Today's flight for 2018

[Marauder]

Flew a mid-atlantic triangle yesterday - brother in law needed to check in on base, so flew ILM to PHF.  Then headed to LYH to be fedex/santa claus.  Then back to ILM.  Good day of flying in perfect weather with a -2000 ft density altitude.  The engine likes.
 
 

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[bradp]

Getting my flying in this week.  

Warm front ahead of a cold front and unseasonably warm / wet / tropical system.   What the weather guys refer to as “unsettled weather”.  I needed some approaches to log and the plane needed a wash. 

Lots of rain bands.  Some thunder off the coast.   Convective wind shear with at least 45- 50kts at 2000ft.  Good times. 

I figured out how to get audio so recorded my last approach on the iPhone.  

This wasn't exactly gentleman’s IFR - it was hard flying with a lot of bumps and wind shear in the mixing layer.  Above the mixing bowl it smoothed out nicely.  It was not dangerous but was challenging. It was dynamic with rain bands moving in reducing visibility and then clearing out.  

There was a twin Cessna flying from TN to ILM that kept going missed.  First time he couldn’t get his GPS setup properly for the RNAV to 17.  Then he went missed a second time on the ILS to 24 ahead of me. Then he goes temporarily lost coms for a min (my pulse rate went up and all I could think was this guy is a NTSB report). Then he comes back up, but his transponders falls off and approach asks him if everything is ok.  He says yes asks for the RNAV to 24. Approach offers him a vector 40 nm to Cumberland county which is reporting VFR weather.  My half hearted comment about the twin Cessna no harm no foul to go VFR was just me expressing my concern that this guy was having a bad day and sometimes the best plan of action is plan B - cut your losses and re-evaluate.  

-B

 

[bonal]

Such a beautiful day we decided to take our pup for another flight today just a short hop over to VCB really like it when I can pull power to 2400/20 inches and see a ground speed of 185 at 5500 altitude. Course we had to pay for it on the trip home but was in no hurry so an easy 2400/20 which gave us a GS of only 120 but what the heck the flying was nice and not in any hurry to be on the ground for anything. Our pup Magneto seems to be getting more comfortable in the plane he has only been up a few times.

only one more day to fly in 2018, see you on the flip side. Thank you to all that posted and visited this thread.

[Yooper Rocketman]

17 hours ago, bonal said:

Such a beautiful day we decided to take our pup for another flight today just a short hop over to VCB really like it when I can pull power to 2400/20 inches and see a ground speed of 185 at 5500 altitude. Course we had to pay for it on the trip home but was in no hurry so an easy 2400/20 which gave us a GS of only 120 but what the heck the flying was nice and not in any hurry to be on the ground for anything. Our pup Magneto seems to be getting more comfortable in the plane he has only been up a few times.

only one more day to fly in 2018, see you on the flip side. Thank you to all that posted and visited this thread.

Thank you!!! For creating this thread every year. It’s been my favorite thread on this forum!!!  Keep it going!

Tom

[Jerry 5TJ]

Last Flight of 2018

 Albuquerque to St Louis today.  On home to Baltimore tomorrow.  

Good tailwinds today.  Smooth air above the widespread stratus clouds  

Lots of ice down there over Kansas.  

[jonhop]

A picture from my last flight for 2018... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

[HRM]

16 hours ago, jonhop said:

 

A picture from my last flight for 2018... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Now THERE's a cover for MAPAlog if I ever saw one.

[KLRDMD]

5 minutes ago, HRM said:

Now THERE's a cover for MAPAlog if I ever saw one.

The only problem is, all of the cover shots need to be in portrait mode and we pretty much always use landscape for our photos.

[HRM]

3 hours ago, KLRDMD said:

The only problem is, all of the cover shots need to be in portrait mode and we pretty much always use landscape for our photos.

Just a thought...I was struck by the magnificence of that image. That includes the upturned wings, ethereal.

[carusoam]

For 2019 flights...

Please visit our other thread....

Over here....>   

-a-

[gsxrpilot]

Whoops.... thanks for the heads up. Quick delete and repost in the right place.

[Yooper Rocketman]

I said I would snap some pictures but got a bit distracted and wasn't sure I would even make it home from Florida yesterday.  Spent the first 3 hours in the morning with my lower stomach saying you're not going anywhere farther than 50' from a toilet.  Finally cleared up my system and we departed around 10:15.  I had been looking at a non-stop from Spruce Creek to Iron Mountain several days in advance, but a combination of increasing head winds and the need to file an alternate put me 7 gallons short of legal IFR reserves, which with the prop-jet is tight anyway.  So.......I picked the best TAF across the route, Fort Wayne IN, which was looking like 2500-4500 ceilings.  I should have known someone blew that forecast, as every other TAF in the area was reporting what I ended up with there, 700'-800' ceilings.

I picked Smith Field, opposed to KFWA, as the fuel pricing was $2 a gallon cheaper.  The runways were a little short, 2900' and 3100' for my Lancair, but I've done 2800' once with no problem (beta and reverse helps a lot!).  I ended up doing the LNAV non-precision approach, with missed just below 600' and a 700' ceiling.  The A/P flew it perfectly.  I made the first turn-off.  FWA Approach asked me to cancel when I broke out, to which I questioned how could I do that, the field was IFR being under 1,000 ceiling?  Apparently they would just prefer we "don't talk about" what the actual ceiling is.  When I called Flight Service, like 4 times, after landing, the phone lines were down.  In a panic, I ran into the FBO and got KFWA Tower's phone number and called to cancel, and used the same number to get my clearance going out a few minutes later.  

All in, it took under 4.5 flight hours to fly home with headwinds the whole way and never saw the ground the whole trip.

Tom

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N994PT/history/20190102/1415Z/7FL6/KSMD

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N994PT/history/20190102/1730Z/KSMD/KIMT