dell30rb
Final Approach
Had a great and challenging flight from the Raleigh area up to ohio and back. Scrubbed a saturday AM departure due to storms / rain that gave us nearly 4 inches of rain and left with a solid overcast.
Sunday, departed around 1pm after waiting for ceilings to lift and break up. Climbed into the warrior and climbed up and above the fair-weather cumulus layer, cruising around 6,500. As we get over greensboro the deck below becomes broken and tops start to rise, so climbed to 8,500. At this point, headwinds and a dog of an airplane reduce our groundspeed to around 85 knots so a fuel stop was planned in PSK (new river, virginia). A nice little airport just before the Appalachian mountains.
Climbout and a little zigging while climbing to keep within gliding distance of friendly terrain in case of a failure, we pick a hole in the clouds and get back up to 8500, when the clouds begin to pick up more and necessitated a climb to 10,500. Quite a struggle in an old airplane on a high DA day, with full fuel and 2 on board.
Before climbing to 10,500
At this point we are cruising nicely on top, well above the clouds that are turning into an overcast. Fortunately from our altitude we could recieve beckley (KBKW) and Charleston, WV's awos/ weather info which were reporting broken and scattered conditions. With full fuel and known broken conditions ahead of us (and behind us) we pressed on. No more than 10 minutes pass before the clouds start to break up again.
Passing over charleston and about 2 hours from our destination, massive thunderheads come into view, right in front of us. Wouldn't you know it, an unforecasted strong line of thunderstorms had formed and was sweeping S/E through ohio at 35 kts. A quick call to flight watch and we decided to put down in athens, ohio. It was too long to fly around Tied down and let the storm hammer us. After it passed, took off immediately and flew the remaining hour in clear conditions, landing just after dark.
Taking off after storms had passed:
The ground after being hit by a cool shower on a hot day:
Coming home we had to fly over a cold front which was passing through southern ohio and the mountains. First try was no good, after climbing out through scattered clouds at 1,200 found there was another layer at around 8000 feet probably 20 miles from us. Climbing over that gave a not so good picture, looked like the clouds were riding and almost a solid overcast as far as I could see. And flying between layers is not an appealing option to me. A landing in marysville, ohio and an hour or so wait yeilded better conditions. Flew on top cruising at 9,500 most of the way, dodging the buildups and finding mostly broken conditions with some nice big holes occasionally. A tailwind meant 150kt groundspeeds and we were really cookin.
After reaching greensboro, nc it was time for a descent. Since I had a cold we were limited to about a 500fpm. Got beat up in turbulence once getting under the puffy clouds but made it home in just over 3 hours. It was actually some pretty bad turbulence. Slowed to about 90 knots and just got beat up. My dad actually hit his head on the cockpit, even after we had slowed and tightened up seatbelts.
Dodging buildups
Got beat up after ducking under these
Sunday, departed around 1pm after waiting for ceilings to lift and break up. Climbed into the warrior and climbed up and above the fair-weather cumulus layer, cruising around 6,500. As we get over greensboro the deck below becomes broken and tops start to rise, so climbed to 8,500. At this point, headwinds and a dog of an airplane reduce our groundspeed to around 85 knots so a fuel stop was planned in PSK (new river, virginia). A nice little airport just before the Appalachian mountains.
Climbout and a little zigging while climbing to keep within gliding distance of friendly terrain in case of a failure, we pick a hole in the clouds and get back up to 8500, when the clouds begin to pick up more and necessitated a climb to 10,500. Quite a struggle in an old airplane on a high DA day, with full fuel and 2 on board.
Before climbing to 10,500
At this point we are cruising nicely on top, well above the clouds that are turning into an overcast. Fortunately from our altitude we could recieve beckley (KBKW) and Charleston, WV's awos/ weather info which were reporting broken and scattered conditions. With full fuel and known broken conditions ahead of us (and behind us) we pressed on. No more than 10 minutes pass before the clouds start to break up again.
Passing over charleston and about 2 hours from our destination, massive thunderheads come into view, right in front of us. Wouldn't you know it, an unforecasted strong line of thunderstorms had formed and was sweeping S/E through ohio at 35 kts. A quick call to flight watch and we decided to put down in athens, ohio. It was too long to fly around Tied down and let the storm hammer us. After it passed, took off immediately and flew the remaining hour in clear conditions, landing just after dark.
Taking off after storms had passed:
The ground after being hit by a cool shower on a hot day:
Coming home we had to fly over a cold front which was passing through southern ohio and the mountains. First try was no good, after climbing out through scattered clouds at 1,200 found there was another layer at around 8000 feet probably 20 miles from us. Climbing over that gave a not so good picture, looked like the clouds were riding and almost a solid overcast as far as I could see. And flying between layers is not an appealing option to me. A landing in marysville, ohio and an hour or so wait yeilded better conditions. Flew on top cruising at 9,500 most of the way, dodging the buildups and finding mostly broken conditions with some nice big holes occasionally. A tailwind meant 150kt groundspeeds and we were really cookin.
After reaching greensboro, nc it was time for a descent. Since I had a cold we were limited to about a 500fpm. Got beat up in turbulence once getting under the puffy clouds but made it home in just over 3 hours. It was actually some pretty bad turbulence. Slowed to about 90 knots and just got beat up. My dad actually hit his head on the cockpit, even after we had slowed and tightened up seatbelts.
Dodging buildups
Got beat up after ducking under these
