Angel Flight #4

I had a surprise day off on Monday. I discovered this last Thursday, and quickly decided that it would be a flying day. I had not ben able to fly at all so far this month due to work, and the previous weekend that I had off had been filled with bad weather and me feeling under the weather, so a flying day was long overdue. So, when I determined I could fly on Monday, I went to check out the missions page at Angel Flight to see if I could help out. All missions for Monday were filled, but I let the mission coordinator know that I was available if something should come up. On Easter Sunday, I found out about a flight taking a patient home from Augusta, GA to Cleveland, TN.

Robert is a 54 year-old factory worker who was cooking last Fall and had his shirt catch fire from his range. He suffered significant burns on his back and has required treatment at the JMS Burn Center. His latest treatment involved having skin grafts taken from his left leg and placed on his back. He had been in Augusta for several days for this last treatment and was looking forward to get back home to see his family. As he explained to me, since he has been unable to work, his wife has had to work more to keep the family afloat, and is unable to take the time off to travel with him, so he was alone and ready to be back home.

After touchdown in Augusta, I found him standing outside the terminal building waiting. He is most comfortable standing due to the location of the burns on his back and the recent skin grafts from the back of his leg. Sitting for any amount of time is not comfortable and the transition from siting to standing causes a great deal of pain, so he stands much of the time to avoid this. Fortunately, our flight was going to be right at 1 hour, versus 5 hours in a car to make the trip home. He was very grateful to have reduced time being uncomfortable while traveling.

Robert is the most appreciative passenger I've had yet. As soon as we met and shook hands, he thanked me twice for volunteering to fly him home. I lost count of the number of times he thanked me during and after the flight.  I've never questioned the impact Angel Flights have on those they serve, but if anyone had any doubts, Robert would be sure to put those aside. He spoke of the ways Angel Flights have really been a blessing to him, allowing him to have world-class medical care far from home in a more convenient fashion. He spoke of the flights he has had so far, and how much he has become interested in flying and enjoys learning about how it all works. He spoke of perhaps becoming a pilot himself one day, and volunteering to provide Angel Flights to those in need.

Robert is very talkative with a great attitude, despite his current injury. We loaded up for departure and found a place for him in the back seat where he could stretch out and ride more comfortably. We departed Augusta with direct routing to Cleveland. Robert chatted the entire trip, and I learned about him growing up in Louisiana, then spending time in Alabama, before moving to Tennessee. He has had several different careers, including managing a number of the portrait studios located in Wal-Mart stores and being a cross country commercial trucker. His current job is working at the Mars candy factory, where he can eat as much of the candy he wants while there, but he has grown tired of all the sweets for now.

We cruised at 8000 feet and had a ground speed of 188 knots for the 1 hour trip. We had a broken undercast for the flight and found scattered building cumulous near the destination. We were able to easily avoid the turbulent clouds during descent and other than being slam dunked into the airport by Chattanooga Approach, had no real issues with the flight. Robert remarked at how quickly the Cirrus was able to reach cruising altitude and how advanced the cockpit was. He enjoyed listening to my interactions with ATC and made several inquisitive remarks about the air traffic process. He asked me to explain the aerodynamic forces that cause lift from the wings. He had heard some different explanations before but had a hard time grasping it. I explained it to him from a pressure difference perspective which seemed to allow him to have an "a-ha" moment and get a better perspective on what was happening.

The flight passed quickly with Robert's congeniality and we touched down at his local airport. It took several minutes for him to slowly stand and depart the plane, but we got in to the terminal with no issues. He thanked me several times again and headed home.

I departed feeling pretty good at being able to help Robert get home. He provided some much needed encouragement for me. His great attitude in the face of a burn injury was inspiring. He saw this as a minor bump in the road and is not going to let it slow him down for long. If we could all approach life's problems in this way, we would thrive much better than we seem to at times. Any problems I may have pale in comparison to Robert's challenges, and I am better able to deal with them, using his inspiration.

Learning About the Weather

Weather is the one thing that has a bigger impact on pilots than any other single factor. As pilots, we are constantly having to monitor the weather forecasts, current conditions, and how this could affect out flight plans. Unfortunately, current FAA training does a poor job of getting a pilot prepared for real-world weather observation and what that means to flying. After getting my Private Certificate, my understanding of weather was limited to only flying in VFR conditions and relying on forecasts to determine if those conditions exist. If they did, I could fly. If not, I was grounded. Pretty simple and basic understanding, I guess.

Once I started working on my Instrument Rating, weather became a bit more tricky. In IFR conditions, you are allowed to fly into clouds, so figuring out what is going on with clouds and how they affect your flight become more important. Of course, I knew not to fly near thunderstorms, as these can prematurely end a flight, and not by getting you to your destination quickly. As a general rule, 20 mile circumnavigation of thunderstorms prevents entering conditions that can lead to loss of control or catastrophic structural failure of an airframe. The biggest surprise to me was learning about icing.

Looking up in the sky, those clouds we see are composed of collections of water vapor. Take into account that any increase in altitude typically results in dropping temperature. At some point, the temperature will reach freezing or below, which means the water vapor freezes, especially when coming into contact with a cold airframe, leading to ice accumulation. During the winter, with temperatures near freezing on the ground, it doesn't take much altitude to find that one cannot enter the clouds at all due to the risk of icing. Many times, in my part of the world, winter means flying in VFR conditions only due to this problem.

With completion of my Instrument Rating, I had a better working knowledge of weather, figuring out how to avoid icing and conditions that can result in reduced visibility while flying. However, it was still a rudimentary understanding of how to figure out when to fly and when to stay on the ground.

I have found one resource that has been absolutely essential in my gaining a better understanding of weather and how it relates to flying. Aviation Weather Workshops has a collection of on-line courses that really break it out for pilots to learn all the nuances of forecasting weather and collecting vital information to make a flight as safe as possible. It has been an invaluable resource for me this past year in expanding my aviation weather knowledge. Yesterday, I spent time doing multiple modules on utilizing Skew-T Log(p) Diagrams to predict various weather conditions along a route of flight. It is beginning to move me from one who solely uses the forecasts and predictions of others to being able to use this additional tool to supplement my understanding of conditions that may be encountered during a flight. I am continuing to work on these diagrams to observe and predict weather conditions. I would encourage other pilots to consider joining Aviation Weather Workshops to learn more about weather and flying.