8 days around the Great Lakes

You know, ever since I've gotten my license, I've found Canadian Flight
Service *way* more helpful than Buffalo AFSS. At the time, I thought
maybe it was innate difference between US and Canada - but as I travelled
more I found that other US AFSSes were also friendly and helpful. I think
it's just Buffalo that sucks. And it's not even all of the briefers at
Buffalo - just some of them.

Well, I think Buffalo FSS is slated for closure, so I suppose the
briefers there are just marking time till retirement. We refer to it
as having "lost that loving feeling" when one of our employees starts
to act that way...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

It was almost like someone had sucked all the oxygen out of that
elevator car. Or maybe they had spent too much time at altitude?

Maybe some joker had his finger on the remote control?

Jose
--
The monkey turns the crank and thinks he's making the music.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Hey, we hanger our Cherokee 180 with 1st Class Air. I'm glad they took good
care of you. It's a good shop.

Nice post, by the way. I'd love to take a long trip like that.


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
This is a really, REALLY long post, but it contains PIREPS on:

- 2006 Cherokee Pilots Association Fly-In in Osage Beach, Missouri
- Amelia Earhart Museum in Atchison, Kansas
- New Abraham Lincoln Center, in Springfield, Illinois
- Cedar Point Amusement Park (Roller Coasters!), in Sandusky, Ohio
- Flooding in Ohio
- Niagara Falls, in both New York and Ontario, Canada
- Flying into Canada
- Willow Run, Michigan

....so bear with me!
[snip]
After the museum, I started to feel guilty about the FBO's courtesy
car - after all, we had been using it for 24 hours - and drove back
to the airport to return it. When they discovered that we were staying
overnight again, they again INSISTED that we keep their car, and not
bother with a rental! I can't speak highly enough of 1st Class Air
- their name really fits.
[snip]

"Jose" wrote in message
. com...
[...] Ten to twenty miles is what I was taught, especially considering
that hail can fall that far away.

Hail will fall downwind, which is in the direction of the storm movement.
Jay was flying upwind, behind the storm.

As far as other hazards of thunderstorms go...

Turbulence and reduced visibility are generally experienced only within the
thunderstorm, especially if it's a small, isolated one. Likewise
microbursts. Lightning needs a cloud to start from, so again...if the sky
is clear where one is flying, that's unlikely to be an issue.

I agree that as a rule of thumb, 10 or 20 miles (depending on the size of
the storm) is a good distance to maintain. However, just as 20 miles is
excessively cautious for a medium- to small-sized storm, so too 10 miles is
not a hard and fast rule to be followed even when dealing with a relatively
small, isolated, dissipating thunderstorm, especially when flying upwind of
it, and especially when one has a weather report indicating good flying
conditions in that area.

Whether any of this applies to Jay's situation, I cannot say. Sounds like,
though, his biggest transgression was his habit of exaggeration (in which,
this time, "a mile or two" becomes "five or six miles").

Pete

In a previous article, "Jay Honeck" said:
You know, ever since I've gotten my license, I've found Canadian Flight
Service *way* more helpful than Buffalo AFSS. At the time, I thought
maybe it was innate difference between US and Canada - but as I travelled
more I found that other US AFSSes were also friendly and helpful. I think
it's just Buffalo that sucks. And it's not even all of the briefers at
Buffalo - just some of them.

Well, I think Buffalo FSS is slated for closure, so I suppose the
briefers there are just marking time till retirement. We refer to it
as having "lost that loving feeling" when one of our employees starts
to act that way...

Except they've sucked for 13 years now. I don't think it has anything to
do with marking time.

As a student pilot, I remember that if there was a scattered layer below
5,000 feet, at least one briefer there was sure to say "VFR Not
Recommended", so you'd hang up and call back to get another briefer.
Everybody in the Rochester student/cfi community knew about "VFR Not
Recommended guy".

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"I love the smell of burning components in the morning.
Smells like victory." (The ******* Operator From Hell)

Glad your trip worked out, Jay... And pleased that US customs was not
on a power trip when you reentered the country... After all, we all
know that all muslim fanatics have surnames like Honeck and come from
iowaay with a load of american teenagers...
Yes, Cedar Point is fun to fly past at low altitude, all you can see
are open screaming mouths as the big coasters go over the top...
BTW, ya gotta tell those plains farmers to stop growing them lines of
thunderbumpers out there in the mid lands and then sending them
cruising off to the east... Like you I had to adjust my flight plans
both weekends, and I wound up fetching a load of grandkids back to
Michigan a day early on Saturday because yesterday looked iffy along
the Southern shore of Lake Erie...
Leaving Port Clinton Saturday I was a bit concerned because with 5
people and baggage the Fat Boy was a few pounds over gross on a warm
day... Not to worry though, he popped off well before the half way
point on the runway my personal abort marker and grunted into the sky
at close to his usual climb rate... Both engines are running well in
spite of a steady diet of leaded crud for the past month and a half...
I'm waiting with bated breath for a fouled plug - gonna happen as those
O-320's don't like lead...

It's trips like that I am greatful for having two audio systems in the
plane... The back three headsets are on their own system and it was
noiseeee back there... The Peanut back in the dungeon (seat in the
baggage compartment) was singing 'Old Mcdonald' over and over, and the
middle two seats were having a dumb joke contest, shouted as loud as
they could... About an hour later I realized I couldn't hear any
cacophony over the engines and I turned around... They were all out
like a light - well, they had spent the day out on the Sea Doo's as
well as running around madly... Very peaceful for the remainder of the
trip...

denny

Jay Honeck wrote:

Is there any
chance of pushing it back till Friday or Saturday?

OK, you have me considering a Friday arrival. I will send you an email
today to find out if you have the room (after all, it is a holiday w'end of
sorts).


--
Peter

Like you I had to adjust my flight plans
both weekends, and I wound up fetching a load of grandkids back to
Michigan a day early on Saturday because yesterday looked iffy along
the Southern shore of Lake Erie...

Yeah, we had allowed for the chance of flying home on Sunday, but the
combination of "motel fatigue" and the chance of nasty weather (that
*did* materialize) convinced us to come home Saturday, instead.

On a VFR trip of this length I always find it amazing when we finish up
on-time, and on-course. It happens more often than not, and the key is
to be really flexible.

Both engines are running well in
spite of a steady diet of leaded crud for the past month and a half...
I'm waiting with bated breath for a fouled plug - gonna happen as those
O-320's don't like lead...

Don't ya hate this 100LL crap? Man, we paid $4.50+ per gallon a couple
of times on this trip, and the stuff is so over-leaded that I had to
lean our poor engine nearly to death to keep it running right.

Luckily (thanks, in part, to the fine-wire plugs we installed), we
experienced no further plug fouling problems, like we had last year in
Florida...

It's trips like that I am greatful for having two audio systems in the
plane... The back three headsets are on their own system and it was
noiseeee back there... The Peanut back in the dungeon (seat in the
baggage compartment) was singing 'Old Mcdonald' over and over, and the
middle two seats were having a dumb joke contest, shouted as loud as
they could... About an hour later I realized I couldn't hear any
cacophony over the engines and I turned around... They were all out
like a light - well, they had spent the day out on the Sea Doo's as
well as running around madly... Very peaceful for the remainder of the
trip...

Yeah, split audio is a blessing. Mary and I were listening to Pink
Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" while the kids were jabbering away in
the back seat -- and everyone was happy. That little feature isn't
needed often, but on long trips it's a real Godsend...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

("Jay Honeck" wrote)
This is a really, REALLY long post, but it contains PIREPS on:

- 2006 Cherokee Pilots Association Fly-In in Osage Beach, Missouri
- Amelia Earhart Museum in Atchison, Kansas
- New Abraham Lincoln Center, in Springfield, Illinois
- Cedar Point Amusement Park (Roller Coasters!), in Sandusky, Ohio
- Flooding in Ohio
- Niagara Falls, in both New York and Ontario, Canada
- Flying into Canada
- Willow Run, Michigan


Nice trip report, Jay!

To be clear: Your goal was... "To give the kids Niagara Falls."

Not, give the kids TO Niagra Falls. :-)

I was at the EAA Museum, in OSH, this past weekend. They have a model of the
Willow Run plant in the museum. That plant was huge!!


Montblack

I was at the EAA Museum, in OSH, this past weekend. They have a model of the
Willow Run plant in the museum. That plant was huge!!

For sure. The pictures (which I *will* get on our site, someday) show
Atlas looking like a little bug sitting out on Willow Run's ramp.
Hell, the giant Chinook helicopter next to us looked puny there, too.

They sure made things right, back then. But God help Yipsilanti when
that ramp needs to be replaced, some day. It would take every concrete
truck for 400 miles!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"