Clouds lower than expected, Delta in front, now what?

GreatLakesFlying

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Leo
Last week I flew with a friend who's a helicopter pilot, from 06C to 05C for lunch. There is a very good Mexican restaurant (Mi Tierra) at 05C and it's a short flight from the home airport. The route is quite scenic, just south of Chicago's skyline.

05C doesn't have an AWOS station, so after lunch, I checked the METAR from KGYY, about 5 NM north of 05C. At the time it was showing SCT040, and winds from the west. I planned to clear the pattern in a left climbing turn to 3200, fly over KGYY's Delta that ends at 3100, contact Chicago Approach for flight following, track the shore, then turn west from downtown Chicago and follow I-290 to the home airport (or, as known locally, the "Eisenhower Transition").

In the climb-out and as we were heading into KGYY's Delta, we encountered clouds at 3300. So I reduced power and entered a left descending turn to 2500 to avoid busting the Delta space in front of me. Then I contacted KGYY for a transition through their airspace to stay clear of the clouds. At the time of that maneuver, there was only one other aircraft practicing in the pattern at 05C and we were separated, vertically, by about 1000 ft. No other traffic was present on 05C's CTAF. KGYY approved our transition and we continued our flight to 06C.

My question to the forum is basically simple: how would you have handled the unexpected encounter with the clouds, less than 1.5 NM away from the lateral limits of a Delta airspace? Did I place too much faith at the METAR showing SCT040?

With less than 1.5 NM from the Delta, I did not have time to call the tower and establish 2-way communications. The best way to buy myself some time was the descending left turn: it kept me away from the Delta, it brought me 500' below the clouds, and it bought me time to contact the tower. I felt safe circling close to 05C because the traffic I was aware off, was 1000 below, in a left pattern. Should I have gone around the Delta space instead circling outside it waiting for approval to transition it?

The images below show the situation I describe. Your feedback will be appreciated.

05C departure - detail.jpg 05C departure.jpg
 
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Yeah, METARs have a way of not giving you the complete picture on clouds. General rule is if you inadvertently fly into clouds, turn around and regroup. Sometimes you'll find yourself scraping the bottom of the clouds, in which descending to remain VFR is acceptable. In the grand scheme of things, flying VFR into a cloud is worse than busting class D in VMC, so get out of the cloud first.

Otherwise, it sounds like you what you did was fine.
 
I think you handled it fine as well. Cloud levels given by AWOS or ATIS can be inaccurate, so you have to be prepared for something other than what's reported.

Keep in mind that 1.5 miles is probably 40 seconds, and I think you'll find that's plenty of time to establish 2-way comms if you need to.

About the only thing I think you could have done to be more prepared would be to have Gary's frequency dialed up and on standby since you were headed that way.
 
Keep in mind that 1.5 miles is probably 40 seconds, and I think you'll find that's plenty of time to establish 2-way comms if you need to.
Yeah, you don't even have to say much. Just blurt out "Tower Cessna 12345” and when they reply with "Cessna 12345, Gary tower, say request" you can enter.
 
About the only thing I think you could have done to be more prepared would be to have Gary's frequency dialed up and on standby since you were headed that way.

I had it written on my kneeboard, together with Gary's ATIS, but I had not tuned in on standby because I was planning to just fly over their airspace.

As I was typing my OP, I kept asking myself: why did I go through the Delta? I could have just flown around it. That way I would not have to circle too close to my departure airport. My guess is that by the time we were leaving 05C, I had this mental commitment of flying over KGYY and if I can't then through it. I did not consider going around it as an option. Maybe because I love tracking the shoreline and I did not want to fly away from it so early.
 
Yeah, you don't even have to say much. Just blurt out "Tower Cessna 12345” and when they reply with "Cessna 12345, Gary tower, say request" you can enter.

For sure. But this was my first encounter with a cloud, and I think those 40 seconds that separated me and the Delta felt more like 15 :)
 
You did fine.

Another option might have been to begin your descent and path around the delta while calling the tower. If they responded quickly you could have turned back to the transition, but if not you would have already been on the path around.
 
Two way communication is required for Charlie airspace. It’s not required for Delta (though I think it’s always a good idea!).

You did fine. And you’re asking the right questions about doing even better.
 
Two way communication is required for Charlie airspace. It’s not required for Delta (though I think it’s always a good idea!).

That is incorrect. You need 2 way communication in a Delta too.

If I were the OP I would have just planned a route to go around the Delta at a lower altitude instead of over the top. No communication required and there should have been plenty of room.
 
Yes you did the cautious thing. But as ascicer and jsstevens said you could have announced yourself quickly enough (if you were already monitoring their freq).
 
That is incorrect. You need 2 way communication in a Delta too.

If I were the OP I would have just planned a route to go around the Delta at a lower altitude instead of over the top. No communication required and there should have been plenty of room.

I stand corrected. I was misremembering something unique about C. You do indeed need established communications in Delta.
 
I stand corrected. I was misremembering something unique about C. You do indeed need established communications in Delta.

You need a mode C transponder in Charlie that you don’t in Delta. I’m guessing that’s what you’re thinking of. :)
 
That is incorrect. You need 2 way communication in a Delta too.

If I were the OP I would have just planned a route to go around the Delta at a lower altitude instead of over the top. No communication required and there should have been plenty of room.

This was my question as well. Why not scooch around the west side of the delta? I don’t like taking off right into controlled airspace if I can help it.
 
Are you nervous to speak on the radio?

Even going over the top, or skirting to the West, I would have GYY CT tuned in to hear what's going on and I, personally, would have planned on giving JG them a courtesy call. "Gary Tower, Cessna Sky King is 5 West, we'll be going over the top of the airport at 3,500 Northbound up the lakefront with Mike."

I think you did well.
 
I had it written on my kneeboard, together with Gary's ATIS, but I had not tuned in on standby because I was planning to just fly over their airspace.

As I was typing my OP, I kept asking myself: why did I go through the Delta? I could have just flown around it. That way I would not have to circle too close to my departure airport. My guess is that by the time we were leaving 05C, I had this mental commitment of flying over KGYY and if I can't then through it. I did not consider going around it as an option. Maybe because I love tracking the shoreline and I did not want to fly away from it so early.

That was my thought when I read your OP. Just turn to go around it if they didn’t answer me soon enough to continue straight ahead.
 
I got my PPL my fresh year of college. I was trying to wow this girl by flying to visit a friend at Valporaiso. On the way back, I called 10 SE on the lakefront to Gary tower.

I was actually 20 Southeast! I had switched from almost exclusively flying on the the ORD Bravo Chart (TCA chart back then - no gps) to the sectional for this trip and didn't adjust my mental picture. I was over the right landmark, but doubled the distance.

GYY has radar and chewed me out a bit. I think the girl was clueless, but so was I with women (and aviation). That went nowhere. Just cost money.

Ahhh, I never miss that girl but I do miss my medical.
 
Another thing, aren't ceiling heights given in AGL? So KGYY's elevation is 591', which then puts the cloud layer around 3400 MSL? Makes sense that you'd encounter them starting at 3300 then.
 
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