A fellow SR20 owner who was in need of an annual asked if I'd follow him over to Eagle Creek and fly him back to CMI after he dropped off his plane. Initially I was a little concerned because the forecast was for severe T-storms and the Nexrad showed things were already starting to kick up a little to our south and west. But Indy is a very quick trip that can be done in just over an hour, round trip. Plus, the route to and from EYE was clear. It looked like we'd be able to get over and back well before the storms arrived. We decided to go for it and headed to our respective airplanes.
The flight over for me was at 3,500. At that altitude I was already enjoying a 35 - 40 knot tailwind, so I saw no reason to climb further. Other than being a tad warm, I was happy. Not long after I'd settled into cruise, I heard N706RH, the plane that I was accompanying, check on to the departure frequency. From the sound of it, I had a pretty good head start and he was climbing to 5,000. It would be interesting to see if he'd catch me before we got to Indy as the winds and TAS were even more friendly at his altitude.
Aside from simmering in the cockpit and sweating profusely, the flight over was a piece of cake. I encountered some fairly exuberant chop in the pattern at EYE which made flying a pretty pattern a chore, but it wasn't awful. As I turned downwind to base I heard 6RH check in on CTAF saying he was 5 miles out. He almost caught me.
After delivering 6RH to the A&P for its annual we were ready to go again. The whole stop lasted no more than 10 minutes. Naturally, the ensuing hot start was on my mind. But using my usual hot start procedure (mixture to cutoff, throttle wide open, boost pump on for 20 sec then throttle to idle, mixture rich and start), N218DF started right up after just a few turns.
Winds favored 21 and the ASOS was reporting a density altitude of 2,600 feet. I anticipated somewhat sluggish climb performance which, unfortunately, turned out to be the case. This time I tried leaving the flaps down a little longer to see if the winds and drag would allow me to climb over the runway a little more. Initially this plan seemed to be working, but the drag of the flaps made gaining airspeed difficult and I sucked them in. Having tried both techniques (flaps in right away and delayed flap retraction) I'd say it's probably better to get them in sooner and reduce drag. It might make for an uncomfortable few moments of 0 fpm close to the ground but it will get me to cruise climb speed faster.
We picked up flight following about 5 west of EYE and climbed to 4,500 for the trip back to CMI. Just east of Covington, we began to encounter a broken layer with tops at about 3,800. CMI ATIS was indicating overlapping scattered layers over Champaign, but the closer we got to Champaign the more they looked like broken layers.
After checking in with Approach we asked for a local IFR approach using the RNAV 22. The controller said we could but needed us to stay VFR on top for a bit while he sorted things out. By now the fuel calculator was showing we'd be right at minimum reserve on arrival and I was having to bend our course a little south to avoid some of the taller buildups. To make things even more interesting the controller told me to go direct to a fix that did not load into my GPS with the version of the approach that I had selected.
I started to get that behind-the-8-ball feeling. Plus I was kind of annoyed with myself for not checking something other than radar prior to our departure from EYE. I think my copilot sensed my angst as I fumbled through the GPS menus trying to load the prescribed fix. He lent a hand by helping to see if we could spot it on the MFD.
Finally I found the fix and steered for it. Unfortunately it was taking us quite a ways off a direct route to the airport. I throttled back to conserve fuel, hoping ATC would give me lower sooner. As I got back into the game I noticed that the cloud bases looked to be above 3,000, so I called approach and asked for lower. He said he had another plane in the chute and needed me to stay up where I was. When I explained I could probably break out of IMC if he let me descend, he cleared me to 3,000. We broke out at 3,100.
As I looked to my left for the airport my copilot rhetorically asked, "What altitude did he clear us to?" A glance at my altimeter showed that in my haste to locate the airport I'd allowed us to descend to 2,600. I thanked the copilot and climbed back to 3,000 mentally kicking my ass for getting so far behind the plane.
Now that we were in the clear I asked to cancel IFR and proceed VFR direct to the airport. The controller cancelled IFR and then, ever so patiently, reminded me I was following someone and said the best he could do is let me fly a westerly heading. I took what I could get.
Now that we had the airport in sight, and I was in the clear, it really started to sink in just how ill prepared I had been for the day's events. Granted, it wasn't anything remotely close to an in-flight emergency, but unexpected weather is something I should be able to handle with a minimum of fuss. I did alright, but I could've handled it a whole lot better.
Fortunately I was able to redeem myself by greasing on a really nice crosswind landing on 22. My copilot, sensing I needed the encouragement, complimented me on the touchdown.
Today's lessons:
- Thoroughly check weather no matter how short the flight and even if you've only been on the ground 5 minutes and are flying right back the way you came.
- You can never be too familiar with your avionics. Practice procedures whenever you can.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
KCMI to K24 to KCMI - 3.5 hours
Last Tuesday we received word that my father's cousin Royce passed away suddenly from a heart attack. Dad asked me to fly he and Luke down to Kentucky for the funeral on Thursday.
We departed late Wednesday afternoon under gorgeous blue skies and some of the best weather I've seen all year. Temps were in the high 60's and winds were light from the NW. Coupled with the green of spring, it just doesn't get much better than that in Central Illinois. Winds aloft were also smiling upon us. The forecast for our cruising altitude called for 20 to 30 knot winds from the NW -- right on our tail.
With dad, Luke and myself, plus our overnight bags, we were at max gross takeoff weight with just 40 gallons of fuel. Plenty for our trip, especially with the tailwind. If memory serves the DUAT online flight planning tool predicted a 1 hour 36 minute flight. Since we were maxed out I opted for a full-length takeoff on runway 32R. I probably would've had enough runway for a Bravo intersection takeoff, but knowing my climb rate was going to be a little less, I decided more climb time over the runway was better.
Once at altitude and on course we enjoyed consistent ground speeds in the 165 to 175 knot range. And the trip computer was showing an estimated time enroute of 1 hour 36 mintues--exactly what Duat had predicted. It's always great "when a plan comes together." Because of the clear skies we had a fantastic view from horizon to horizon the entire flight. Earth greened up even more the further south we went.
On our arrival at K24, the AWOS was reporting winds light and favoring runway 17. I made an upwind entry and flew over the runway, banking over the ramp to see if our ride was there. The landing was a satisfying squeaker, but I noticed during the transition into the flare that pitch forces were much lighter than I was used to. Usually my CG is slightly forward when it's just Laurie and I. But with the extra passenger in back (who, without divulging any secrets, is roughly the same weight as me)the CG was much closer to center. I made a mental note to remember that on the return trip.
Thursday, the visitation and funeral had concluded by about noon. As we prepared to head to the airport I used my iPod Touch to grab some bandwidth from the neighbors and check the weather. To my surprise, the weather that wasn't really expected in CMI until the following day looked to be only a few hours away based on the rash of storm echoes that were massing on the west side of the Mississippi. I yelled at dad and Luke to pick up the pace. We needed to depart soon. I had no idea of the speed or direction of the cells I saw, but I knew if they forced us to widen our route to the east to deviate around them, fuel was going to become an issue.
The winds that had been so good to us just a day before were going to be right on our nose if I chose my usual return VFR cruising altitude of 6,500 feet. Those headwinds coupled with the fact that it was a warmer day than before and our climb rate was going to be even more sluggish meant any required weather deviation from our relatively direct route could result in a fairly tight fuel situation.
Since the object was to get back, not get back fast, I opted to save a little fuel in climb and cruise by flying lower at 4,500 feet. Strangely the winds were significantly lighter at this altitude than just 2,000 feet above and they were variable meaning I had a chance at a tailwind during some portion of the flight. To further maximize our deviation flexibility I decided to use economy power which, while about 10 knots slower, saved me almost 3.5 gallons per hour in my fuel burn.
As predicted, climb out after takeoff with the higher temperature (and at the higher field elevation of K24) was diminished. I waited a little longer to retract the flaps as a result. In hindsight I probably should have sucked them up sooner and reduced drag, but I didn't relish experiencing that initial reduction in climb rate after flap retraction as low as I was. It wasn't too low, just low enough to induce a little pucker factor.
