Spring Break Means Airplanes

Our children are too old for Spring Break but I still have a nephew that celebrates the occasion.  We wanted to get together over his break but the weather early this week in a word sucked.  It was windy, cloudy and rainy.  Friday promised better weather, so we made plans to meet in Macon.

My brother would be driving down and we would fly up.  We had the better deal, he had a 1:45 drive while we had a 1:05 flight.  That said, we left the house at the same time he did.  I had checked the plane out Thursday and added oil so when I preflighted today, everything was ready to go.  The weather at home was better than forecast with clouds at 4,000' though we avoided them.  

The flight up was easy, basically take off, turn 90 degrees left and then go straight.  Macon has two runways but 5/23 was closed so we were using 14/32.  The wind was variable at 3 and the ATIS was calling for 14 but Atlanta approach gave us the visual to 32.  This has you overfly Warner Robins Air Force Base as the runway ends are only about 2 miles apart.  I was happy with 32 as the FBO is at the end of 14.

The FBO is in the process of being rebuilt so it currently is in the airline terminal.  Arriving we cleared the runway and had a very short taxi to a spot right up front by the door and right next to the TSA restricted area.  The linemen make sure you don't cross the red line. So why Macon? There is a cool Airforce Museum next to Warner Robins.  

The FBO gets high marks, it's called Highnote.  We were marshalled right up front.  They had me fueled right away, they had a nice candy dish and when I went in to pay I got a bonus.  I was paying for our gas and the Customer Service Rep helping us had been folding T shirts.  I mentioned they were cool, they were FBO logo with an F-16 Fighting Falcon on the back professing support for our Airforce.  She mentioned they had a spelling error though; and I could have one if I liked.

Of course I got a cool free shirt (don't count what I just spent on gas).  The funny thing is that when we were in Pensacola at the Navy museum, we bought some stuff at the store and while checking out we also got free shirts because an order had come in with a spelling error.  The funny thing, no one has ever noticed that error.  I tested a few people on the new shirt having them read the misspelled text and none caught it.  So not only was the shirt free, wearing it has a special sense of satisfaction given how bad a speller I am.

My Brother showed up on time. It was a bit funny being picked up at the commercial terminal, though it's not much of a terminal, more on that later.  We went from the airport to lunch to build strength to go look at airplanes.  My nephew talked me into Cook Out which was OK but did not live up to his review of its greatness.

After being fed it was time to visit the museum.  It is next to Warner Robins and free to visit and free to park.  It was not too busy which was nice.  The Museum has four display buildings and a bunch of outside displays of larger aircraft.  If you have been to the one in Ohio, this one is much, much smaller.  It does have a pretty big collection as aviation museums go and given the cost, well worth the stop.

Some of my favorites outside were the C124 Globemaster that CC's Dad had crewed on, a Constellation that had been converted to an electronics plane and a C54 Skymaster which my Dad had flown.  Inside they had a good mix of aircraft.  In the WW2 section they had a B-29, C-47 and C-46.  They had modern planes like the F-15 and Vietnam era favorites like the F-4 and F-105.  Too many to mention but we walked around for a few hours until my brother was tuckered out.  My nephew seemed to have residual energy.

They then dropped us aback at Macon and headed home.  It is really a cute airport.  It's like a mini airport with one baggage carousel and one TSA line.  The FBO was right next to TSA so we got to walk through the FBO and the line staff let us back out to the plane.  Only the red line kept us out of the secure area, that and the likely consequences of crossing the line.

After another preflight, we fired up, and got our clearance.  Macon is not busy and when we were instructed to taxi down to 32, I asked if we could get a 14 departure instead.  The wind was 140@3 and 14 was right there while 32 would be over a mile taxi,  and we would depart the wrong way with a tailwind.  I must of asked nice enough as ground who was also tower said sure.

By the time we moved a few feet the engines were warm, it had really heated up from the morning.  Run Up was good and soon we were cleared to depart on course and up to 3,000'.  The other fun thing about 14 is that we got to go over Warner Robins on the way out which was a cool view.  We checked in with departure and had an unrestricted climb to 9,000'.  Of course, we had a small headwind on the way up and on the way back but with only 180 miles to go, it was not a big deal.

It was mostly clear on the way back but we did pop through a few clouds and cloud surfed for a bit.  Descending for home there was high overcast so we were solid for a few minutes working our way down.  The light winds in Macon were gone and replaced by 12-21 mostly down the runway.  Had a very satisfying landing and soon had the plane away.   

Annual 2026 is Done

Last Thursday the plane was ready for pickup.  It always takes longer than I like but right now there is a scarcity of maintenance professionals so if you want it done right, you have to wait a bit.  Of course the weather has been perfect the last few weeks but Thursday morning it was 200 and 1/4 mile visibility.  My plan to head down around 9 AM was replanned to a noon departure.

The wait was a good idea, the clouds lifted and it became a nice day.   Well mostly nice, there were some rain shower floating around but they were widely scattered and we left them alone and they did the same for us.

