Kath and I had driven to the airport together and we loaded the plane (for the upteenth time). We said good-bye and she prepared to head to the international airport for her Northwest flight to Detroit. She watched me depart from runway 08, cleared IFR to Brunswick, Georgia via radar vectors, Melbourne VOR, Victor 3, Brunswick VOR, direct. I climbed through a scattered layer of cumulus and was on top at 6000.
DKX on the ramp in Ft. Lauderdale...or is it Provo...or maybe Brunswick... After a while the airports all look the same, but what a great looking airplane!!
Groundspeed was about 110 knots which made me quite happy. After all the headwinds we had been facing, anything in the triple digits was a good thing. The forecast for Florida was good--basically scattered to broken cloud all the way up the peninsula.
However, there was a large low in the New York area with a cold front draping in a curve all the way back to Gulf of Mexico. The front was forecast to move eastward through the area throughout the day. Scattered rainshowers were in the forecast for early afternoon and a couple of stations to the east had a 30% chance of thunderstorms.
I have learned that while thunderstorms may not be forecasted, the strong sun in the afternoon, coupled with the frontal lifting can often kick off some boomers. Flying into one can ruin your whole day.
By the time I was approaching Jacksonville, I could see the build-ups ahead. That had to be the cold front. Brunswick was still reporting broken cloud at 3500 and no precip so with only 25 miles or so to go, I felt pretty good about getting in without any issues. I would then check out the weather on the ground based radar and make a plan from there.
Things worked out as planned and the weather was ok when I landed at SSI. During the descent I flew through some very bumpy clouds with lots of moisture running up the windshield. The sky had a very congested look with cumulus build-ups all around. Once on the ground, there were numerous sunny breaks between the clouds, but the atmosphere had that warm, sultry feel that often preceeds a storm.
A quick look at the radar showed several large thunderstorm cells to the west that were moving towards the airport. Clearly, my decision to land and wait things out was a good one. There was no need to hurry, so I borrowed a crew car and drove to St. Symons Island for lunch.
Brunswick, Georgia is right on the coast and is lovely area. It is becoming popular with the upscale crowd as a vacation destination (viz., several biz jets on the ramp when I landed). There are lots of large homes on the golf courses and the beach is very nice. It's like Florida in some ways but not as commercial or quite as tropical. Things feel a bit more "stately". It's definately the south though, with lots of plantation style homes and large trees with spanish moss hanging from them.
I stopped for a burger at Dairy Queen and read a local newspaper. Then it was back to the airport for some flight planning. By the time I got back to the field, the CB's had passed north of the field and were moving out over the ocean. The radar showed a couple of light rainshowers to the west but nothing significant.
The buildups were a concern though in terms of which altitude to file for. I knew that at 8000 I would be right in the clouds and that would mean a bumpy, possibly wet ride which did not appeal to me, particularly as I would be hand flying the airplane. I decided to file for 4000 which would put me below the most of the bases. I things improved, then I could request higher.
Winds were forecast to be out of the west at 30 knots all the way up to 9000, so I would have a slight headwind at any altitude. There are a number of MOA's (Military Operating Areas) to the south west of Savanna as well as some Restricted Areas. Rather than trying to thread the needle VFR around these, it is far easier to go IFR and let ATC worry about what area was hot and what was not. So I filed direct to SAV and then direct Hickory, NC.
The plan worked out quite well. I flew visually around some rain showers (with the controllers ok) as I flew north towards Savanna. Once Jacksonville Centre handed me off to Savanna Approach they wanted me at 5000 to stay above the SAV Class C airspace. No problem as the bases were slowing going highter the further north I got. By the time I was handed off to Columbia Approach the clouds had pretty much scattered out.
It seems that everytime I fly over South and/or North Carolina in the afternoon, it's always bumpy--very bumpy. The turbulence was moderate with the occassional slam that bordered on severe, but nothing that I had not experienced before. I was really glad that Kath was not with me as she would have had a hard time.
I don't really mind all the banging around but it's kind of tough on the airplane, particularly the aileron control system. You're almost lock to lock at times on the yoke trying to keep the wings reasonably level. I'm sure the cables get stretched a bit as a result.
As the afternoon wore on, the turbulence abated a bit and after almost 3 hours of flying, it was time to start down into Hickory. I've overnighted here several times in the past as it's just before the mountains. There is a Quality Inn a short distance from the field that offers good rates and a hot breakfast.
Once on the ground, I checked the forecast for the morning and had a bit of a start. Rainshowers were forecast for all of Ohio and West Virginia with IFR ceilings and mountain obscuration all along the Appalatians. A trough had developed in the lee of the cold front which would affect the weather on Saturday morning.
Fortunately it was forecast to move out of the area later in the day and the outlook for Saturday night and Sunday was good. I thought briefly about continuing northbound in order to get over the mountains in the current good weather, but I was awfully tired and figured that I could easily tackle them IFR in the morning.
That turned out to be a lousy decision, but in the end everything turned out ok. So we'll see you tomorrow when we tackle the mountains!!
No comments:
Post a Comment