Once we reached altitude and everything was squared away for the cruise phase, I engaged the autopilot and checked weather. The radar echoes didn't seem to have moved much from the time I checked weather on the ground. According to Nexrad, the only weather that appeared to be on a collision course with our destination was still over St. Louis and poking along at a mere 19 knots. No deviation was going to be necessary. I thought about pushing the throttle and mixture back up to the best power setting but decided not to out of deference to my fuel bill. Besides, we weren't in as big a hurry to get back anyway and I could use the extra 20 minutes or so that it would tack onto our flight time in my log book.
Arriving in Champaign's airspace were told to make straight in for runway 32R. We were also asked to keep our speed up until 5 miles from the airport so we could get out of the way of a Flightstar jet that was arriving behind us. I pushed the throttles up to best power and put the nose down, holding about a 160 knot ground speed all the way to the prescribed 5-mile limit.
Once again, as I rounded out in the flare for landing I could feel how much lighter the required pitch forces were. I had to really force myself to use lighter control inputs to keep from accidentally popping back into the air out of ground effect. My patience was rewarded with that satisfying 'chirp' the tires make when you grease one on.
A quick glance at the timer on the transponder indicated a total flight time of 1 hour and 55 minutes. After putting the plane away and collecting our cars, dad, Luke and I headed to Esquire for some drinks. Always a great way to wrap up a flight.
We departed late Wednesday afternoon under gorgeous blue skies and some of the best weather I've seen all year. Temps were in the high 60's and winds were light from the NW. Coupled with the green of spring, it just doesn't get much better than that in Central Illinois. Winds aloft were also smiling upon us. The forecast for our cruising altitude called for 20 to 30 knot winds from the NW -- right on our tail.
With dad, Luke and myself, plus our overnight bags, we were at max gross takeoff weight with just 40 gallons of fuel. Plenty for our trip, especially with the tailwind. If memory serves the DUAT online flight planning tool predicted a 1 hour 36 minute flight. Since we were maxed out I opted for a full-length takeoff on runway 32R. I probably would've had enough runway for a Bravo intersection takeoff, but knowing my climb rate was going to be a little less, I decided more climb time over the runway was better.
Once at altitude and on course we enjoyed consistent ground speeds in the 165 to 175 knot range. And the trip computer was showing an estimated time enroute of 1 hour 36 mintues--exactly what Duat had predicted. It's always great "when a plan comes together." Because of the clear skies we had a fantastic view from horizon to horizon the entire flight. Earth greened up even more the further south we went.
On our arrival at K24, the AWOS was reporting winds light and favoring runway 17. I made an upwind entry and flew over the runway, banking over the ramp to see if our ride was there. The landing was a satisfying squeaker, but I noticed during the transition into the flare that pitch forces were much lighter than I was used to. Usually my CG is slightly forward when it's just Laurie and I. But with the extra passenger in back (who, without divulging any secrets, is roughly the same weight as me)the CG was much closer to center. I made a mental note to remember that on the return trip.
Thursday, the visitation and funeral had concluded by about noon. As we prepared to head to the airport I used my iPod Touch to grab some bandwidth from the neighbors and check the weather. To my surprise, the weather that wasn't really expected in CMI until the following day looked to be only a few hours away based on the rash of storm echoes that were massing on the west side of the Mississippi. I yelled at dad and Luke to pick up the pace. We needed to depart soon. I had no idea of the speed or direction of the cells I saw, but I knew if they forced us to widen our route to the east to deviate around them, fuel was going to become an issue.
The winds that had been so good to us just a day before were going to be right on our nose if I chose my usual return VFR cruising altitude of 6,500 feet. Those headwinds coupled with the fact that it was a warmer day than before and our climb rate was going to be even more sluggish meant any required weather deviation from our relatively direct route could result in a fairly tight fuel situation.
Since the object was to get back, not get back fast, I opted to save a little fuel in climb and cruise by flying lower at 4,500 feet. Strangely the winds were significantly lighter at this altitude than just 2,000 feet above and they were variable meaning I had a chance at a tailwind during some portion of the flight. To further maximize our deviation flexibility I decided to use economy power which, while about 10 knots slower, saved me almost 3.5 gallons per hour in my fuel burn.