The plane was ready as advertised.  We did a thorough preflight and other than asking for them to adjust the right strut a bit higher while we were there, everything checked out.  The flight home was thankfully completely routine.  I even remembered how everthing worked.  When it came time to land, I had a very satisfying arrival.  I always think the lack of practice will make me perform worse but that does not seem to be the case.  I think I get hyper focussed and that makes me really think it through and generally get great results.

Yesterday I took the plane out again for the second post annual flight.  It is one more chance to look at everything and double check that there are no issues.  For example on the way home I did not test the de-ice boots but I did yesterday.  I was just heading out to fly local and I had studied the weather, no mention of rain.  

As I got airborne I noted some rain down South so I decided to test the radar and headed that way.  It was not tall weather and I really struggled to see any vertical development at 50 miles.  Since the weather was over the ocean, I could tilt the radar straight at the horizon.  As I was at 3500, this meant that over land I would be imaging the ground.  Since water does not reflect back the same it works.  You can clearly see below the water from the the coast.

There were two small storms that looked about the same on ADSB but one showed as barely any precip on radar while te other hid some small areas of heavy precip.  Again a warning to not rely too heavily on ADSB/XM to fly through something.  The ADSB position was also a bit off due to the time delay.

I did a vertical profile of the rain and it wa actually quite short.  Looking at the storm confirmed the radar and it was not realy a thunderstorm yet.  All that said, while it was likely flyable, I would have avoided the heavy areas.

And yes the boots worked just like they are supposed to. After a nice flight I tucked the plane back in the hangar.  I do have a list of post annual work like wiping off some exhaust stains under the wings and resealing the boots if anyone wants to drop by to help.

Go or No Go

 

I took the plane to annual this morning.  I had planned to go yesterday but the weather was less than perfect.  It actually wasn't that bad.  It varied between 1,500' and 800' overcast most of the day.  No ice in the clouds.  Winds were gusty but nothing out of the ordinary.  Approach minimums at my destination were 500' with good visibility below the clouds.  I decided No Go.

If I am being honest, if we were on a trip and this was the weather on our next leg, I would likely have had no issue.  Why did I say no?  It came down to a few factors.  The first was that the weather was flirting with possible lower ceilings.  The trip is only 80ish miles so going down and then coming back is not a big deal except that would create a problem.  I would have a car heading down to pick me. Hence, going home if the clouds got lower would not only waste my time, it would also waste my pick ups time.

I think the biggest thing that drove my decision was that there was a better option, go today.  I have been pondering the Go or No Go decision as of late while working on a safety program for next month where we will discuss flight planning and personal minimums.  This pondering has really brought up why this topic can be so difficult.  Many times there is a lot of gray in making our decisions.  We often discuss the decision as if it is an absolute one time decision.

Sometimes it is.  We had discussed running up to Atlanta Sunday to see family but by Sunday morning the answer was simple, NO.  There was significant large areas of convection and low ceilings.  Was not gonna happen.  That's an easy call.  On our trips I have been pleasantly surprised how often the weather has cooperated.  No, not the time we went to Santa Fe and got way too much rain but usually.  I do have a trick though, I cheat.

With our current forecasting technology we have been able to cancel trip days before it becomes an immediate decision.  We also have shifted our flights a day here and there.  Your weather picture looks a lot different if you expand from now to plus/minus 24 hours.

So was it worth the wait.  Heck yeah, the mechanic wasn't getting to my plane yesterday or today so it was an extra night in the hangar.  The weather was 4,000' overcast at both ends today but clear in the middle.  Overcast was technically correct but it wasn't much of an obstacle.  I filed for 6,000' and departing, I was given 3,000' and a right turn to 100 degrees.  Checking in I got 6,000' and 140 degrees. Passing 4,000' I was direct.  

That cloud deck was really thin and other than adjusting the visor to keep the sun out of my eyes, all was good.  Enroute it was actually clear for a while.  Daytona took me just West of DAB and I did dip through the layer again but it was also thin.  I picked up the airport 20 miles out and had a nice easy approach to runway 7 which ends at the Mechanic.

Plane is now waiting her turn to get inspected and I am planning my annual Donut event.  In the end I was very happy with my No Go or in this case really Go in 24 hours.

Now that's a Beacon

Annual is almost upon me.  This means no flying for a bit or at least not in my plane.  I have been getting around with 26.2 hours logged in 1.5 months.  As today the weather is going stinky bad, I took the opportunity for one last flight before I take the plane to the shop.  I did a night flight on superbowl Sunday and I decided to take another on Valentines Day.

We will soon change time and that means staying up late to fly in the dark.  I flew Tuesday and Friday in the sunshine and enjoyed the clear smooth skies but now was my chance to work on night skills.  I am all current on my take off and landing requirement so I spun up 30 minutes after sunset.  Driving to the airport the skies were looking really pretty with those evening colors.

By the time I was ready to start the airport beacon was really prominant.  The Beacon at home has been a long time running joke.  Since I can remember it was the least bright light in the area.  I always found the airport based on other lighting before ever seeing the beacon.  You could find it when you were inside of 2 miles if you knew where to look but often it was never seen.

