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!