-- both on the map and on the screen, and let me know if I started to come anywhere near them.
After a minute, we were clear of the clouds, the towers, and headed back to the now familiar JWN pattern for runway 02. We landed without incident and as we taxied off the runway, Husband's phone began to vibrate. His brother was calling to see what was happening-- they had all watched us and saw that we had quickly entered a cloud. We reassured him that we were ok, and that we were going to go take another look at the weather and decide what to do.
Looking at the weather and the charts, it was pretty clear that weather north of Nashville was reasonable for VFR flight, but weather south, east, and west was not. So we knew our only chance was if we could get north. The question was whether or not to try for it. Husband started calling AWOS for various airports to see if we could get more accurate information for what was happening. I headed out to talk to some pilots who had just landed to see if they had information on conditions north of the field. They had actually just flown in (IFR) from West Virginia-- pretty much exactly the route we wanted to go. They confirmed that if we could make it out of the immediate area, conditions were much better elsewhere. We also determined that the weather was likely to deteriorate throughout the day, so it was basically now or "never". Talk about pressure!
Here's where the fun begins. We had to decide what to do-- take off again and take another chance on the clouds? Or hang it up and wait for better weather? Or find another way home-- which likely meant leaving the plane, the dog, or both in Nashville. What would you do?
At first, I said no. This is the sort of thing that gets pilots killed. Husband was willing to acquiesce and leave it at that. But we decided to think about things with the idea being that we should not go-- which meant that instead of thinking of why we shouldn't, we were thinking about why we should. What we decided is that:
- we could change our path and head straight north instead of going east first
- we could airport hop-- fly from airport to airport as opposed to a straight line. This approach would give us more options in case weather was worse than anticipated, and would encourage us to make the smart decision in case the weather was worse (hey! the airport's right there!)
- we reevaluated the minimum safe altitude, and realized that with the exception of the one group of towers that we could see from the airport, the msa was actually much lower-- around 1600 feet... meaning we could fly a little lower and still be safe.
With all of these things in mind, we decided to give it another shot. As we walked back out on the ramp, we also realized that it was much brighter outside than before and that the clouds seemed a little higher and more promising. We talked briefly about switching up our pilot flying/pilot not flying, but decided that it was working pretty well and stuck with that arrangement. So we climbed back in and headed out for try number two.
This time, we had success. We kept a very close eye on the altitude-- Husband calling out towers and constantly tuning different AWOS and ATIS frequencies so we could get an idea of weather. We did about 3 zigzags back and forth (over different airports), and finally felt like we were out of the worst of it about 30-40 minutes after departure. Clouds were still a little low, but we were consistently able to stay several hundred feet over minimum altitude and around 500 feet below the clouds. Of course, just as we started to get comfortable with our situation, I started to get uncomfortable with human factors! I had to go! Luckily, Husband was very nice about all of this, and we prepared to land at the next closest airport, 6I2. We landed no problem (I was worried my human factor need might disrupt my concentration!) and taxied over to the fuel pumps. No sense landing without getting fuel! After a quick stop to fuel, grab some snacks, and take care of the human factors... we were on our way again. This is how a quick stop is supposed to work!
As we took off this time, we found that we were able to get much higher. Going a little at a time (I was still concerned about ending up in clouds), we made it up to 5500 feet. I can't tell you how good that felt! We picked flight following as we bypassed the Lexington airspace. Now that the weather had cleared and we were headed home with a 24 knot tailwind (drastic change from the trip out!), things were good-- and I remembered something. I love flying!
We only had two other obstacles to maneuver. The route we had picked to travel home meant that we would cross the mountains at the end of the trip, more or less going straight across them West to East. When we approached the mountains, we could see a lower layer of clouds developing over them. At the same time, we wanted to climb a bit to get above the highest peaks. So, we started to pick our way through-- which confused ATC a bit as it meant we deviated slightly from our course. After we told them that we were "deviating to avoid the mountains and the clouds", they were happy and just told us to let them know when we had decided on an altitude and a course.
After zigzagging around the mountains a bit (boy, is that terrain avoidance handy!), we saw what looked to be a break in the clouds ahead of us. I pointed the plane towards the break hoping it would be big enough to get through. After making it this far, I didn't want to have to turn around! We sailed past big puffy clouds, deceiving in their beauty, and thankfully far enough away to still be safe and legal. The mountains were just below us. Husband kept asking if we were far enough above. They were deceiving in their scale: they looked close enough to touch... until you looked at the houses and cars and realized that actually we were well above them. As the mountains started to get smaller below us, we breathed a sigh of relief. We made it past!
Now, we had to figure out the second piece... we hadn't filed a flight plan back into JYO because we had thought we'd need to stop again... but looking at the fuel gauge, we would reach JYO just after we entered our hour of reserve. Knowing that we were flying back into familiar territory with good weather, we felt fine with this... so we pressed on. We thought about asking the controller to help us file one, but decided she sounded busy, and since we were back in our stomping ground, Husband cancelled flight following and filed a flight plan with Leesburg FSS (Leesburg Radio). He also agreed that it was fine to turn off the autopilot and hand fly the rest of the trip. We had decided that flying over mountains and with crazy weather conditions was safer with the autopilot keeping us straight and level and on-course. All of our maneuvering was done by putting the autopilot in heading mode and adjusting our heading to get us around.
In any case, we made it back to JYO, safe and sound, after only a little over 4 hours in the air... and that was with our non-direct route. What a difference winds make! It felt so good to know that we had made this long trip-- all on our own. It also made us realize we really need to get our acts together and get our IFR ratings so that we have more options. And it made us want a faster plane in the future!
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