One of those flights- First diversion for me today

jspilot

jspilot

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jspilot
Today was just one of those flights where things did not go right. I showed up at the flight school where I rent from and was told that the plane I was assigned was having issues with the heading indicator. No big deal as the plane has a GPS, the good old fashioned compass and I have foreflight on my iPad mini, but this should have tipped me off that this may not be my day.

As I was taxing out the wind kicked up from 8 knots to 20 knots. I heard a very interssting conversation between the ground controller at KISP and an air wisconsin regional jet as the regional jet reported a coyote crossing the runway( probably more likely a fox- but who knows) I managed a nice smooth takeoff non the less.

My plan was to go to Sky Acres (44N) and check out the resturant up there. I was cruising along comfortably enjoying the scenery and I noticed a pretty good line of snow off the right side. I kept a good eye on the snow and kept on going towards 44N. About 25nm south of 44N the weather looked terrible up ahead but there was a clear area off my left so, here comes the diversion training- plug in Stewart Airport into the GPS and Mini IPad, notify ATC of my diversion( they were very easy going about it) and off I went to Stewart.

The whole diversion thing is really no big deal at all. It was nice to have to do it for real and put into practice what I learned.

Anyway, the flight home was relatively uneventful until I arrived back at KISP. The tower made a rather large mistake and did not provide enough seperation between myself and a hawker jet landing behind me. As I turned my base turn the tower asked me to keep it close and have minimum time on the runway. I responded that I would try and did try. However the winds were real strong( still about 20 knots) so it was virtually impossible to make the 172 go fast enough on final. Landed and tried to get off the runway as quick ad I could but I was not about to firewall the throttle and run the risk of flipping the plane in windy conditions, I did give it some extra but as I was about to turn off the hawker was told to go around. I felt bad but honestly there was nothing I could do more than I did.

Quite the flight- lots of good learning experiences. I've definitely learned that the whole PPL is a license to learn is a true statement!
 
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Sounds like a good learning experience.

As for the go-around on the Hawker - if the HawkerJet was that close and the winds were 20kts - they should have extended your downwind or had you do a right 360 on downwind. When the HJ is doing 110kts GS on final and you are doing 30 . . . there is going to be an issue!
 
comanchepilot said:
Sounds like a good learning experience.

As for the go-around on the Hawker - if the HawkerJet was that close and the winds were 20kts - they should have extended your downwind or had you do a right 360 on downwind. When the HJ is doing 110kts GS on final and you are doing 30 . . . there is going to be an issue!
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Yeah this is true. I think if I remember correctly the Hawker jet reported a 5 mile final as I was turning base. The tower literally asked me 3 times to basically go faster, to which I responded I was trying. I cut my base turn short and went straight for the numbers but the wind kept pushing me away from the runway. I would suspect I was going about 30-40 knots across the ground. I would have gladly extended the downwind or made a 360 turn as those things happen all the time at my home airport.

I have a suspicion that it was a training controller because after the go around by the hawker jet a new controller came on and gave the jet instructions. I'm assuming that was the tower supervisor or the guy training the controller. In hindsight two things occurred to me- maybe I should have just gone around to avoid the situation all together( although I'm not sure why I should take that option but I guess I could have.) The other thing was, I wonder how much experience some controllers have with flying in small aircraft. Any of us knows that you just can't make the plane go faster in windy conditions and it seemed like this controller was asking me to do something impossible.

Definitely a good learning experience all around from this flight.
 
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I was also flying to 44N at 08:30 local. Actually, I was flying to the Pawling VOR then a left turn onto the 250 degree radial and fly that to 44N. Just practicing. I could see things were getting obscured ahead, but I heard "chatter" from pilots at 44N taking off, so I kept going. Mind you, all the time I'm flying I'm monitoring DXR and POU, who are saying it's all CAVU. When I made my turn to the 250, this is what greeted me. It had completely closed in behind me, and was snowing.
I was already down as low as the terrain would allow. I pulled back up to make sure I would clear the hills and towers between 44N and DXR and flew the instruments back to DXR. Four miles from DXR I popped out into the CAVU they were advertising, but it was 300@9G20kt and by the time I got tied down, it had reached the field. At 2500 ft I could see the ground. At 2501 ft the ground was gone. Interesting day.
 

