When I checked the weather Wednesday night I wasn't too happy: it looked like
there were two cold fronts pushing their way through North Carolina and I might
have to deal with them for my flight Thursday morning down to the beach. When I
called flight service in the morning, they were calling for 57 knot winds and
moderate turbulence at my planned altitude... up my rear. "Hell", I thought,
"My teeth may get rattled out of my head but at least it won't be for long."

The wind was blowing out of the west as I lined up on runway 20 at Rock Hill
(KUZA) but in for a penny, in for a pound. A very short roll later, I was
flying, climbing like a scalded cat in the cold air. The GPS was showing ground
speeds faster in climb than I'm accustomed to in descent. The flight down to
the coast wasn't nearly as rough as I thought it would be... actually just a
little light chop. But faaassssttt! At one point I was reading ground speeds
of 192 knots... not too shabby for an old Piper Arrow. The majority of the
flight was in excess of 170 knots, still pretty good for a 135 knot airplane.

Well, you know there's always a price to be paid. After enjoying a fine meal
last night with my dad and some of our friends, it was time to come back home
this morning. Checking the winds aloft, I saw that my usual altitude still had
winds from the same direction as yesterday, although lighter now (down to about
27 knots). BAH! But wait! The winds down low were in the opposite direction!

I ended up with a 15 knot tailwind going home at 2500 feet. In fact, the trip
wasn't long enough for the 24 hour minimum for keeping the airplane overnight
and I ended up paying for .3 hours that I didn't actually fly. (If you pay for
three hours minimum per day you can keep the plane overnight.)


Life is good.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE