Well, for our first breakfast run, we can only say a 7.5 out of 10 rating. I had a good time, and learned some lessons, but there's room for improvement all around I think.
We dropped of the girls this morning at my Mom's around 7:30am, as the weather in the local area was looking nice and much better than the last time we tried this flight and had to cancel. Shortly after 8am, we arrived at Wings Field and got the keys for the plane. I spent a few minutes in the terminal checking the AWOS/ASOS of Lancaster, Limerick, ABE to double check our probablility of going west, or if we would try going east today. West to Lancaster sounded alright, so I called up Flight Service for a Standard Breifing. There was a cold front at the time located in Western Pa, with the low pressure trough pretty much formed over central and western PA with the frontal boundary on the edge of Ohio. Visibility was 6 miles + with some clouds at 8000 at Wings, and 6 miles and haze at LNS, with conditions expected to improve. Forcast valid between 1300Z (9am) and 1600Z (12 noon) expected 8000 Scattered at Reading, winds 180 @5, and unrestricted visibility.
We preflighted, and prepared to depart in N53569. Becky liked the look of the Cessna 172 and the roominess of it. We preflighted, completed the runup, and departed runway 24 heading to the west with the VOR 1 set for LNS, VOR 2 set for PTW, and the GPS set for Direct to LNS. This was the first time I really was able to setup and arm the GPS with my route, as I did some reading since my last flight. The GPS was nice, showing a heading to track and the distance remaining. I know there was a way to change it to read the actual groundspeed, but I couldn't get it easily, so I stayed with what I had. The KLN 94 GPS also had a large moving map display screen located right above it, and I could change the zoom scale to show the hole route, or down really close. I kept it at 20 nm most of the time. We had a pretty good trip on the way out at 2800. I called LNS tower and recieved a straight in for RY 26. There was only a few other planes in the area. We made a SWEET landing on 26, and pulled off on Hotel. It was a long taxi over to the Restaurant, but Becky was listening and having a good time. We parked and secured the airplane, and then headed off inside.
Breakfast was nice, and I had French Toast while Becky had Cream Chipped Beef. We watched a few planes come and go, but it wasn't looking like "improving weather" out there to me. Breakfast wasn't the best,.. I'd rate my meal at 7/10, while Becky was really disappointed and rated a 3/10. Her's was really peppery, and the toast was really hard, but the coffee was really good she say's.
Taxi down to Airways for a few minutes in the shop. I didn't find anything, but we did pickup our daughter's a neat T-shirt. (I'll try to post pics later of them) So,.. shopping all done, time back out on the ramp. It was definitely hazy, and looked dark to the West of the airport. I called up KLOM's weather, and they reported 10 miles with scattered at 6000. I started the engine,... turn on Avionics, and listened to ATIS. Atis Foxtrot reported 4 miles visibility and haze,... not good. I setup the VOR for PTW, and also the GPS for LOM. Ground set us up for RY 31 departure, right pattern for departure.
Climbout went as expected, and there was a plane on RY 8 ILS approach. Tower gave him directions to maintain runway heading as he was going missed. Tower asked me to head off my heading to 080, parallel to the runway, as I was still climbing out at 2000. Since I was above, Tower let me continue back on coarse. the Piper passed below me to the left,.. just as I hit 2500,.. and leveled off. The Haze was bad,.. and clouds were low. I asked tower for me to decend to 2100,.. and once we confirmed traffic, we were able to. This helped a lot, but it was still -4 miles,... and there were some light bumps. I was expecting this to be somewhat local, but it just seemed to continue on. I tuned the weather at Wings again, still saying nice and clear with good vis there, so it must change soon. Then, I saw Morgantown and the highway. There seemed to be some clearing ahead, but before that, a band of dark grey clouds lingered above us. After a few bumps while under them,.. it seemed clear as day, with visibilty greatly improved to at leat 6+ or 8. A releif off my shoulders, cause I didn't like the skud running situation I was in. Wings still reporting 10+, clouds at 3000 scattered,... which was close to what I was now seeing as well. I climbed back up to 2500 to get some extra space between me and the ground and soon We flew over Perkiomen and turned south to Wings, and entered the pattern on the downwind leg behind a Diamond. This landing was another greaser, and at the stall horn. I think the extra weight of the 172 really helps my landings, as they have been very nice. This flight was an eye-opener for me, that I need to respect the weather and the haze, and my personal minimums for a flight.
We went into the terminal after checking back in, and chatted with a few guys and I was very surprised to see the weather we flew ahead of. This was 11:45 now, and the radar showed large red cells developing in the Reading/Lancaster/Chester areas. A departure 30 minutes later would have put us right in the middle of the mess.
The CFI's looked at the TAF reports and the ADDS weather radar, and there was no report of this activity developing so early. I'm glad we flew when we did, but I've been upset with myself since for getting in that situation on the way back. On the way out, we were good, but that changed so fast while we were there at Lancaster.
(Yeah, I know you know!
)