A Travel Nightmare

 

When we headed out on Monday, the prognosis was for bad weather Friday.  At the time I thought it was a bit overblown but all week the pesky front sat across the country and made a mess.  Thursday evening the NBC News lead story was “Travel Nightmare”.  I had been planning and gaming scenarios since Tuesday but Thursday night I made some concrete plans.  I was not happy with all of them as they involved significant detours.

Friday morning, looking at the line of storms it appeared there might be a soft spot down the middle but it was hard to tell.  I started looking and while the rain and low ceilings were widespread, there was not much severe weather.  Things change fast so I was not ready to commit fully to a plan.  I decided our first leg would be 270 miles South.  This would provide a stop with good VFR and about 50 miles from where the weather began.  As a bonus the gas was well priced and there was a positive review from just a few days earlier.

We departed under glorious skies and it was hard to believe we were going to have to battle with the weather.  The headwinds were lighter than expected and stayed under 10 knots.  Other than a high overcast it was picture perfect.  Delaware County Regional airport in Indiana has a control tower but not much traffic.  The gas is located at the base of the tower and other than the machine not taking my first credit card, the fueling went well.  It was a loud but fast pump.  

The facilities were spartan, it looked like they were an old passenger terminal from the 60s.  Spartan was fine as they were clean.  Once the fueling was done I took a hard look at the weather.  I preferred to head down and East of Atlanta but the storms and low ceilings made that a no go.  Option two was straight South, which put us West of Atlanta to LaGrange, Georgia.  This would provide a VFR arrival with a low chance of storms till later in the day.

When we were holding waiting for release, the tower told us we would have a bit of a delay due to Indy not being able to take us with the surrounding traffic.  I asked if they would let us depart VFR as it was still nice out.  The tower checked and sent us on our way.  This is a lot easier when the weather is good and the controllers allow it, not a bad strategy.  We departed, headed on course and climbed to 9,000’.  I checked in and he said he would get back to us.  A minute or so later, he cleared us and we were in the system.  Often by climbing you can get above the other traffic and the controller can then work you in without them having to work your climb.

Level at 9,000’ we headed for the dark skies.  I fired up the radar, set it to 60 miles and put it on my MFD display.  On the GPS I had the XM weather.  The XM was a lot more pessimistic.  As we entered the weather the radar showed the areas of light and heavier precipitation.  Overall we had either light rain or just wet cloud.   We needed very few deviations which was good and the ride was mostly smooth.

As we headed South I kept looking at how the storms were changing.  Most of the rain was in Indiana and Northern Kentucky but a secondary line had spawned  that ran from North of Knoxville, TN towards Huntsville, AL.  We were going to have to cross that line next.  I had also been watching the weather behind the storms.  It had started out IFR but had improved a lot.  While technically we could stop pretty much anywhere as most places were above minimums, I like to cheat and pick places with better weather.  It’s no fun fueling in the rain and better weather makes departures easier too.

About 20 miles before Tennessee it became clear that if we headed South East, we could exit the weather and be done with the system.  One of the stops I had planned was also reporting good VFR so I updated our destination to RZR, Cleveland, TN.  After a few deviations we cleared the line of weather and broke out to a broken undercast.  Based upon the reported weather we should have just been able to do a VFR arrival but it looked iffy so I requested the RNAV 21.

We got Direct to the initial fix and cleared for a straight in.  This added little distance and made finding the runway easy.  It was a good choice, weather over the field was much better than around the field and while it was an easy approach, it just made the entire process seamless.  The gas pump was not the easiest to use.  The hose and support stuff were in a metal enclosure that was cumbersome but we were soon topped off.

The local facilities were very nice and I studied the weather again.  It was a straight shot home.  After filing, we headed back to the plane, fired up and taxied to the runway.  After our normal checks, I called Chattanooga Approach for our clearance.  Compared to the old days of going through flight service or even farther back using a landline and then rushing out to make your clearance void time, sitting at the runway and chatting through the bluetooth headset makes it easy.  We were given our clearance and release.

After a final look for traffic, we departed.  We were given runway heading and climb to 3,000’.  I waited to check in until we were clear of the pattern and I was confident we would have good reception.  We checked in and were given 9,000'.  I knew that it would be a bit before we got a turn on course as there are mountains in the area.  Direct on course would have taken us over a 4,100’ pile of rock.  Once we cleared the granite, we were given on course and handed to Atlanta.

