Man, That Was Rough!

Beautiful day, done at the hospital, no patients to see in the office, and not on call - a winning combination for flying. My mom is visiting, so I get home mid morning and we decide to fly to Raleigh for lunch. Skies are clear and there is a northwest wind, 6 knots. No AIRMETS for turbulence or other weather, so I file IFR to RDU and back.

Once we get to the airport, the wind has picked up a bit making wind chill a factor during my preflight. Should have taken the clue to recheck the terminal area forecasts, but I finish the inspection and we load up.

Depart Runway 01 to the east to pick up my clearance. Immediate light chop on the way up, but nothing I haven't dealt with before - expect it to clear as we gain altitude. We start to level off at 5000 feet and - WHAM! - both our headsets come off (but surprisingly my iPhone on the dash stays in place). We then experience quite a bit of moderate turbulence and I request a climb to 7000, hoping to get further from the ground and get out of this bumpiness. We have to hold 5000 for traffic and finally get a clearance to climb. By this time, I have pulled way back on the throttle to slow us, and taken over from the autopilot to feel like I have some control of where we are going. We start to climb, but I decide I've had enough and request clearance to return to Wilkes County. We hold 5000 and present course for a few minutes, per controllers instructions, and I briefly consider cancelling IFR and returning VFR to home base. Then the clearance to turn is granted.

Once again, notice a lot of moderate chop as we turn and make our way back. When I report the field in sight, I cancel IFR and descend to enter the downwind for 01. We make an uneventful landing in crosswinds of 9 gusting to 14. Fifteen minutes after departure, we are pulling up in front of the hangar. Line guys come out to push me back in with a funny look on their face, but I tell them it was a little too rough for us today.

So, what have I gleaned from this short flight?

1. Always make another check of the weather if things seem different than forecast.
2. Pat myself on the back for turning around and stopping the flight in these conditions - I'm flying for fun, not on a schedule, and getting beat up on a round trip for lunch isn't worth it.
3. Don't cancel IFR plan until on final approach at the field - my wife was watching us on Flight Aware and we disappeared off the radar screen when I cancelled the IFR flight. She thought we pulled the chute and were in the middle of a chicken farm.
4. Have no concern on what others may think for cancelling a flight - the linemen had to pull me out, fuel me up, and put the plane back within 45 minutes time, but that is what they are paid to do. Not going to bother me that we came back so soon.

I am pretty sure my mom was thankful to be back on the ground, although she put up a brave front the entire flight!

Downtime

So what do pilots do when they aren't flying?
-
-
-
They are thinking about flying.

That's what I am doing now. Beautiful day outside, but since flying is a hobby for me and I have to work a real job, I have to work today and daydream of flying in my spare time. I am also on call this weekend, so no time in the plane for me.

In my down time, I spend time reading as much as I can about flying. I regularly read the COPA forums and get daily and weekly email newsletters from AOPA and Flying magazine. Several times per week, I log in to the AOPA website to read the latest news. I also complete learning modules as they become available from the Air Safety Foundation. Not to mention various subscriptions that come in the mail throughout the month.

AOPA Flight Training magazine has a great tag line "A good pilot is always learning..." I have taken this to heart since Day One of learning to fly and spend as much time as possible trying to learn something new. Hopefully this all pays off in increased safety for me and my family when we take to the skies.

Day Trip to Wilmington (ILM)

I hate it when I am not on call and also not in the airplane. Forecasts earlier in the week for this weekend weren't great, so I didn't plan a trip. By Saturday afternoon, with sunny skies and few clouds (far from the forecast), I was really feeling bad about not having flown somewhere. Besides my back was sore from tearing up the old flooring on the back deck. Started looking at Sunday's forecast, and decided it was time to fly. Was looking for about an hour flight to spend the day somewhere. Thought about Gatlinburg (TN), Asheville (NC), Charleston (SC), and Wilmington (NC).

After sleeping in, a final check of the weather showed a good route to ILM. My Uncle Jim and his wife Mary Jane live there. Gave him a call to see if they were free, and filed IFR UKF to ILM at 7000. Also filed return IFR a few hours later at 6000. Packed up the wife and kids and away we went. We were going to have mid afternoon grilled burgers!

Since buying my Cirrus SR22 in August 2008, my wife has never gotten to fly in the right seat. My 2 daughters always call shotgun before we ever get to the airport. Today, my 10-year old is my co-pilot. Robin and my younger daughter sit in the back. We have a deal in my plane - if one of the girls spots another plane before I do, I pay them a buck. I owed Christiana $3 by the time we were halfway there.

Calm winds at UKF for departue and scattered cirrus clouds at 12,000. Picked up a 27 knot tailwind and made 192 knots groundspeed to have the ocean in sight within an hour. Arrived behind a passenger jet and taxied to Air Wilmington FBO. Met Uncle Jim there and we loaded up to go to his house.

Got a tour of the historic district on the way to Monkey Junction and then his neighborhood. Had a nice time visiting with Jim, Mary Jane, and the 3 dogs. Grilled burgers and had a nice time. Got to play around on his new Martin D18 before we all loaded up for the trip back to ILM. Final check of the weather on the way showed no significant changes with a clear shot back to UKF at filed altitude.

After preflight, we taxied to depart 17 and maintained runway heading out towards to ocean. Finally got clearance to turn direct as filed and faced a 9 knot headwind, 1:10 trip back to the foothills. Saw a beautiful sunset through the high cloud layer and took the GPS 1 approach into UKF. Having to use my flashlight to illuminate the AP, as the infamous S-Tec backlight failure has affected my unit (will get it replaced at annual in April), I successfully captured the glide slope (I thought) but the autopilot flew us right through it. Turned off autopilot and hand flew the approach, greasing the landing with a stall warning just before touchdown. Still haven't seen a deer at night here, but others have - I think I will add the LoPresti wingtip lights when I have some extra bucks.

Pulled up to the hangar and pushed her back with thanks from the famly for a nice day. It was a nice day... looking forward to my next flight.