Got in not one but two aviation firsts for me this week.
1) Used HF radio for making position reports. This was a Hawker trip from Chicago to Puerto Rico. Really amazing that we're still using this 1940's technology.
2) Got a popup IFR clearance. This was flying my Mooney from Greenville, SC to my home airport near Atlanta. I was flying back from a nice airport restaurant lunch with Dave Siciliano and some of his AvSig buddies. I was cruising VFR at 6500' on this 45 minute flight and started getting a solid cloud deck under me. Rather than go down into the hot bumpy air I called up Atlanta approach and asked for a popup IFR clearance. After confirming that the plane and I were legal to do this, he gave me the clearance right away. I guess it's just one more tool for the bag.
1) Used HF radio for making position reports. This was a Hawker trip from Chicago to Puerto Rico. Really amazing that we're still using this 1940's technology.
2) Got a popup IFR clearance. This was flying my Mooney from Greenville, SC to my home airport near Atlanta. I was flying back from a nice airport restaurant lunch with Dave Siciliano and some of his AvSig buddies. I was cruising VFR at 6500' on this 45 minute flight and started getting a solid cloud deck under me. Rather than go down into the hot bumpy air I called up Atlanta approach and asked for a popup IFR clearance. After confirming that the plane and I were legal to do this, he gave me the clearance right away. I guess it's just one more tool for the bag.