Our route took us very near Atlanta's arrivals.  The controller gave us a minor re-route which I expected.  Atlanta is also unlike Charlotte, they move you a bit, not a hundred miles.  Leveling at 9,000’  we were sitting pretty, other than wicked bad headwinds, it was an easy two hours home.  I should say it should have been easy.  As we were leveling off, I could see rain and storms forming along our route and basically all over the South East.

I fired up the radar again  and started asking for some deviations.  If you are IFR you are expected to fly in the clouds.  We had just spent over an hour solid but these were different.  We rode through some of the shorter ones and they were a bad ride.  The controllers were very accommodating and we did minor deviations for most of the flight.  Looking back at our track it looks like I can’t fly straight.  On the other hand we did avoid all the areas of moderate to extreme precipitation.

Arriving home the weather was good but the controller still gave us the RNAV 14.  Before we even joined the approach, I had the airport in sight and said I could take the visual.  She asked that we fly the approach which was fine.  I hand flew the approach and noticed I was a bit sloppy.  In the clouds the previous approach had been flown with everything centered, this one I was a quarter to half dot off at times.  I think looking out the window degrades your instrument performance.  

Regardless, we found the runway, made a nice touchdown and soon had the plane away.  Round Trip was 10.5 air hours.  Total was 1,824 nm so we averaged 173 knots.  The way up was 181 knots and the way back was 167 knots.  Overall a good performance.

Gonna Miss the Cool Breeze

Our last day in Michigan started with a hike.  We headed back to sleeping Bear Dunes to complete the pyramid point hike.  It is only 1.2 miles round trip but the elevation change makes you work.  It ends at an overlook with a big warning sign.  After climbing the Dune Tuesday, I was quite sure that it would take me more than 2 hours to climb back up if I was dumb enough to head down.

We didn’t do anything dumb and after taking in the views we hiked back to the car.  Since we are preseasons, using the park is a breeze, we have not had any issues with traffic or parking. This was not by accident, I am a big fan of avoiding crowds.  The trail is much better when it is just us and the forest. We did occasionally see other people but everyone was chill.

After the hike we stopped by Glen Arbor to walk the seashore, look at the boat ramp and see our friends the midge flies again.  We also stopped by the local grocery for a snack.  On the drive out I saw more post offices.  Yes I had not totally forgotten.  It does not seem fair, Michigan has 802 while Florida has 652, this means they have 8 offices per 100,000 people and we have 2.8.  I just doesn’t seem fair.

We had one more Sleeping Bear Dunes hike left.  The Sleeping Bear Point Trail looks easy at only .3 miles but it is up a sand dune and then down.  We took our final pictures of the lake, did some selfies and shivered a bit.  It had warmed to near 50 so we left the jackets in the car.  What was a good decision in the parking lot looked less wise standing in the breeze by the lake.

We had been in Traverse City for 4 days now and had not really seen the city.  We headed back to see the local botanic gardens.  We have seen many and this one is probably not worth the stop.  It had some nice plants and a big black cow but overall it is cut up and small.  

We did take a side hike to the Hippie Tree. The tree is not itself a Hippie, but it has been graffitied.  So it has been co-opted by the Hippies.  The hike is through the urban forest and not too difficult.  After completing our stroll through the garden we headed downtown.

Main Street, or as they call it, Front Street is nice but nothing spectacular.  It is a mix of standard downtown and tourist places like Kilwins.  It was a great day for a walk and the Cherry trees were in bloom.  There was also another small movie theatre which had quite the limited schedule.  They do have multiplexes at the edge of town but this had more charm.

We had one more stop for the day.  We had seen an ice cream place on the way to the hotel.  Barton’s has been selling ice cream since the 1950s.  They also smoke BBQ.  The local brand of ice cream is Moomers, made in Traverse City.  It was our moral responsibility to give it a try.  We both had the black cherry and it was quite good.

We also grabbed some BBQ for later and then headed back to the hotel to relax.  I was still trying to decide the best route home.  I knew departure and arrival was going to be fine, it was the middle that was gonna make me work.  That front was still running across the country and it was unclear where the convective weather would be and what areas would be low IFR.

I did a lot of planning and studying route options and in the end knew I would not make a decision until the morning.  Even though I could not make a final call, I did map out a lot of options.  There was nothing to do but get a good nights rest and then point the plane in a safe direction.

