Ames, IA November 29, 2008

Jay, glad that you made it safely and found a good stopping place.
Me too.

Just got home. We made it out about 9 this morning, and had no problems at all. The weather around here would even be flyable, plus or minus a stiff wind out of the north.
 
hmm, and the moment i post that, ted decides to turn around and come back to Ames. Guess Ill have to go out to the airport and pick him up.
 
hmm, and the moment i post that, ted decides to turn around and come back to Ames. Guess Ill have to go out to the airport and pick him up.
Do I get to say "told you so" ;) Glad he decided to turn around instead of pushing it more. That weather was nowhere near good enough...
 
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I hope he has some charts for fields inbetween. Wx is KSUX lots of crud at the southern Ohio / Indiana boarder. Looks like solid IMC all the way. Freezing level is around 3K and ceilings on his route are below the freezing level down as low as 1600.
 
mmm his altitude indicates VFR hopefully he just turned aournd cause of the crap in front of him and he's above the ceilings and not in it. Now flight aware says no position indicated and the track is at the same place it was 15 min ago.
 
his strategy was to climb above the layer. it seemed like the best bet to me. there are many holes in the overcast over this a way.
 
Man am I glad I didn't go with him. I'd be dead meat if I weren't home today.
 
Jesse and I just got home. Beautiful flight above a solid layer with a few holes around Omaha. Thanks for everything guys! We had fun.
 
Any word from Ted yet? It doesn't look pretty up there at all.

Glad to hear Tristan and Jesse are back now!

Also - did Kent and Pete get out yet?
 
Kent and Pete got up. We were talking to them enroute. Weather seemed okay from where they were at.
 
The weather before takeoff indiciated a 2000AGL ft overcast layer from Ames to Lincoln. I really had no interest in skud running for over a hour and a half at 1500 AGL.

The skew-t and PIREPs led me to believe that the layer at 1500 AGL was only about a thousand feet thick and negative ice. My plan was to takeoff VFR and head east to a hole in the clouds. I filed an IFR flight plan on fltplan.com and grabbed a weather briefing from Lockheed for 'protection' purposes.

The takeoff was a little interesting. The runway was slick (ice) and there was a slight cross-wind. The only way I could maintain the centerline was by sliding in a crab down the runway. After skating down the runway I was in the air at 1500 AGL heading east. I turned east and continued for about 30 seconds before deciding that hole wasn't that great anymore.

I called up Des Moines approach and asked them to get me information on the tops. At this point I was directly over the airport at 1500 AGL. I was planning on just landing if the tops were too high (didn't want to be an icecube). Controller stated tops were at 3000AGL. There were no airmets for icing so I picked up my IFR clearance and climbed through the clouds. No ice.

I heard Ted calling his takeoff at Ames so I informed him of the tops and negative ice. He picked up a popup clearance through the clouds and continued on his way.

It was 2000 OVC all the way home with a hole around Omaha which closed up and went back to overcast. We stayed on top and I descended into the clouds to get a little actual (less than a thousand feet thick with bases at 2000 AGL..pretty safe). After about 30 minutes in the clouds we were picking up a frost on the airplane so we dropped out the bottom and took a visual into Lincoln.

Great weekend, fun trip home, see you all next time.
 
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Thanks everybody. Lots of fun.

Tony, hope you'll enjoy the radio and congrats on your graduation!
 
Kent and Pete got up. We were talking to them enroute. Weather seemed okay from where they were at.

I saw Ted and Tony walking down the street about 45 mins ago. Ted was thinking of giving it another try tomorrow.

Great to see everyone again. Sorry I had to bail out early yesterday. Not all of us are on cruise control until graduation next month. ;)
 
Jesse -

Did I miss you getting the IR?
 
Well Kent and I made it back ok. WX in ames was broken at 2200' when we left. About 20 miles east the clouds cleared quite a bit, and we were able to climb above the broken/scattered layer to 5500'. It socked in again around DBQ, so we wen't below the 2500' ovc layer.

Here are some pics.

Cool pic coming home today. It was a lot lighter than that when I took it though.
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Just after leaving Ames
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Stop for CHEAP gas in Monroe KEFT

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Pete
 
Wow, Pete, great pictures!! And holy jeez, that's some cheap gas too.

I haven't bought AvGas in years...is that about the price nowadays?
 
Wow, Pete, great pictures!! And holy jeez, that's some cheap gas too.

I haven't bought AvGas in years...is that about the price nowadays?

Nick, that's a good price.

In my area, I could buy gas at Addison, for around $6.25 (yowie), or at Bridgeport (KXBP) for $2.60.

A good general expectation price these days is $3.75 - $4.25.
 
Man am I glad I didn't go with him. I'd be dead meat if I weren't home today.
Heck, we were stuck at the airport in Philly last night and thought of calling, but it was too late at night.
 
Me too.

Just got home. We made it out about 9 this morning, and had no problems at all. The weather around here would even be flyable, plus or minus a stiff wind out of the north.

Yeah, had you flown out, you would have been able to make it back today without issue, I think. Obviously I did not, more on that below.
 
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Do I get to say "told you so" ;) Glad he decided to turn around instead of pushing it more. That weather was nowhere near good enough...