As predicted, climb out after takeoff with the higher temperature (and at the higher field elevation of K24) was diminished. I waited a little longer to retract the flaps as a result. In hindsight I probably should have sucked them up sooner and reduced drag, but I didn't relish experiencing that initial reduction in climb rate after flap retraction as low as I was. It wasn't too low, just low enough to induce a little pucker factor.
Once we reached altitude and everything was squared away for the cruise phase, I engaged the autopilot and checked weather. The radar echoes didn't seem to have moved much from the time I checked weather on the ground. According to Nexrad, the only weather that appeared to be on a collision course with our destination was still over St. Louis and poking along at a mere 19 knots. No deviation was going to be necessary. I thought about pushing the throttle and mixture back up to the best power setting but decided not to out of deference to my fuel bill. Besides, we weren't in as big a hurry to get back anyway and I could use the extra 20 minutes or so that it would tack onto our flight time in my log book.
Arriving in Champaign's airspace were told to make straight in for runway 32R. We were also asked to keep our speed up until 5 miles from the airport so we could get out of the way of a Flightstar jet that was arriving behind us. I pushed the throttles up to best power and put the nose down, holding about a 160 knot ground speed all the way to the prescribed 5-mile limit.
Once again, as I rounded out in the flare for landing I could feel how much lighter the required pitch forces were. I had to really force myself to use lighter control inputs to keep from accidentally popping back into the air out of ground effect. My patience was rewarded with that satisfying 'chirp' the tires make when you grease one on.
A quick glance at the timer on the transponder indicated a total flight time of 1 hour and 55 minutes. After putting the plane away and collecting our cars, dad, Luke and I headed to Esquire for some drinks. Always a great way to wrap up a flight.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
KCMI Local Flight - 0.8 hours
Today I worked on a few fundamentals like slow flight and steep turns. It's pretty quiet at KCMI now that the students are gone for the summer. I think the tower was happy to talk to anyone today.
Winds were gusty and it was warm (about 80). This made for a bumpy brew. Not the worst I've seen, but certainly challenging. At one point I was in a thermal climbing at 500 fpm with flaps out, nose down and power pulled back to 25%. This made practicing turns in slow flight a little difficult. I was jockeying the throttle quite a bit to maintain altitude as I went bouncing in and out of thermals. Steep turns were not as challenging.
Climb rate was actually pretty good considering how much warmer it was today than it has been.
Winds were gusty and it was warm (about 80). This made for a bumpy brew. Not the worst I've seen, but certainly challenging. At one point I was in a thermal climbing at 500 fpm with flaps out, nose down and power pulled back to 25%. This made practicing turns in slow flight a little difficult. I was jockeying the throttle quite a bit to maintain altitude as I went bouncing in and out of thermals. Steep turns were not as challenging.
Climb rate was actually pretty good considering how much warmer it was today than it has been.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
KCMI Local Flight - 0.5 hours
Many flights have transpired between the last post and this one. I got lazy with the blogging. Tonight I stayed in the pattern and shot some night landings to keep myself current for night flying. They weren't the prettiest, but they were passible. Winds were fairly brisk aloft despite being relatively calm at the surface. It made for some pretty good ground reference maneuver practice. Because winds were calm near the surface, the ground speed on final felt higher than normal.
Winds dictated everyone use runway 4 this evening. Instead of allowing me to take the Bravo taxiway all the way to the end, they had me enter the runway at Charlie (a good 3/4 of the way down the runway) and back taxi to my start point. The tower controller left how far back I taxied to my discretion.
As for visibility, it was kind of hazy, but I'm not complaining. This is the first night it actually felt a little like summer. It was nice just to be able to start without pre-heat again.
Winds dictated everyone use runway 4 this evening. Instead of allowing me to take the Bravo taxiway all the way to the end, they had me enter the runway at Charlie (a good 3/4 of the way down the runway) and back taxi to my start point. The tower controller left how far back I taxied to my discretion.