Halfway to the North Pole

The skies had cleared a bit on Tuesday but we still had some clouds.  Wednesday we awoke to frigid but clear skies.  It had gone from the 70s to the low 40s. We donned our winter coats, though we were warm and happy, many of the locals made comments, I think they were amused by us Floridians who thought this was winter.

Our plan was to tour the Leelanau Peninsula and the Old Mission Peninsula, both just North of Traverse City.  First stop was Leland or as the locals call it, Fishtown.  It’s a fishing village or it was, it’s now a tourist spot that sells the olde time look.  It has some quaint shanties, they look very nautical but my sense is the look is for the tourists.  It has a locally famous fish smoker.  We stopped by but at 10:00 AM smoked fish did not seem like what I wanted to snack on.  Like the other towns it’s cute but small.  I am not sure how these little towns survive on a few shops.  

Our time in town was productive.  We saw the fishing boats, the dam, the town bridge, a local painter and bought some chocolate covered cherries.  They were locally grown so we had to buy them.  The midge flies were out today but while they were annoying they were not as thick as the last trip.  

The next stop was just a few miles down the road, the Clay Cliffs Nature Area.  It is a short hike through the forest that leads to an overlook of the lake.  Before embarking on the hike we put on our boots.  This was a great decision.  While the trail was well marked, it had several areas of mud.  

A few thoughts on the lake.  When looking out over the waters, it’s hard to think of it as a lake, it’s so vast.  That said, the smell tells you that you aren’t at the ocean.  The ocean or even a sea has a distinctive salty smell and feel.   The lake on the other hand smells like a glass of water, while the visual is impressive, you feel like you’re missing something.  The overlook is good and we enjoyed the hike.

Leelanau State Park was the next destination.  It’s home to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse.  The park is on the Northern tip of the peninsula and back in the day it was likely important for mariners to avoid the land. These days it’s a tourist attraction.  While the lakes are really big, the lighthouses are not.  

This one is barely 4 stories and with the elevation it has over the lake, it is visible for only 14 to 16 miles.  I guess that is enough on the lake.  We took a stroll down by the lake, took a bunch of pictures and ogled the ice cream at the gift shop.  In the end I passed on the ice cream but it did look really good.  It was a local brand so I felt a certain responsibility to give it a try.  Don't worry, I eventually fot the ice cream.

We headed South from the park, it was really the only choice as I was not up for a swim.  Northport was next.  We strolled  downtown and bought some snacks, again there is not much to Northport.  One thing I noticed is each of these towns have their own post office, I don’t get it, at home it’s like one location per 100,000 people.  They have one for 505 people.

While the post office thing had me steamed, I was soon distracted by our next stop, the 45th parallel.  Yes, that imaginary line cuts right through the peninsula. There is a tiny park near it, rear a pull out, and a sign a few hundred feet down the road purportedly on the line.  Crossing this line means you are closer to the North Pole than the equator. We pulled over and I pulled out the GPS.  

My iPhone’s GPS said we were not exactly on the line. GPS is typically good within a few feet so it was confusing why it showed almost a 100’ error. We pondered this for a bit but like the post office I was soon distracted by our next stop, Sutton Bay, our third small town today.

Sutton Bay has a cool store selling a plethora of art, yard art and much more. We adopted a cool metal flower covered flamingo to commemorate the trip.  She will likely live on our porch.  We also walked downtown, like Frankfort they had a tiny theatre.  We also bought some fudge just to check the local quality vs. our past experience at Mackinack and Whitefish Point.  Post tasting verdict was meh.  Good fudge but third place in the Michigan Fudge wars.

Our final stop was the North tip of Mission point peninsula to see the lighthouse.  Along our drive we had been seeing the famed cherry orchards.  Unlike the first two days with cloudy skies, today the orchards looked much brighter and maybe the extra days had moved us to peak bloom.  They were pretty but a bit disappointing.  We have fond memories of viewing the cherry blossoms in Japan. Hana Mi, or flower watching is an important part of the culture.

These Michigan trees are all small.  It’s on purpose though, the dwarf varieties produce more fruit per acre and are easier and safer to harvest.  They are beautiful but they lack a certain wow factor.  Regardless, we made appropriate comments as each orchard came into view.  Maybe we are just spoiled.

