This was it! The final day of the Excellent Adventure. I was a short 400 nm from Chatham and was looking forward to the final push home in a big way.
I woke up quite early and checked the weather. Things were pretty much the same as the forecast from the previous night. Shouldn't be a problem, I thought. However, as I was poking around the ADDS website I had a look at the winds aloft. This information is actually a graphical display which showed the same winds as yesterday, however I had the temperatures turned off. I clicked on the temperature box and just about freaked out! The freezing level was 5000 feet over the mountains!! The MEA (minimum enroute altitude) along my proposed route of flight was 7000!!
Since it was the end of April, I had not been concerned about the freezing level at the altitudes I would be flying. However, the cold front that I had flown through had obviously lowered the temperatures aloft big time. With clouds forecast over the mountains, I would be flying in visible moisture. And visible moisture at temperatures below freezing means...ICE!! Lots of ICE!! And yes, when I checked the AIRMET's they were warning of moderate ice from 5000 up to 12000 throughout the area. I was, apparently, stuck in North Carolina... Stay tuned...more to come
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Thus ends the narrative from that flight in April, 2007. And now, looking back, I can't for the life of me remember how I got home!!
I must have gone VFR under the clouds, which I have done before. The mountains are not very high and it's possible to fly at 4500 ft ASL and miss all the peaks. Although you need good visibility to do so.
Like many trip documentary efforts, once I got home I got busy and never finished the final installment.
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