The squeeze was on, the front was coming faster than expected and Tropical Storm Philippe was heading to Maine. It was time to get going while the going was good. Just one hitch. There was fog forecast in New Hampshire for the morning so we planned a 10:30 departure to let it burn off. All forecasts said it would be clear by our arrival time. Again the forecasters need to do a bit better....
I had awoken to 100 overcast at our destination but I had confidence that things would improve. Our departure from Niagara Falls was easy. The FBO had forgotten to fuel us but they got that fixed pretty quickly and we were soon heading East with a good tailwind. Ground speeds were between 205-210 knots. Remember this tailwind, fondly, because it was the only one we had in 14 plus hours of flying.
We also picked up our fifth great lake, or as most people say, all of the great lakes. We actually flew over Lake Ontario, I reached out but touching was just out of reach. We can say the plane has seen all of them which is good enough.
Our first stop would be Rutland Vermont to pick up the state, we would do the sightseeing later from New Hampshire. Rutland is challenging as it is in a narrow valley and we would be approaching perpendicular over higher terrain. I don’t use the terrain feature much in Florida but it comes in very handy in the mountains. It confirmed my planning and what I was seeing. VFR it’s an interesting approach, I had already decided that I would not mess with it IFR as it does not leave much room in the event of an engine out.
Rutland was clear when we arrived. When we departed Niagara the clouds at Laconia had lifted to 500. The approach to Laconia only gets you down to 433 feet so this looked like we would be fine as it was supposed to continue improving. As we descended to Rutland, Laconia went to 300 feet. Laconia is only about 60 miles past Rutland so this created a dilemma, keep going or wait. I decided to go. We had plenty of gas and there was an alternate gas stop halfway that did not report weather but based upon our observations was likely clear.
After landing at Rutland, we looked at the weather one more time and texted our friend. She sent us a picture from the airport showing the clouds breaking up to the West so that confirmed our decision. We headed first towards the alternate just to check it out. Once we confirmed it was good VFR, we picked up our IFR clearance and were given the RNAV 08 straight in.
I had studied the plate the night before, re briefed it before Rutland and was set for the approach and a possible a missed. We were cleared to the initial fix and got everything ready for an approach to minimums or worse. We could see the low clouds hanging on the mountains and I did one last brief discussing how we would miss. I also alerted the controller as to the reported weather and made sure she was expecting us to fly the published procedure. Just as we turned final, 14 miles out, I spotted the runway.
The clouds were dense on the East side of the runway but the West side was much better. We followed the glide slope and did not go through a cloud. While the field was 300 OVC, technically speaking, It was really VFR at the 08 threshold and IFR at the other end. I always like to prepare but I was happy to get an easy approach and meet up with our friend as opposed to flying a missed approach to our alternate.
One other factor helped reduce the stress. We had about 4.5 hours of fuel starting the approach so I had no worry on range or alternates. After landing we waited our turn to cancel on the remote radio outlet. Once we had closed our flight plan we parked and met our friend.
Changing the travel day worked out great. The weather was stunning and after a quick snack we went out boating on Lake Winnipesaukee. It was a great afternoon for a ride and unlike Niagara it was cool on the water.
We closed out the day with Lobsters, fresh corn and the fixings. We still had to deal with the impending rain but it was forecast to move through before our departure.
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