As for visibility, it was kind of hazy, but I'm not complaining. This is the first night it actually felt a little like summer. It was nice just to be able to start without pre-heat again.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
KCMI to KEZI to KCMI - 1.5 hours
Laurie and I decided to take advantage of the good weather to get some flying time and look for furniture. We launched for Kewanee and Good's furniture at about 10 till 1. The conditions were severe clear with calm winds at the surface. Aloft, the winds were a little more brisk. I climbed to 6,500 so we could enjoy the clear conditions and get a better view. The view was gorgeous but came at the price of almost 30 knots ground speed. Winds at that altitude were almost exactly on our nose, varying between 25 and 30 knots. We never saw much above 125 knots ground speed even though we were truing out at a healthy 150 knots.
Our route crossed the Illinois River just NE of Peoria. We could see big chunks of ice in the water. There was quite a bit of snow left in this area as well. It made it tough to spot the airfield as we neared it. All the usual terrain distinctions that sometimes define airport boundaries were covered. It wasn't until we got within about 4 miles that I was able to pick the runways out of the white.
Before I go on, a word or two about radio etiquette. One of the drawbacks to flying on a beautiful day after a bout of bad weather is all the fair weather pilots who don't do a lot of flying during the winter take to the skies. And I don't hold this against them, but they're usually pretty rusty on the radio. Leaving the relatively professional environment of the approach frequency and switching to the CTAF for Kewanee I was greeted by a cacophony of static and interference squeals as everyone and their uncle tried to talk over each other.
In hindsight, had I waited until I was lower, I wouldn't have picked up so many airports, but still, some folks just don't know when to shut up. You've got the guy shooting touch and gos in the pattern somewhere that feels the need to use his entire five character call sign every time he keys the mike. You've got the gal who's flying into another airport and feels she has to unburden herself of every single intention she has at the destination in a single 15 second long transmission. And then, my personal favorite, the good ole boy at another airport who treats CTAF like a chat room and has to greet every familiar voice he hears on frequency. "Chet, that you? What's happenin'? We're just out enjoying the weather." Blah, blah, blah. Meanwhile I'm trying to fire off quick position reports in the middle of it all. Thankfully, I got through, but I had Laurie watching for traffic just in case the Chatty Kathys prevented me from talking to someone who needed to hear from us.
After we finished shopping we headed home about 5. The winds that dogged our progress on the way in were now on our tail. Level at 5,500 we saw a very satisfactory ground speed of 177. On the descent into Champaign I kept the power on and let the airspeed creep up. At one point we were seeing about 166 KTAS and a ground speed of 188. Yeah, it's cool. As the approach controller handed us off to tower, he told me to keep the speed up. As I found out later a Northwest turboprop wasn't far behind us. I held 140 indicated until about a 3 mile final and then started backing off. The arrival was further expedited by opting to land flaps up.I needed the practice and we had the runway to play with. Plus, it's fun.
Our route crossed the Illinois River just NE of Peoria. We could see big chunks of ice in the water. There was quite a bit of snow left in this area as well. It made it tough to spot the airfield as we neared it. All the usual terrain distinctions that sometimes define airport boundaries were covered. It wasn't until we got within about 4 miles that I was able to pick the runways out of the white.
Before I go on, a word or two about radio etiquette. One of the drawbacks to flying on a beautiful day after a bout of bad weather is all the fair weather pilots who don't do a lot of flying during the winter take to the skies. And I don't hold this against them, but they're usually pretty rusty on the radio. Leaving the relatively professional environment of the approach frequency and switching to the CTAF for Kewanee I was greeted by a cacophony of static and interference squeals as everyone and their uncle tried to talk over each other.
In hindsight, had I waited until I was lower, I wouldn't have picked up so many airports, but still, some folks just don't know when to shut up. You've got the guy shooting touch and gos in the pattern somewhere that feels the need to use his entire five character call sign every time he keys the mike. You've got the gal who's flying into another airport and feels she has to unburden herself of every single intention she has at the destination in a single 15 second long transmission. And then, my personal favorite, the good ole boy at another airport who treats CTAF like a chat room and has to greet every familiar voice he hears on frequency. "Chet, that you? What's happenin'? We're just out enjoying the weather." Blah, blah, blah. Meanwhile I'm trying to fire off quick position reports in the middle of it all. Thankfully, I got through, but I had Laurie watching for traffic just in case the Chatty Kathys prevented me from talking to someone who needed to hear from us.