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jspilot said:
Today was just one of those flights where things did not go right. I showed up at the flight school where I rent from and was told that the plane I was assigned was having issues with the heading indicator. No big deal as the plane has a GPS, the good old fashioned compass and I have foreflight on my iPad mini, but this should have tipped me off that this may not be my day.
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Why is this a tip-off if you're VFR? If IFR, I would be concerned about the AI if my HI was having issues.
 
Yeah, my first diversion was similar. I flew down to Monterey, and when I arrived there, a marine layer had obscured most of the field, and ATIS was wrong. It said scattered at 2500. I was at 2500 and that marine layer was closer to 1000 and "technically" broken, as it covered more than half the field. I decided I could make the runway because I could see the threshold, but a go-around was probably out of the question, and I might not be able to take off (except perhaps downwind -- it IS a long runway, but that seemed a silly risk to take). So I diverted to Salinas.

NorCal was completely fine with it. Just handed me off to Salinas Tower right away.
 
Just landed at CRQ and am in the restaurant - 15nm out I can see the runway under the marine layer - airport is reporting 900OVC and 7mi viz . . . was a pretty easy instrument approach - I think the top of the tail might have scraped the layer.
 
jspilot said:
Yeah this is true. I think if I remember correctly the Hawker jet reported a 5 mile final as I was turning base. The tower literally asked me 3 times to basically go faster, to which I responded I was trying. ...

I have a suspicion that it was a training controller because after the go around by the hawker jet a new controller came on and gave the jet instructions. I'm assuming that was the tower supervisor or the guy training the controller. In hindsight two things occurred to me- maybe I should have just gone around to avoid the situation all together...
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I get instructions like yours occasionally with new controllers when I do night currency flights at the Class C field. Usually just give an automatic unable and offer to extend downwind, 360 whatever. I never rush. the experienced guys will give instructions immediately and to the point (e.g. have been told maintain pattern altitude, fly the pattern due to traffic on final or landing clearance cancelled turn heading xxx for right traffic parallel runway).
 
Good choices all around OP. I blew a brake like in a 210 a week ago and couldn't get off the runway in time and a Kalitta flight behind me had to go around. They can deal, it was ATCs fault for providing poor separation not yours.
 
DavidWhite said:
Good choices all around OP. I blew a brake like in a 210 a week ago and couldn't get off the runway in time and a Kalitta flight behind me had to go around. They can deal, it was ATCs fault for providing poor separation not yours.
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I thought you swore-off 210s
 
DavidWhite said:
Money is money, a mans gotta eat. Flying a 210 is marginally better than prostituting oneself for cheeseburgers.
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That would depend entirely on the particular 210 and the particular cheeseburgers...now wouldn't it?

Say it was a 210 purchased through Tarron Bhomas and the cheeseburgers were from Carl's Jr., the old Carl's Jr. What might the opinion be then?
 
Clark1961 said:
That would depend entirely on the particular 210 and the particular cheeseburgers...now wouldn't it?

Say it was a 210 purchased through Tarron Bhomas and the cheeseburgers were from Carl's Jr., the old Carl's Jr. What might the opinion be then?
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Without a doubt, the cheeseburgers.

Hell even I think new Carl's Jr western bacon double cheeseburger beats out the 210 by a fairly significant margin.
 
DavidWhite said:
Money is money, a mans gotta eat. Flying a 210 is marginally better than prostituting oneself for cheeseburgers.
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But...but....but....but... you got a Mooney

Are you now exercising your CPL?
 
Mostly moving airplanes around for friends, with lunch being my preferred form of payment. Nothing commercial yet, really.
 
Shepherd said:
I was also flying to 44N at 08:30 local. Actually, I was flying to the Pawling VOR then a left turn onto the 250 degree radial and fly that to 44N. Just practicing. I could see things were getting obscured ahead, but I heard "chatter" from pilots at 44N taking off, so I kept going. Mind you, all the time I'm flying I'm monitoring DXR and POU, who are saying it's all CAVU. When I made my turn to the 250, this is what greeted me. It had completely closed in behind me, and was snowing.
I was already down as low as the terrain would allow. I pulled back up to make sure I would clear the hills and towers between 44N and DXR and flew the instruments back to DXR. Four miles from DXR I popped out into the CAVU they were advertising, but it was 300@9G20kt and by the time I got tied down, it had reached the field. At 2500 ft I could see the ground. At 2501 ft the ground was gone. Interesting day.
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Shepard we were flying at about the same time. I was coming up from the south so I had a clear view of the snow line. When I could not see the horizon nor the ground up ahead I knew diverting was the only option.