This peninsula is shorter than the Leelanau and we soon reached the park.  I was hoping we would cross the 45th again but the peninsula came up short by about 3,000’ feet.  This peninsula also had a lighthouse and it too was diminutive.  Short or not, we still were going to take a look.  We took a walk on the beach, took some selfies and noted that the flies were getting thicker.  Walking back to the car we saw that the spiders were feasting tonight.  

Sightseeing was going well and it was time to start planning our return.  The Friday weather had looked terrible all week and while I was getting closer to formulating our plan, it looked like this everlasting front from Texas to Pennsylvania was not going anywhere and we would need to find a way through.  I started making a list of various routes and stops and pretty much determined that the final plan would likely not finalize until Friday morning.

Big Piles of Sand

 

The weather Tuesday was supposed to be rainy all day.  Luckily the forecasts have been really off.  Yesterday this was not a positive feature but today we were happy that they were wrong.  We awoke to the last of the showers pushing through.  We headed South to Inspiration Point, just South of Arcadia, MI.  The name would imply a romantic setting and possibly with the right weather it might have been so.

As we worked our way South and West the skies went from dark to blue and dark again.  It was supposed to be warm today but Michigan warm is not Florida warm and luckily we had brought our jackets.  When we arrived, the rain had stopped but the clouds still lingered.  The Vista like views were quite truncated but it still was charming.  Charming but cold and windy, it was blowing 20 knots off the lake and was a chilly 56.

They have a nice observation platform by the parking lot and stairs leading up to an upper platform.  I imagine the views are stunning on a clear day but we only had the partial view which was still nice.  Our next stop was Frankfort.  We visited the local arts center, basically an art gallery with traveling exhibits.  For a town of 1,300 people, it was an impressive facility.  After culturing ourselves we headed to the lake shore.  

Frankfort is best known for the Frankfort North Pier Lighthouse, pictured above.  We parked by the beach and walked out along a long jetty into Lake Michigan.  The wind was blowing and in places the waves were breaking onto the jetty but at least the skies had begun to clear.   After our jetty trek we walked downtown Frankfort.  The town is quaint and it is likely packed during the season.  Our trip is pre-season and many businesses were not yet open.  

I had planned to stop for some fudge but being pre-season, the fudge store was not opening for another 30 minutes.  On the positive side, parking was easy.  Thwarted in my quest for fudge, we headed North to Empire, home of the Robert H. Manning Memorial Lighthouse.  The light is still in use but as lighthouses go it was a bit lacking in stature.  The views from the beach were nice though, we stayed just a few minutes and then stopped by the park visitor center before heading into the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.

We started with the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive.  It had some descent overlooks and dunes to scale.  We still had the stiff breeze with the accompanying blowing sand but it was a good view.  After the loop we stopped by the main dune climb. It is a long way up and after the climb to the first summit, you then need to trek a few miles to get a lake view.  We did the big climb but passed on the arduous march.  

700 miles of blue skies and 200 miles of rain

 

It all started so easy.  We were flying to Traverse City, Michigan.  It is 885 miles and with the forecast tail winds would only be 4.6 hours in the air.  In theory the flight can be done easily with one stop but for a variety of reasons which will soon become obvious, I planned two.

According to the forecast the weather was good and as long as we arrived before 3 PM we should have VFR weather the entire trip.  We fired up right on plan at 08:30 and were quickly airborne. Our first stop was Pickens, SC.   This first stop was mostly about comfort as the ideal middle point did not have any value fuel stops and this let us take the majority of our gas at stop 2 where they had a great deal on gas.

As planned the arrival was good VFR.  Entering downwind, there was a plane landing ahead of us.  I asked if he was heading to self-serve and he was as well.  I asked if he could pull up enough so we both could fuel and he did a great job for us.  While he fueled, we freshened up and by the time we returned he was done and had moved the hose to my plane.  We thanked him and he headed out while we fueled.

My second stop was strategic.  Yes there was really cheap fuel in Northern Indiana, but I also had a sense that the Traverse city arrival might not be great VFR.  Stopping an hour short meant we would have hours of reserve and would be fresher having just taken a break. 

The weather still looked good as we departed Pickens and headed towards the mountains.  With the strong wings from the Southeast, I was concerned with turbulence but we climbed to 8,000’ in smooth air.  We had a bit of light turbulence over the mountains but overall a smooth ride and no waves.

