Let'sgoflying!
Touchdown! Greaser!
This is going to be a whirlwind month I can tell; right after the checkride we hopped in the Viking for the 2 hr trip east to the inlaws at Fredericksburg Tx. We have done this trip dozens of times but it is always pretty neat to me. We departed Sat am and left the dry sunny air of west Texas and headed east towards that constantly flowing and ebbing bulge of Gulf coast moisture. This trip was kind of neat because because it demonstrated the great utility of GA. SIL & BIL decided to drive (they live here too) because of schedules. We wanted to all meet there for lunch at the same time. So they were up an hour late for their 5am departure time while we had a leisurely awakening, breakfast, tended to a few things at work and home and left for the airport hours after they had left town in the car. The flight was very nice, I got vfr ff at 9500 and kept going up to 11500 where it was very cool calm and on top of the fluff. As we approached Rocksprings VOR (RSG) it became a bkn/ovc undercast as predicted. Because the route takes us through a large, but low-activity-on-weekends moa, I usually like to go vfr direct - ifr routes are well to the north. So before we left, I filed from RSG 000/20 fix into Fredericksburg and asked for a clearance just as we cleared the MOA.
Soon we were in and out of some large cumulus. As we neared the airport, I was told to expect to hold at the faf because a C210 was ahead of us. Seredipitously a beautiful wide hole appeared to the left, just beside the airport and with a 1500' ceiling I canceled and went for it. This saved about half an hour counting holding and the approach. We were unpacking as the 210 flew over.
The city terminal was gutted as the recent windstorm removed the metal from the roof and permitted some rain damage. Gas $2.95. I parked beside another Viking facing The Hangar Hotel. We met the inlaws and went right to work (I usually do a bit of handyman stuff for my fil as he is suffering from Macular Degeneration) We had a bunch of work done before we ever saw a sign of the sil/bil! Hours and stress saved. They were pooped and needed a nap, while we were fresh. That evening we went to a huge (someone said Antebellum style) home on a hill - picture a 2 storey mansion with porches all around and shade trees, seemed like a plantation but it is a recently constructed replica of that style, called Rose Hill Manor. They are a first class restaurant mainly and I think they rent out some rooms. What a place!
I couldn't afford to eat there more than once a year but if someone else is paying....! We celebrated my wife's parents 50th - and in style, I must say.
The drive back to town (this was in Stonewall -near the FAF actually!) was interesting. We could see a storm in the distance and soon we were driving right into the dirty yellow-grayness and the wind was picking up. Eventually it was a significant electrical storm and rain reduced vis to a hundred yards.. minus windshield distortion. Once we were through it.... (somehow I got driving duty on that one again - I believe everyone in the family now thinks of me as their transportation clerk or something)....the tension of the drive abated and we felt relieved and thrilled to be a part of mother nature's display. I was of course worried about the viking parked on the ramp but all was well this am. More home repair stuff this am, and we headed to the airport at my urging asap before the tz's started building again. Filed, fueled, fss-briefed and we were ready to go. Their was a smidgen of rain and the other viking owner said he had to fix his wife up with a rent car so she could drive the 500mi home, she refused to get in with a very light pitter patter of rain. (I felt bad for both of them, her long drive and Im sure he was going to be worried for her).
Airborne, we headed the 'wrong' way (the first place they will clear me to from T82 is STV, to the east) and into the tall and kinda dark clouds.
Soon we were turned on course and I listened as Houston Center was stacking airplanes going into ich/hou at no less than 4 vors including Rocksprings, a long way from Houston. There were 3-4 planes in each hold. Good practice for me, although I was not a part of it, at each hold issued I could make like I had to join and figure out the hold. All this was because of a slow moving tz over the city apparently. Several airliners diverted to San Antonio. Not 60 miles later I was out of it and on top of a very pretty scattered layer of thick cumulus clouds and heading direct at 10.5 after canceling.
One thing about this leg that happened again is several members of the family were pointing and looking at the sky (it was a typical wet cumulus day on departure - with no tz, not even any rain showers visible) and the briefing suggested a problem free departure, as it was. This has happened to me before and it gives me pause... I don't want to dismiss their concerns because we have all read of pilots ignoring warnings from nonpilots before their crash... but I don't really want to have to individually reassure each one that 'everything is fine' (this has been done before crashes too), and I would rather they just trust that I am doing my job properly. My wife is fine. Nervous in uncommon situations but she says to them, 'he is not going to leave if the weather is not OK' which helps all of us a lot. Anyway I am looking for that handy thing to say which will reassure without making me look foolhardy if anyone has one.
