Confessions of an IFR Newbie... Lessons, Laughs and Landings

[mooneygirl]

Today was a great day for me. Long post. Feel free to drink heavily as you read, or eat sugar cookies. It started off as a Pilots and Paws rescue flight for a one-eyed cat named Gio. Since I was headed up to the Bay Area, I thought I would contact my 96 year old pen pal/friend William Mason [Army Air Corps Flight Instructor at Rankin Field with my Dad, and brother to uber famous Sammy Mason] who flew out of Petaluma to see if we could meet up for a burger at the 29er Diner.

I did all my flight planning with Foreflight, Skyvector, and the NOAA site for weather... severe clear except for smoke in vicinity of departure airport, Santa Maria, CA. I filed the flight plan online and got an email that it was received by flight service [she thinks "What a rock star I am for using all this wonderful technology"] When I left the house this morning it looked like dusk instead of dawn due to the smoke. I could see that San Luis Obispo was clear, so I thought, at most, I would be in the smoke [IFR] for a few minutes.

Opening the hangar door I could see a fine layer of ash all over my Kennon cover. As I loaded up the plane I looked out and saw the tiniest of tiny suns trying to burn through the smoke. I got my taxi clearance and asked tower for my IFR clearance to Petaluma. The next bit of news was not so happy "6619U I have no IFR flight plan for you in the system." Drat! I mentioned that I had even gotten an email confirmation. Hmmm. I let the lovely tower folks [really they are, no sarcasm there] know when I was done taxiing I would figure it out. Figure it out I did. Guess who filed the plan for a WEEK from today? Me, yup me. Duh. Luckily I had the routing, so no worries, got it put into the system.

Now on the the obstacle departure procedure and up to the Bay Area. The smoke was maybe 1000 above ground level... maybe. I was in the smoke, I mean in the smoke. Could not see anything, nothing. "Okay sister, this is what you are trained for, instrument scan, track the course, you can do this. Probably won't be but a minute or two." Yeah---no. Just under thirty minutes later I come out of the smoke right over the Paso Robles airport. I knew that my tracking was not the best while in the smoke. I was disappointed that I sort of got flustered. I was able to just regain my composure and soldier on. Hecky darn, that was stressful.

I flew up the coast and the day was spectacular. ATC was super helpful and I was able to navigate well with my lowly 2-VORs, DME, Garmin 396 and Ipad mini. I asked for the Bay Tour [as did about a hundred others] and was grinning ear to ear flying over the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the bay. I headed off to Petaluma and landed safely.

The next few hours were spent with Bill and his daughter. We got to catch up, talk about aviation and some of his glory days. Bill owned a Stearman for many many years.

When it was time to leave I made sure to check the date and time on my flight plan and hit "File"--- voila it went through. I did get vectored in a way from ATC that reminded me of an old high school cheer "lean to the left, lean to the right, stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight" On the way home I was at 9000, and got a beautiful and enduring view of the sunset off my right side. I knew that the smoke would be formidable on the approach into the Central Coast. I descended down from 9000 to 8000, then down to 5000. Under the smoke it was black as night. I requested a precision approach from ATC. I thought it best to fly the ILS approach I had practiced many times that took me right to runway 12. Between the black of night, and the ash build up on the windscreen, and the general haziness from the smoke, the approach was challenging. My needles were centered DEAD-ON the whole time. I did have a little bit of an optical illusion just above the aim point. It was hard for me to tell how high I was above the runway to begin the flare. I should have maybe looked out the left window, but I didn't. Landing was rock star-- which is so wonderful. All in all I had an hour of actual. I am grateful to have had wonderful instructors,and of course have the best airplane in the world. Merry Christmas everyone. I am snug as a bug, under my heated blanket with Mooney at my feet. Life is good.

[Sean S]

Great story, thanks for sharing. Volunteering with our time machines is a great thing to do! I look forward to finishing my IFR rating in 2018!

[yvesg]

Thanks for sharing this with us Jolie. Merry Christmas to both of you, formation partners.

Olaf.

[Browncbr1]

Great story.   Last year, we had several wild fires around here which made for SVFR/IFR conditions for several weeks.   It wasn’t nearly as bad as you described, but I remember how aweful it was to breath between 2 and about 5 thousand.   

[mooneygirl]

4 hours ago, yvesg said:

Thanks for sharing this with us Jolie. Merry Christmas to both of you, formation partners.

Olaf.

Merry Christmas to you too. I am looking forward to Yuma formation clinic and OSH18. 

[LANCECASPER]

Since the ash was that heavy it might be good to check your engine's air filter.

[carusoam]

Jolie, you are spectacular!

Nice writing and photos.

Thanks for sharing.

Best regards,

-a-

[thinwing]

Perfect use for The IR....Smoke is so challenging because many times it has no discernible boundary or layer...just lousy visibility and frequently you have to be in the high teens to get to clear air.Weather flying ,can be so much easier cause it layered and you pop up above or below for great Visabilty.Check the air filter...the thermal lifting causes lots of ash and fine particulate silicon ...try to a tops report so you plan to fly above it in order to save wear and tear on the engine.Great writeup thanks!

[Bartman]

Excellent story, write up and pictures to boot and happy to see you chose IFR. Last November when Gatlinburg TN was on fire I flew into the area VFR with FF and did not have a good experience. Controller assured me it was VFR, it was far from it.  Since then it is now a personal rule to go IFR when there is smoke. 

Love the pics

[jaylw314]

Nice narrative, thank you.  How bad was the smell of smoke flying through IMC for half an hour??  This summer we had fires up here in Oregon, and even though the smoke was not bad enough to cause IMC, I could barely keep my eyes open for the burning smell.

We did get the Mooneygirl apparel, thank you!  Merry Christmas!

[mooneygirl]

12 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

Since the ash was that heavy it might be good to check your engine's air filter.

Yes, I am going to check filter and pitot. Thank you!

[mooneygirl]

48 minutes ago, jaylw314 said:

Nice narrative, thank you.  How bad was the smell of smoke flying through IMC for half an hour??  This summer we had fires up here in Oregon, and even though the smoke was not bad enough to cause IMC, I could barely keep my eyes open for the burning smell.

We did get the Mooneygirl apparel, thank you!  Merry Christmas!

The smell was not too bad. I had the vents closed, and my ram air door closed too until well passed the smoke. Glad you liked the Mooney Girl apparel!

[mooneygirl]

On 12/11/2017 at 3:30 AM, yvesg said:

Thanks for sharing this with us Jolie. Merry Christmas to both of you, formation partners.

Olaf.

Here is a little compilation video of 2017 and my 130 hours of flight.  Merry Christmas everyone. 

 

[DonMuncy]

Very nice Jolie!

[82Mike]

Wow pretty nice view.  No snow, but it is pretty here also

[cbarry]

Thanks for sharing!  Very nice production!