After we finished shopping we headed home about 5. The winds that dogged our progress on the way in were now on our tail. Level at 5,500 we saw a very satisfactory ground speed of 177. On the descent into Champaign I kept the power on and let the airspeed creep up. At one point we were seeing about 166 KTAS and a ground speed of 188. Yeah, it's cool. As the approach controller handed us off to tower, he told me to keep the speed up. As I found out later a Northwest turboprop wasn't far behind us. I held 140 indicated until about a 3 mile final and then started backing off. The arrival was further expedited by opting to land flaps up.I needed the practice and we had the runway to play with. Plus, it's fun.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
KCMI to KTYQ to KCMI - 1.2
This trip was a maintenance run to Indy Exec. I had a really small weather window to get it done. The day prior had been crappy and the forecast for the afternoon and next day was not good either. The goal was to get over and back before lunch so I wouldn't have to miss a whole day of work.
The temp at the time I fired up was in the mid 30's. Skies were clear over CMI, but METARs were indicating 1,700 ft. overcast at TYQ. This was in line with the area forecast which said the overcast layer wasn't supposed to be any thicker than a couple thousand feet. If there was any ice I wouldn't be in it long. And if the overcast layer looked any thicker (or wetter) when I got over Indy, it would be a quick 30 minutes back to CMI. I had an escape plan. If there's anything I've learned in my relatively adolescent flying career, anytime you fly in conditions where ice may be a possibility, make sure you have a way out.
It was only 7:30 or so as I taxied out but already things were hopping. Most of the Institute students were taking advantage of the same weather window I was to get some practice in. I had to wait out a few touch and goes before tower cleared me for takeoff. Once again I found myself pleasantly surprised by how eagerly Eight Delta Fox climbed to altitude. I really need to fly more in winter. It certainly makes me much happier with 200 hp than I usually am in mid-July.
It wasn't long after departure turned me on course that I began to encounter the thin overcast mentioned in the METARs. It began a little east of Danville and got progressively denser the further east I flew. Still, at just 5,000 ft, I was well above the tops so I wasn't too worried. Adding to my encouragement were the METARs I was seeing on XM weather that indicated the ceiling wasn't any lower than 1,700 and visibilities were still above 6 miles. As I came into the Indy area the cloud layer was fairly solid, but I was catching glimpses of ground now and then. Things looked good for a fairly easy ILS into TYQ. And sure enough, that's what Indy Approach told me to expect.
Since this was going to be my first ILS in actual conditions in quite a while, and I was flying solo, I opted to let George do the flying so I could concentrate on working with Approach. I was cleared to descend to 3000 which put me right into the top of the clouds. Zipping in and out of the cloud tops never gets old. It's the only time you really feel like you're doing 150 mph.
The closer I got to the final approach fix, the thicker the clouds got. There was still plenty of light inside so I didn't get too worried about a ton of ice accumulation. Prior to descending into the clouds I'd taken as many precautions as I could. I turned on the pitot heat, cranked the window defrost and pulled on the alternate air induction. Alt air induction is what you use if you think the normal induction is getting iced up. This usually manifests itself as a decrease in power or engine roughness. Roughness isn't as pucker inducing at altitude when you have a few thousand feet to sort things out. Engine roughness at just a couple thousand feet AGL, however, is a great way to get the adrenaline flowing. Hence I chose the preventative measure of using alt air before things deteriorated to that point.
As George rolled onto the localizer I was looking intently at the wings and windshield for indications of ice accumulation. The windshield was clear but I couldn't really tell if anything was happening to the wings or not. The white backdrop of the clouds against my white wings made it tough to detect any trace amounts. If I was going to be able to visually spot ice, I figured it would have to be pretty substantial before I could pick it out. To me, the wings looked clean and I wasn't noticing any handling problems or having to use any extra power. Right before I crossed the outer marker, Approach asked me to report the altitude I broke out. About 4 miles out I broke into the clear at 2,200.