It was an interssting day because I could see it was snoing real hard in that one area but all around it was pretty clear. Danbury was clear for sure and so was Stewart. POU was probably right on the edge of the snow line from what I could tell. Good choice to climb back up and I'm glad you got out of there safely.
 
DavidWhite said:
I once ate a cheeseburger while flying my Mooney. I'm pretty sure that's what heaven is like.
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While the cheeseburger has its place, I once had a breakfast burrito smothered in green chili while flying the Frankenkota. It was orally orgasmic for a very brief period. Either it was that or I was hypoxic, :dunno:...
 
Jaybird180 said:
Why is this a tip-off if you're VFR? If IFR, I would be concerned about the AI if my HI was having issues.
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As I wrote it is not a big deal but just fell in line with how the flight was going to go.

Plus sometimes flying in and out of the class C KISP the controllers will assign headings. I know those are only recomendations when flying VFR but good luck if you don't follow them around here. Turns out this heading indicator was the least of my problems on this flight.
 
Clark1961 said:
While the cheeseburger has its place, I once had a breakfast burrito smothered in green chili while flying the Frankenkota. It was orally orgasmic for a very brief period. Either it was that or I was hypoxic, :dunno:...
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Probably both. I have a really bad habit of when I'm taking the Mooneh somewhere I load it up with enough food for a small army, and then eat all the way to my destination.
 
jspilot said:
Shepard we were flying at about the same time. I was coming up from the south so I had a clear view of the snow line. When I could not see the horizon nor the ground up ahead I knew diverting was the only option.

It was an interssting day because I could see it was snoing real hard in that one area but all around it was pretty clear. Danbury was clear for sure and so was Stewart. POU was probably right on the edge of the snow line from what I could tell. Good choice to climb back up and I'm glad you got out of there safely.
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I was flying in my own little blue bubble. Blue sky, sunlight. I could see the wall ahead, but I didn't catch up with it until I got over top Pawling VOR. When I made the turn it was an "Oh crap!" moment for sure. I haven't done any real IFR in a long time, but just a couple of weeks ago I had a CFI run me through 6 hours of hood time, just for practice. Timing is everything.
All's well that ends well, and I lived to fly another day.
You made some good decisions. Be safe and keep on having fun.
Maybe I'll catch you at 44N for breakfast some Thursday. :D
 
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Shepherd said:
I was flying in my own little blue bubble. Blue sky, sunlight. I could see the wall ahead, but I didn't catch up with it until I got over top Pawling VOR. When I made the turn it was an "Oh crap!" moment for sure. I haven't done any real IFR in a long time, but just a couple of weeks ago I had a CFI run me through 6 hours of hood time, just for practice. Timing is everything.
All's well that ends well, and I lived to fly another day.
You made some good decisions. Be safe and keep on having fun.
Maybe I'll catch you at 44N for breakfast some Thursday. :D
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I'd love to meet up with you on a Thursday but this was a rare one that I had off. I am a teacher so I am on Spring Break( some Spring right... since we are discusing snow!):D Maybe in the summer time though.

I knew I had to make a choice when I could not see the horizon or the ground up ahead. I was in a blue sky bubble too and loving the flight, until the snow line. Honestly, It was kind of a no brainer- plus landing on the massive runway at Stewart is always a nice option. I definately keep getting little nudges to start getting some IFR training from the flying gods. I have not done much since my PPL training days over a year and a half ago. I heard that where I rent from is about to get a nice 182 with a glass cockpit and XM weather so I guess that's a good platform to learn on, or atleast get some practice in.
 
Shepherd said:
I'm invoking my Fifth Amendment rights.
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Please get a pop up next time. There are legitimate IFR folks up there that do not want to run into you.

This is one of the worst fears I have of being in IMC. I have had traffic called out to me that was definitely in IMC that I could not spot because I was also in IMC. I generally get vectored away, but what happens when the controller gets busy?....
 
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