One last thing- with my latest rating, here is the feeling: I thought years ago that pilots with advanced ratings might, because of their ratings be somehow more assured of themselves and their flying. I find my pax and family are more assured... but I am LESS assured. Somehow I feel much more responsibility and pressure to try to do things perfectly, to not screw up. If I bust a far, the faa will go for the throat, if I bend metal there will be resounding condemnation compared to previously. I suppose this is normal as well but I was a bit surprised. There is no comfort with any particular piece of paper. The extra training seems to reveal more weaknesses in the man, in the machine and the system.
Next weekend, I hope to tell you of my planned trip to San Diego!
Soon we were in and out of some large cumulus. As we neared the airport, I was told to expect to hold at the faf because a C210 was ahead of us. Seredipitously a beautiful wide hole appeared to the left, just beside the airport and with a 1500' ceiling I canceled and went for it. This saved about half an hour counting holding and the approach. We were unpacking as the 210 flew over.
The city terminal was gutted as the recent windstorm removed the metal from the roof and permitted some rain damage. Gas $2.95. I parked beside another Viking facing The Hangar Hotel. We met the inlaws and went right to work (I usually do a bit of handyman stuff for my fil as he is suffering from Macular Degeneration) We had a bunch of work done before we ever saw a sign of the sil/bil! Hours and stress saved. They were pooped and needed a nap, while we were fresh. That evening we went to a huge (someone said Antebellum style) home on a hill - picture a 2 storey mansion with porches all around and shade trees, seemed like a plantation but it is a recently constructed replica of that style, called Rose Hill Manor. They are a first class restaurant mainly and I think they rent out some rooms. What a place!
I couldn't afford to eat there more than once a year but if someone else is paying....! We celebrated my wife's parents 50th - and in style, I must say.
The drive back to town (this was in Stonewall -near the FAF actually!) was interesting. We could see a storm in the distance and soon we were driving right into the dirty yellow-grayness and the wind was picking up. Eventually it was a significant electrical storm and rain reduced vis to a hundred yards.. minus windshield distortion. Once we were through it.... (somehow I got driving duty on that one again - I believe everyone in the family now thinks of me as their transportation clerk or something)....the tension of the drive abated and we felt relieved and thrilled to be a part of mother nature's display. I was of course worried about the viking parked on the ramp but all was well this am. More home repair stuff this am, and we headed to the airport at my urging asap before the tz's started building again. Filed, fueled, fss-briefed and we were ready to go. Their was a smidgen of rain and the other viking owner said he had to fix his wife up with a rent car so she could drive the 500mi home, she refused to get in with a very light pitter patter of rain. (I felt bad for both of them, her long drive and Im sure he was going to be worried for her).
Airborne, we headed the 'wrong' way (the first place they will clear me to from T82 is STV, to the east) and into the tall and kinda dark clouds.
Soon we were turned on course and I listened as Houston Center was stacking airplanes going into ich/hou at no less than 4 vors including Rocksprings, a long way from Houston. There were 3-4 planes in each hold. Good practice for me, although I was not a part of it, at each hold issued I could make like I had to join and figure out the hold. All this was because of a slow moving tz over the city apparently. Several airliners diverted to San Antonio. Not 60 miles later I was out of it and on top of a very pretty scattered layer of thick cumulus clouds and heading direct at 10.5 after canceling.
One thing about this leg that happened again is several members of the family were pointing and looking at the sky (it was a typical wet cumulus day on departure - with no tz, not even any rain showers visible) and the briefing suggested a problem free departure, as it was. This has happened to me before and it gives me pause... I don't want to dismiss their concerns because we have all read of pilots ignoring warnings from nonpilots before their crash... but I don't really want to have to individually reassure each one that 'everything is fine' (this has been done before crashes too), and I would rather they just trust that I am doing my job properly. My wife is fine. Nervous in uncommon situations but she says to them, 'he is not going to leave if the weather is not OK' which helps all of us a lot. Anyway I am looking for that handy thing to say which will reassure without making me look foolhardy if anyone has one.
One last thing- with my latest rating, here is the feeling: I thought years ago that pilots with advanced ratings might, because of their ratings be somehow more assured of themselves and their flying. I find my pax and family are more assured... but I am LESS assured. Somehow I feel much more responsibility and pressure to try to do things perfectly, to not screw up. If I bust a far, the faa will go for the throat, if I bend metal there will be resounding condemnation compared to previously. I suppose this is normal as well but I was a bit surprised. There is no comfort with any particular piece of paper. The extra training seems to reveal more weaknesses in the man, in the machine and the system.
Next weekend, I hope to tell you of my planned trip to San Diego!
...he reminds himself as he pays the bill for three more cylinders....Sigh.