A few months back they finally did some repairs and the beacon became usable and then it broke again.  Luckily it broke so badly they decided to replace it with an LED Beacon.  The new Beacon rocks.  Last week we saw it over 25 miles away.  Last night it was easy to pick up even when hidden in the sea of lights.

The flight itself was fun, I went North to Brunswick.  Jacksonville was nice enough to put me into the system so I got flight following for the entire flight.  It was nice as I had lots of traffic.  Turning around at SSI I had a jet depart bewlow me.  I widened out to give him room and got to see him zoom climb once he got his clearance.  One minute he was ahead and 1000' below and the next he was disappearing above me.

I was also state hopping.  Because of the funny borders I flew Florida-Georgia-Florida-Geogia-Florida.  Luckily you don't feel the border crossings at 3,000'.  

I flew West of JAX and had some airliners come around me.  I had kept my distance from JAX to avoid disrupting Ops and I was not in the way but it was cool to see the big planes slide by about 5 miles away.  I crossed over Cecil and Navy Jacksonville before heading in.  This let me make a nice descending turn to final for 32.  I stayed well away from the antennas and lined up for a smooth touchdown.

I am really liking the new hangars.  At night our ramp is well lit for to facilitate getting in and out but not to bright on the eyes.  My hangar lights dim for night ops but once the plane is back in are bright enough to work easily.

Five Year Anniversary

My computer pops up photos each day showing me what I was doing this day in the past.  Today it reminded me that I purchased my Baron exactly 5 years ago today.  Since then I have flown 854.3 Baron hours which averages out to about 172 hours a year.  I bought her 5 years ago but she immediatly went in for maintenace so I did not get to fly her until about 6 weeks later so I have a few more weeks to technically raise the average.

Moving to the Baron was one of my bigger aviation steps.  When I started, I was flying mostly fixed gear training aircraft and my first step up was to a Mooney.  The Mooney was "complex", adding retractable gear and a constant speed propellor.  200 HP seemed like a lot back then but eventually I stepped up to Bonanzas with 300 HP.  The Baron gave me 600 which is a real kick in the pants on a cold day with half gas.

The Baron sure made it easier to finish off our 48 State Quest.  We completed 27 states with the Baron, many of them were the farther and more challenging ones.  

When I bought the Baron, I wondered if I would fly less.  The reality is I am flying more.  The Baron actually fits many of my missions better.  I do miss the nimble F33A and for just flightseeing around town it is a more practical platform.  That said, the Baron does so many things so well, it seems impossible to go back but I know at some point I will have to.

So here is to five years of  adventures, learning, discovery and fun.  Happy Anniversary!!!!  

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

I needed to make a quick run down to Sanford today.  It's just 94 miles each way and it took 1.2 flight hours.  Not too bad as the departure turns you North and then East before heading you on course and the arrival was a visual with a 5 mile final.  I averaged 156 knots which is decent considering much of the flight is down low where I was not really using a lot of power.

So overall pretty efficient in the air but it took me 2.0 total engine hours which means there was a lot of waiting.  First it was cold so I had to let the engines warm.  Then there was a backup for departure at home.  The flight down was smooth and there was a large forest fire that made an impressive smoke cloud.

I was cleared to land 27R which is 11,000'.  I asked to land long as I was going to the West side but was told to land and clear by the crossing runway 18.  I did and was given a taxi down Bravo but hold at Lima.  I did but was wondering why, when I arrived I was alone out there.  After waiting over a minute it became clear.  There was an Allegiant jet that was landing 27R and they cleared at Lima so I was holding for them.  

I get that they have lots more people but if I had just been cleared to taxi, I would have been long gone.  This should have foretold the departure.  Heading out they have a really odd system.  The Bravo taxiway is wide and they allow two way traffic.  So I taxied out on Bravo right side.  This was after getting a clearance that was a bit much.  Sanford One departure, radar vectors, WORMS GUANO SHINR Direct.

So the Sanford One is basically runway heading to 2,000'.  They could just say fly runway heading, climb and maintain 2,000', expect 5,000' 10 minutes after but no, they want you to look this up and read their departure.  So before I could even do this I was in line behind a student.  The tower cleared them to go but they got all confused and by the time they figured stuff out, they lost their slot.  The tower was more cautious and thus another long wait to get out.

Good news was that once I was number one, the tower got me going.  And the departure, took off runway heading, as I was climbing, got right to 310 from the tower and then departure.  Departure sent me to 5,000' and quickly direct WORMS.  Only other glitch was that we were on the same path as several other planes and we were going 90 knots faster.  Daytona sent us up to 7,000 which was more headwind but at least we didn't have to cut our speed in half.

The arrival was easy, I was number three and sequenced behind a slow plane doing 56 knots.  At first I thought I had left too much room but in the end they took forever to get off the runway so the spacing was just about perfect.  It was a fun flight in cool but sunny weather.  Just wish I had a bit less waiting to fly.