I called Approach and reported the ceiling before canceling IFR and switching to advisory. After landing and shutting down, I hopped out and ran my hand along the leading edges of the wings and prop. There was about a 1/32 in thick layer of rime ice but nothing to write home about. Well, I am blogging about it I suppose.
As usual, Brian and the guys at Montgomery Aviation took great care of me and I was back in the air in about an hour or so. The flight home was pretty uneventful and the overcast that greeted me on arrival had become a scattered layer. About the only "trouble" was a slight headwind. But even with that I managed to get back home by noon.
The temp at the time I fired up was in the mid 30's. Skies were clear over CMI, but METARs were indicating 1,700 ft. overcast at TYQ. This was in line with the area forecast which said the overcast layer wasn't supposed to be any thicker than a couple thousand feet. If there was any ice I wouldn't be in it long. And if the overcast layer looked any thicker (or wetter) when I got over Indy, it would be a quick 30 minutes back to CMI. I had an escape plan. If there's anything I've learned in my relatively adolescent flying career, anytime you fly in conditions where ice may be a possibility, make sure you have a way out.
It was only 7:30 or so as I taxied out but already things were hopping. Most of the Institute students were taking advantage of the same weather window I was to get some practice in. I had to wait out a few touch and goes before tower cleared me for takeoff. Once again I found myself pleasantly surprised by how eagerly Eight Delta Fox climbed to altitude. I really need to fly more in winter. It certainly makes me much happier with 200 hp than I usually am in mid-July.
It wasn't long after departure turned me on course that I began to encounter the thin overcast mentioned in the METARs. It began a little east of Danville and got progressively denser the further east I flew. Still, at just 5,000 ft, I was well above the tops so I wasn't too worried. Adding to my encouragement were the METARs I was seeing on XM weather that indicated the ceiling wasn't any lower than 1,700 and visibilities were still above 6 miles. As I came into the Indy area the cloud layer was fairly solid, but I was catching glimpses of ground now and then. Things looked good for a fairly easy ILS into TYQ. And sure enough, that's what Indy Approach told me to expect.
Since this was going to be my first ILS in actual conditions in quite a while, and I was flying solo, I opted to let George do the flying so I could concentrate on working with Approach. I was cleared to descend to 3000 which put me right into the top of the clouds. Zipping in and out of the cloud tops never gets old. It's the only time you really feel like you're doing 150 mph.
The closer I got to the final approach fix, the thicker the clouds got. There was still plenty of light inside so I didn't get too worried about a ton of ice accumulation. Prior to descending into the clouds I'd taken as many precautions as I could. I turned on the pitot heat, cranked the window defrost and pulled on the alternate air induction. Alt air induction is what you use if you think the normal induction is getting iced up. This usually manifests itself as a decrease in power or engine roughness. Roughness isn't as pucker inducing at altitude when you have a few thousand feet to sort things out. Engine roughness at just a couple thousand feet AGL, however, is a great way to get the adrenaline flowing. Hence I chose the preventative measure of using alt air before things deteriorated to that point.
As George rolled onto the localizer I was looking intently at the wings and windshield for indications of ice accumulation. The windshield was clear but I couldn't really tell if anything was happening to the wings or not. The white backdrop of the clouds against my white wings made it tough to detect any trace amounts. If I was going to be able to visually spot ice, I figured it would have to be pretty substantial before I could pick it out. To me, the wings looked clean and I wasn't noticing any handling problems or having to use any extra power. Right before I crossed the outer marker, Approach asked me to report the altitude I broke out. About 4 miles out I broke into the clear at 2,200.
I called Approach and reported the ceiling before canceling IFR and switching to advisory. After landing and shutting down, I hopped out and ran my hand along the leading edges of the wings and prop. There was about a 1/32 in thick layer of rime ice but nothing to write home about. Well, I am blogging about it I suppose.
As usual, Brian and the guys at Montgomery Aviation took great care of me and I was back in the air in about an hour or so. The flight home was pretty uneventful and the overcast that greeted me on arrival had become a scattered layer. About the only "trouble" was a slight headwind. But even with that I managed to get back home by noon.
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