mandm
Pattern Altitude
Chicago to NYC yesterday with some serious tailwinds. 180kts ground speed most of the journey.
On departure from KUGN, the door popped open. Oops to the other M and oops to me for not double checking it. But the screws for the latch are not keeping it in place so now I have a screwdriver under the copilot seat for quick alterations haha and I need to find some new screws so it gets tighter and easier to use. Hey it’s old be gentle! M asked if the dogs would jump out from the back seat, I said no the seat is in the way, and it is unlatched at the top, wasn’t open per se.
I said don’t touch it and let’s go with it on the flight to our first fuel stop at KMGC. Landed there and fixed it and the rest of the flight was fine.
Kept an eye on cloud tops along the route (actually paying attention and understanding those cloud and winds/icing charts on the foreflight briefing), asked a couple different controllers for PIREPs of weather and cloud tops along my route and they asked commercial traffic to provide a report (one guy said I think 11/12k I was like hmm I didn’t want to go higher, it was actually at <10k, ATC asked another commercial traffic who reported 8/9/10k), kept checking weather METARs and TAFs at airports en route and at destination. Had a broken layer at the destination but to the north and south had sky clear and since I just fueled up, I felt ok with the extra fuel to continue on. NYC just had a snow storm so suddenly on departure a few of them were NOTAMed as closed so we changed our destination airport to KMMU. No free parking for me.
Along the route, weather radar and weather reports put freezing rain and snow just under with tops between 8-10k feet. We were flying at 11.5k or above the weather, it was so unreal to be above the weather freezing rain ice snow just below, it was sunny and beautiful as can be on top. It was probably -14 to -16C outside, I worried about how cold the engine could operate in or if there would be induction icing but monitored the engine instruments and everything was in the green, the windows were cold but the heat worked, I opened the vents for fresh air now and then in case of any CO issues and explained to M about if we are getting funky funny or sleepy to turn the heat off and open the fresh vents in case of CO poisoning.
Night was coming and we still had a good hour of night flying, but it never really got pitch dark thankfully, could see traffic now and then far away and the beautiful starry sky, but I did fly with my instrument scan to keep ahead of the aircraft. Finally upon arriving closer to NYC, you can see the city lights of towns en route and the thin cloud layer, the weather was becoming sky clear, started my descent which became a little turbulent, ATC said I was going too fast lol, and cleared into the Bravo, landed with a cross-wind (I usually prefer the longer runways). Arrived.
Easy and quick Uber ride to the city, $77, in a big Suburban. Had some Korean bbq last night, was delicious, oh yes so delicious.
After flight notes: Appears some frost under the wing, first time I saw that, only in front of the main landing gear on one side. Also, some oil blew out, I had 5.75qt of oil and I added a full qt and the excess came out. I forgot my airplane wants 6qt only and anymore comes out, now I need to clean the bottom of the airplane again. Oopsie. A little tired and dehydrated from the flight (maybe the altitude?) but I’m recovering.
On departure from KUGN, the door popped open. Oops to the other M and oops to me for not double checking it. But the screws for the latch are not keeping it in place so now I have a screwdriver under the copilot seat for quick alterations haha and I need to find some new screws so it gets tighter and easier to use. Hey it’s old be gentle! M asked if the dogs would jump out from the back seat, I said no the seat is in the way, and it is unlatched at the top, wasn’t open per se.
I said don’t touch it and let’s go with it on the flight to our first fuel stop at KMGC. Landed there and fixed it and the rest of the flight was fine.
Kept an eye on cloud tops along the route (actually paying attention and understanding those cloud and winds/icing charts on the foreflight briefing), asked a couple different controllers for PIREPs of weather and cloud tops along my route and they asked commercial traffic to provide a report (one guy said I think 11/12k I was like hmm I didn’t want to go higher, it was actually at <10k, ATC asked another commercial traffic who reported 8/9/10k), kept checking weather METARs and TAFs at airports en route and at destination. Had a broken layer at the destination but to the north and south had sky clear and since I just fueled up, I felt ok with the extra fuel to continue on. NYC just had a snow storm so suddenly on departure a few of them were NOTAMed as closed so we changed our destination airport to KMMU. No free parking for me.
Along the route, weather radar and weather reports put freezing rain and snow just under with tops between 8-10k feet. We were flying at 11.5k or above the weather, it was so unreal to be above the weather freezing rain ice snow just below, it was sunny and beautiful as can be on top. It was probably -14 to -16C outside, I worried about how cold the engine could operate in or if there would be induction icing but monitored the engine instruments and everything was in the green, the windows were cold but the heat worked, I opened the vents for fresh air now and then in case of any CO issues and explained to M about if we are getting funky funny or sleepy to turn the heat off and open the fresh vents in case of CO poisoning.
Night was coming and we still had a good hour of night flying, but it never really got pitch dark thankfully, could see traffic now and then far away and the beautiful starry sky, but I did fly with my instrument scan to keep ahead of the aircraft. Finally upon arriving closer to NYC, you can see the city lights of towns en route and the thin cloud layer, the weather was becoming sky clear, started my descent which became a little turbulent, ATC said I was going too fast lol, and cleared into the Bravo, landed with a cross-wind (I usually prefer the longer runways). Arrived.
Easy and quick Uber ride to the city, $77, in a big Suburban. Had some Korean bbq last night, was delicious, oh yes so delicious.
After flight notes: Appears some frost under the wing, first time I saw that, only in front of the main landing gear on one side. Also, some oil blew out, I had 5.75qt of oil and I added a full qt and the excess came out. I forgot my airplane wants 6qt only and anymore comes out, now I need to clean the bottom of the airplane again. Oopsie. A little tired and dehydrated from the flight (maybe the altitude?) but I’m recovering.
