Cool flight to WI today...

[Jay Honeck]

With Mary as PIC, we flew to our old hometown of Racine, WI today, for my
son's 13th birthday. Because of an unusually tall layer of scattered
clouds, we ended up at 9500 feet to get above 'em.

On course at this altitude, we flew smack-dab into the Sunday afternoon
arrival "train" coming into O'Hare from the west. As a result, an
incredibly busy Chicago Approach controller repeatedly called out "traffic,
9 o'clock" for us...

And this wasn't some Bonanza coming in at 9 o'clock -- we're talking 747s!
My kids and I were awed and amazed to see the largest airliners in the world
coming RIGHT at us, at our altitude, looking right down the left wing! Not
once, but four different times as we traversed the area!

I took a bunch of pictures, which will no doubt show that they weren't
nearly as close as they looked -- but we were clearly able to read the
"United" insignia on one that passed in front of us. It's astonishing how
fast one of those huge beasts is really moving, and I can only wonder what
the passengers must have thought when they saw our little plane off their
starboard wing!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jack Allison]

>, and I can only wonder what
> the passengers must have thought when they saw our little plane off their
> starboard wing!

"Hey, nice spam can!" Either that or "Hey, there go Jay and Mary Honeck,
owners/operators of the greatest place to say in Iowa City". I'm sure
they'd recognize your N-number.

--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

[Jay Honeck]

> "Hey, nice spam can!" Either that or "Hey, there go Jay and Mary Honeck,
> owners/operators of the greatest place to say in Iowa City". I'm sure
> they'd recognize your N-number.

Right.

More likely they started shrieking and pointing wildly, only to later demand
a full inquiry into the "near-miss" caused by that "little bitty plane"...
:)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Montblack]

Hope the in-flight movie wasn't Airport 1975

--
Montblack
"I like to watch"

"Jay Honeck"
> More likely they started shrieking and pointing wildly, only to later
demand
> a full inquiry into the "near-miss" caused by that "little bitty plane"...

[Jack Allison]

Ya, I know...nice thought though.

It is cool to see something that big only a few miles from you. I've seen a
C5 and a couple of KC-135s within five miles of me. Awesome.

--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

[john smith]

Jay Honeck wrote:
> With Mary as PIC, we flew to our old hometown of Racine, WI today, for my
> son's 13th birthday. Because of an unusually tall layer of scattered
> clouds, we ended up at 9500 feet to get above 'em.

Jay, please take this as friendly advice from someone who wants to
continue partying with you at OSH.
With the type of weather we have been experiencing of late, it is best
to stay below the bases than to climb on top.
When the Cu's start poppin', they can rapidly exceed your aircraft's
rate of climb and fill in underneath you, leaving you some unpleasant
opions.
I have been watching the skies for the past week. Along about 11 AM, the
Cu's start poppin'. These are air mass developments, not associated with
any fronts or troughs. They move slowly in the horizontal direction, if
at all. They can fill in alot of square miles beneath you, though.
Regards, Eric

[Toks Desalu]

> Hope the in-flight movie wasn't Airport 1975

Funny thing, I was watching Airport 1975 on AME last night. Unfortunately, I
wasn't on that United flight.

Toks

[Jay Honeck]

> > Jay, please take this as friendly advice from someone who wants to
> > continue partying with you at OSH.
> > With the type of weather we have been experiencing of late, it is best
> > to stay below the bases than to climb on top.
>
> I really have to really agree with what John say here!

Thanks for the concern, guys, but we had excellent visibility during this
flight, and a really good "sun pattern" visible on the ground ahead. In my
experience, watching the sun pattern on the ground is the only way to tell
if the clouds are really filling in ahead...

We wouldn't be playing in the towering cumulous without those two factors in
our favor, trust me!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Dennis O'Connor]

If you think that having an IFR cert in your wallet means you can now file
right into building cumulus with a negative lifted index (lets say -5 !),
you have bigger cajones than me...
Being on an IFR plan means the nice controller person gets to vector you
right into some hairy chested, old grandpa, thunder bumper, while you can
see is the inside of a cloud...

Denny - who is ifr cert, and just recently picked his way through 300nm of
level 4 thunderstorms - vfr and underneath....

[vincent p. norris]

>Being on an IFR plan means the nice controller person gets to vector you
>right into some hairy chested, old grandpa, thunder bumper, while you can
>see is the inside of a cloud...

Sunday a week ago (Aug 3) I was trying to fly north from RDU to
Winchester VA. Trying his best to be helpful, the controller kept
trying to vector me into a big black wall of CN, telling me he had
only level 1 or 2 echoes.

But my stormscope was lighting up, and having flown through a couple
of thunderstorms back in the early 50s, when I was in the marines and
there was no wx radar, I had no intention of going into that stuff. I
landed at an alternate.

vince norris-- an old, not bold, pilot

[Big John]

Vince

Good move.

As they ussed to say....................

"Park the airplane and go to the bar and live to fly another day"

Big John

-----clip----

>Trying his best to be helpful, the controller kept
>trying to vector me into a big black wall of CN,
>telling me he had only level 1 or 2 echoes.
>
>But my stormscope was lighting up, and having
>flown through a couple of thunderstorms back in
>the early 50s, when I was in the marines and
>there was no wx radar, I had no intention of going
>into that stuff. I landed at an alternate.
>
>vince norris-- an old, not bold, pilot

[Snowbird]

"Dennis O'Connor" > wrote in message >...
> If you think that having an IFR cert in your wallet means you can now file
> right into building cumulus with a negative lifted index (lets say -5 !),
> you have bigger cajones than me...

And smaller brains...

A month or so ago we were trying to pick our way west through
tstorm activity. The FSS briefer started out "VFR not Recommended"
and it was hard to get anything else out of him even though I could
see the view out the window wasn't nearly as dire as the wx reporting
points off to the south of us would have it. My plan was to run west
as far as I could staying visual, then duck and eat lunch while the
crap went overhead.

I finally said "Well it's clearly not good IFR weather so let's get
a standard briefing here"

*shocked pause*

"What do you mean by 'not good IFR weather'? What would you call
good IFR weather?"

"No embedded thunderstorms in the clouds".

Sometimes when we're traveling I am *sooooo* homesick for DUATS..
and FSS wonders why pilots aren't anxious to jump up and fight
for them.....to his credit, he did get the point and give me a
decent briefing after that.

> Being on an IFR plan means the nice controller person gets to vector you
> right into some hairy chested, old grandpa, thunder bumper, while you can
> see is the inside of a cloud...

Yep. He might not mean to but....overheard one day on freq.
apparently just after a controller sent someone through some
rough stuff: "Ah, yes, sir, we've been commenting unfavorably
on the weather limitations of our radar for 20 years now."

Underneath vs. above, depends on details of the wx though.

Cheers,
Sydney