Thanksgiving IFR challenges

[chrisk]

Usually IFR is easy, maybe just punching through a layer.  My Thanksgiving trip was different. A 1.5 hour flight to Galveston, all in the soup with a head wind.  When I get to Galveston, I now have a 90 degree cross wind at about 35 knots, which makes quite a bit of crab.  Fortunately, I broke out early and the winds dropped to a 12 knot and gusting cross wind (at 90 degrees of course).  The landing was fine, a little fast and partial flaps.  On the way  back,  the cloud deck started at 800 feet and was solid for another 1.3 hours.   About 30 minutes out, I get the weather, "Juliet", and ceiling are 1200.  15 minutes out I check again, and "Kilo" now tells me the ceilings are 800.    Then the controller asks if I have "Lima".  I check again, and the ceiling are now 300, which is the approach minimum.   And the controller has been telling everyone for a neighboring airport that there is a 40 kt tail wind that switches about 1700 feet to the opposite direction.  Great, a tail wind approach, down to minimums.  It all worked out fine with a steep descent, shallowing it out as the tail wind subsided.   I ended up getting the runway lights right about the time I was getting ready to go missed.   --Glad I made it back, since today was even worse, as I think the ceiling was closer to 100 feet and visibility closer to 1 mile. 

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving flying has been good.

[Hank]

And that mess is coming east. That's why I drove 5 hours, to.not mess with it departing a small mountain field on Sunday . . . .

[mooneygirl]

Wow that is some story. Thank goodness you have a great airplane and some good instrument experience.  The only thing that I have that comes close was trying to get in to Appleton this year, before OSH19, right, I mean right before that huge storm.  Bumped the snot out of me, broke out at minimums.  So happy we have such stable airplanes for IFR.

[carusoam]

Great pirep Chris,

Thanks for sharing the details...

Best regards,

-a-

[donkaye, MCFI]

I had planned on going to Ramona near San Diego for Thanksgiving dinner with Family.  Weather in California had been great all Fall---up until Tuesday evening when all hell broke loose.  Usually there is a way around it, but not this time.  This was a very cold storm and I don't have TKS.  Additionally, when I checked the weather in the LA area there was a Convective Sigmet calling for imbedded Thunderstorms.  My Brother confirmed them over Lindberg Field.

To make the best of it at such a late time, we went to Safeway and bought a couple of chicken TV dinners (no turkey dinners available), and had our chicken TV Thanksgiving dinner while it rained outside.  Later, my Sister, who is an expert on Zoom, called us all together and we at least got a chance to see and talk to each other via computer screens.  The plane was nice and comfortable inside its hangar and everyone was not stressed out worrying about our flying in such conditions, as was I.

[N201MKTurbo]

2 hours ago, donkaye said:

I had planned on going to Ramona near San Diego for Thanksgiving dinner with Family.  Weather in California had been great all Fall---up until Tuesday evening when all hell broke loose.  Usually there is a way around it, but not this time.  This was a very cold storm and I don't have TKS.  Additionally, when I checked the weather in the LA area there was a Convective Sigmet calling for imbedded Thunderstorms.  My Brother confirmed them over Lindberg Field.

To make the best of it at such a late time, we went to Safeway and bought a couple of chicken TV dinners (no turkey dinners available), and had our chicken TV Thanksgiving dinner while it rained outside.  Later, my Sister, who is an expert on Zoom, called us all together and we at least got a chance to see and talk to each other via computer screens.  The plane was nice and comfortable inside its hangar and everyone was not stressed out worrying about our flying in such conditions, as was I.

I was planning to fly from Phoenix to Burbank on Thursday. I just couldn’t make it work. Too much ice, turbulence etc.so we drove.

It was the first time I drove through a snow storm in SoCal!

[gsxrpilot]

We landed Friday about noon in Denver. It was severe clear down to about 700 ft AGL. Landing was 200 OVC fog, and 500 RVR with a 10 knots tail on touchdown. Unfortunately I couldn't log it. Some guy in a United uniform was though.

We have a plan to fly the Mooney from Denver to Austin this coming Friday, weather permitting.

[eman1200]

Flew round trip IFR from Charlotte to west palm beach for thanksgiving, not a cloud in the sky in either direction. But of course I had head winds both ways. 40kts on the way back.

[Skates97]

11 hours ago, donkaye said:

I had planned on going to Ramona near San Diego for Thanksgiving dinner with Family.  Weather in California had been great all Fall---up until Tuesday evening when all hell broke loose.  Usually there is a way around it, but not this time.  This was a very cold storm and I don't have TKS.  Additionally, when I checked the weather in the LA area there was a Convective Sigmet calling for imbedded Thunderstorms.  My Brother confirmed them over Lindberg Field.

To make the best of it at such a late time, we went to Safeway and bought a couple of chicken TV dinners (no turkey dinners available), and had our chicken TV Thanksgiving dinner while it rained outside.  Later, my Sister, who is an expert on Zoom, called us all together and we at least got a chance to see and talk to each other via computer screens.  The plane was nice and comfortable inside its hangar and everyone was not stressed out worrying about our flying in such conditions, as was I.

 

8 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I was planning to fly from Phoenix to Burbank on Thursday. I just couldn’t make it work. Too much ice, turbulence etc.so we drove.

It was the first time I drove through a snow storm in SoCal!

I made the decision Wednesday to scrub our Thursday flight from SoCal to St George. Instead we left at 4:30am to drive there instead Thanksgiving morning. Weather was a mess until we got to Victorville and then it was beautiful until just before Mesquite and heading up the Gorge. St George was a mess all day Thursday and still when we left at noon to drive back Friday. 

Trip home took about two hours longer than it should have, lots of snow on the ground in the high desert (roads were clear) but a one hour delay between Victorville and the bottom of the pass. I-15 had been closed Thanksgiving evening because of the snow storm and reopened Friday. 

Wednesday when I told my boss I was driving his wife jokingly said "Why are you driving? I heard a rumor you were a pilot and had a plane." I told her "Have you seen the weather forecast? Rumor has it I want to still be alive and flying after Thanksgiving." She said "Good point."