Sure, only if I can borrow the P-Baron. Tony said he didn't realize it was me impersonating you last night, so I'm sure the insurance won't notice. ;)

I didn't really think I was going to make it home (although might not have emphasized that much, since there's always the hope). What I had hoped was that I was going to make it to, say, Jasper Indiana and stay at a friend's house. Chicago was obviously completely out of the question. I also figured that I had an easy out of a 180 back to Ames if necessary, which I figured was a possibility when I took off.

The runway was icy on takeoff, and good practice. To avoid being sideways down the runway on takeoff, I applied power slowly and gingerly, probably about 10 seconds from idle to full power. With 5700 ft or so of runway, it wasn't like I had to worry about running out. By doing it that way, I managed to take off in a straight line and smoothly. I'd gotten Jesse's PIREP, and went straight to a VFR on top clearance (first time I got that) and they let me pop right up. I then climbed up to 11,500, and started heading for Indiana.

That's when I started looking at the 496 more (thanks Missa). Since I had an easy out of making it back into Ames, I was comfortable continuing on. The barometer was dropping very quickly (like 0.5" every time I got handed off), and I saw the wall of weather that eventually caused me to turn around. Part of the deception was my track vs. my heading, due to the crosswind. Basically to get around it required due south, and looking at weather patterns on the 496 it looked like I was going to need to go to Mississippi if I wanted to avoid it. So, worse than I saw when I looked at it earlier. Also, the forecast for tomorrow looked better. So, once it got to the point where it became evident that the solid wall was actually worse than I thought from what I'd checked at the hotel, I decided to turn around and come back to Ames.

I ended up landing with about close to a direct 15 kt crosswind due to the more favorable runway being really slushed up. Good landing, plane and pilot back on the ground safely.

It really was a beautiful flight, and good learning experience. Fortunately, I don't have to be back at work until Wednesday, and I can take more vacation if needed. That said, nothing against Ames but I'd rather get home tomorrow if possible. :)

If you have to get stuck somewhere, getting stuck here with such excellent company is as good as you could hope for. I had a great time seeing everyone and meeting a bunch of people for the first time. In reality, I'm glad that I didn't leave yesterday because it was such a good time. That said, leaving today would've been nice. ;)
 
Well Kent and I made it back ok. WX in ames was broken at 2200' when we left. About 20 miles east the clouds cleared quite a bit, and we were able to climb above the broken/scattered layer to 5500'. It socked in again around DBQ, so we wen't below the 2500' ovc layer.

Yep. There was a hole above Ames when we left for the airport (I think that's the same one Jesse was going to climb through), but it was overcast when we took off. It thinned out pretty quickly and there was a hole big enough to climb through without deviating from course before we got to Marshalltown, and after we were on top in the beautiful, sunny, smooth (despite the airmet for moderate turbulence below 12,000) sky, it cleared up even further. There was one spot where we weren't within about 20 miles of a cloud. It eventually started getting a bit cloudy again, with streets of scattered clouds below, and finally started to look like the holes weren't going to stick around for long so I dropped through one about 10 miles west of Dubuque. We flew to Monroe (KEFT) for the cheap gas and the last short leg from Monroe to Madison both at 2500 MSL.

We did see a nice glory when there were clouds in the right spot. :)

Wow, Pete, great pictures!! And holy jeez, that's some cheap gas too.

I haven't bought AvGas in years...is that about the price nowadays?

No. That's the cheapest in the state right now I think. We're paying $4.29 at the home drome. I'd consider anything under $3.75 to be a pretty good deal.
 
Ugh, Tony's map for lunch reminded me of the memories (or lack of them) at Hayward and Hunt! Did you guys go to Battles BBQ?
 
no, we went to dublin bay for supper on saturday and hickory park for lunch sunday. ted and i had lunch at stomping grounds (aka the hippie place) today.

Ugh, Tony's map for lunch reminded me of the memories (or lack of them) at Hayward and Hunt! Did you guys go to Battles BBQ?
 
Also, Felix found a new friend:

(snipped picture of the stuffed ape)

Felix -- know anything about this?

AP said:
APPLETON, Wis. - Appleton police say area residents should be on the lookout for a gorilla head.

Police say someone took the head off a 6-foot mechanical gorilla mannequin that was located in the parking lot of Balloon Magic. It disappeared between 10 a.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. Friday.

Balloon Magic is offering a $1,000 reward for the head's return and information leading to the conviction of the thief. The head's value is estimated at $1,500.

The story has made it all the way to the Chicago Tribune.
 
(snipped picture of the stuffed ape)

Felix -- know anything about this?

The story has made it all the way to the Chicago Tribune.
Well you know, there isn't much to do in Ames. No cows around for cow-tipping, so.... :D
 
well ted's at the airport (again). probably will be an hour at least before he departs, needs to preheat the mooney and melt a fair layer of frost off the airframe.
 
That would have not been too bad an idea... ;)

You know, if I knew what your airport identifier was, I might have done it! :)

I had a nice rest of day and evening with Tony and Leah, and things are looking better today, so I should at least get somewhere, hopefully home.

There always has to be one person with problems returning home, statistically it makes sense for the person who came the furthest (by GA, anyway, Felix cheated ;)).
 
Fly Safe Ted.
Looks better today and you'll have a decent tailwind.
 
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