I had one other concern, Cincinnati. We would be just outside the class B as we passed to the East.  Our experience around Charlotte is that they like to re-route you.  As we approached, I kept waiting to get re-routed but somehow they let us go on our merry way.  As we sailed by, I noticed that our route was overflying a lot of states for such a simple trip.  We crossed ten, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

Clear of airspace my focus was back on the weather.  The forecast said we should be able to slide into Traverse City ahead of the bad weather.  As we departed Georgia there were severe storms over Missouri and Iowa.  There was light rain over Illinois.  It looked like we could easily stay ahead of the storms.  On the way to fuel at Angola, Indiana we watched a line of severe storms organize and begin to sweep East towards our stop.  We were well ahead of this weather and we landed in clear skies.

While our fuel stop was good, by the time we approached Angola, the light rain had organized over lake Michigan, intensified and began heading toward Traverse city.   After a quick refuel, we had full tanks and took a look at the radar.  It looked iffy.  The storms that had looked like they would slide North were sliding towards Traverse City.  I thought about staying in Angola but I had severe storms bearing down on us from the East and I figured it would be better to head further North and see what happened.

Watching the datalink radar during our departure showed that the storms had arrived and we were not going direct into Traverse City. I had a plan B though,  Cadillac, Mi.  It was VFR, just 30 miles South of our goal and the first line of storms had slid North.  We updated our destination with ATC and with a solid out, we studied the storms some more.  The ADS B/XM feed was pretty useless other than to show the line of severe precipitation.

Everything else was a blob of green, yellow and red with no apparent safe route.  We started down for Cadillac and were cleared to 4,000'.  This was the MVA for Cadillac to Traverse City. I wanted to be lower but this is the best they could do.  The onboard radar works best inside of 60 milesso once we were 30 miles from Cadillac I could paint the entire route to Traverse City. There were some strong cells running North to South that started East of the field and they had a tail that headed West for a few miles.

I updated ATC that we wanted to attempt Traverse and gave them our plan.  ATC confirmed their radar matched ours and cleared us back to our original destination.   About 10 miles South of Cadillac we made a hard turn West  to get around the storms at the South end of the line.  We were in and out of the bases and the ride was surprisingly good with only light turbulence though CC swears it was bumpy.  The XM was still mostly useless as the storms were moving fast and the data was too old to be of value but the onboard radar was doing a great job. 

Once on the back side of the line the radar showed mostly green with a bit of yellow and spots of red.  The controllers were very accommodating and we made minor deviations to avoid the precipitation.  Though we spent a good amount of time in the clouds, we had almost no precipitation and the rain we did encounter was just a bit of water streaming along the windshield.

After getting behind the line and avoiding the areas of heavier precipitation, the final for runway 10 looked clear.  We were behind an airliner on his second attempt.  He had tried to land through the severe precip and had gone around.  

We were turned direct  BEAAR and were cleared for the 10 approach straight in.  I had studied the approaches before departure and briefed the plate before we worked our way around the weather so it was pretty easy.   We joined at BEAAR and and broke out just past the FAF.  The runway was wet and we had a really smooth touchdown.  We rolled a bit as I wanted to be careful on the slick surface.

While it had been dry all the way in, once we landed the rain started as we pulled into parking.  The FBO brought the car to the plane and we loaded up.  We had bouts of light rain for the next two hours and then the rain stopped for a bit, it was time to sightsee. We drove into the city and I use that term loosely to see Clinch Park.  The park sits on the North edge of downtown on the lake.  It had stopped raining but it was pretty foggy.  We went for a nice walk and watched the fog start to lift.  There were some midge flies out but not too bad.  We did find some areas with swarms that we avoided.

We ended up at Don’s Drive in, a classic local place for classic burgers, dogs and fried food.  While less than healthy it was a tasty treat.

Overall it was an interesting flight.  When we started, I pretty much thought we would be diverting.  I did in fact divert to Cadillac but as the weather unfolded we diverted again to Traverse City.  Onboard radar made the difference.  I had considered getting below the clouds, cancelling and working my way in VFR.   

The controller had told me the MVA was 4,000’ for much of the area.  The VFR chart shows an MEF of 2,700’. This only gives you 100’ of clearance over the obstacles.  There are a bunch of tall towers out there and even with our excellent terrain awareness, I did not want to be scud running and caught between a storm and a tower.

Since VFR was not an option and datalink is not fast enough to use for avoidance, without being able to visually avoid the bad stuff, I would not have ventured through the area without the radar.