A 2004 AOPA Fly-In PIREP

What follows is my PIREP of the AOPA Fly-In, held in Frederick, Maryland
(US) this past Saturday, June 6, '04.

For the second year in a row, which just happened to coincide with both
of my appearances there, the weather for the Fly-In was absolutely
miserable. A low pressure system had quickly formed a day or so before
the event and parked itself just to the southeast, right on the coast of
Virginia. The low spun a copious amount of Atlantic Ocean moisture
counter-clockwise directly into Maryland and Pennsylvania.

At 6:40a we departed Syracuse, NY, in the Bonanza V35, hoping to arrive
at the Fly-In before the 9:00a Rod Machado lecture. With an hour and a
half projected time en route, that goal certainly seemed realistic. The
weather and volume of inbound IFR traffic would challenge that goal,
though.

Despite winds favoring runway 5 at Frederick, Potomac Approach would
not grant the 8:15a arrival bunch, which included our aircraft, the
straight-in GPS rwy 5 approach with lower minimums. Instead, they were
handing out the GPS or VOR rwy 23 approach with a circle-to-land rwy 5.
This would be my first actual circle-to-land with ceilings near
minimums.

I soon overheard an aircraft flying the VOR approach go missed and
report that he wanted to return to his home airport rather than try a
second time. Perhaps we won't get in today, I told my passenger, a
student pilot and friend who is a week or so away from taking his
private pilot practical test. ATC played the sequencing game with us
for 35 minutes before finally turning us in for the GPS approach.

The circle-to-land MDA for this approach was 900 feet, and passing the
final approach fix we broke out at about 1,000 feet MSL for a right
downwind to rwy 5. Yep, I can now appreciate the pitfalls of a circle-
to-land approach, especially if the visibility were down to minimums,
which thankfully this day it was not.

Despite gusty winds and moderate precipitation, the landing was
uneventful and we were flagged to parking with a shutdown time of 9:05a.
In a moment of faulty thinking, I left my coat in my car back at my home
airport, so I stepped out of the aircraft into the rain and cool
temperature wearing only a short-sleeved shirt and long pants. The
parking attendants commented on how cold the rain was. At least I had a
golf umbrella.

We ran to the restrooms, then made it to the Machado lecture, titled
"Pilot Demons: Strategies for Coping With Anxiety, Fear, Doubt, and
Uncertainty" about 10 minutes late. Overall I enjoy Rod's lectures,
although sometimes he strays off topic for minutes at a time trying to
set up a joke or two. This one had a few moments like that.

At the conclusion of Machado's talk, I ran over to the vendor tent and
quickly walked through, looking for a sweatshirt or anorak vendor.
There were none. The few retailers there were apologetically selling
tee-shirts and baseball caps, no doubt thinking the Fly-In would be warm
and sunny, as I did.

With about 45 minutes to kill until my next planned seminar, I remained
in the vendor tent seeking out engine and interior vendors, two big
projects that loom in my aircraft ownership future.

The next lecture I attended was titled "How to Save Your Life in an
Aircraft Accident," given by Dr. Ian Blair Fries. This lecture was
excellent. Dr. Fries is, IMO, a gifted public speaker and each of the
three main points presented in his lecture were quite educational to me.
The lecture covered proper engine-out glide techniques, effective
traffic spotting skills, and the importance of properly maintained
seatbelts. To me, this one seminar made the trip worthwhile and I will
be sure to seek out this speaker at future events.

With only a half hour break, we opted to get some lunch, which meant
standing in line in the rain, then eating under another tent. Coffee
and hot chocolate were selling fast, while ice-cold water and soda
remained largely untouched. Like the lecture and vendor tents, the
portable dining room also had flaps for walls, effective in keeping out
the cold wind gust.

The final seminar I attended was about aircraft interior renovations,
giving by AirMod's founder, Dennis Wolter. AirMod is well-known and
respected, if not expensive, aircraft interior renovator in the US.
I left the lecture impressed with Wolter's knowledge, experience, and
apparent dedication to customer satisfaction.

After the seminar, I rejoined my friend and we quickly walked through
the static aircraft display. Primarily the display consisted of new
aircraft vendors, with various models from Piper, Cessna, Beech,
Lancair, Diamond, and, of course, Cirrus.

Cirrus Design also provided a large trailer that housed their portable
aircraft marketing display, including video screens, wall murals,
several sales people, and an actual SR-22 cockpit section where we were
allowed to climb in and evaluate the ergonomics of Cirrus' cockpit. The
inside of the trailer was the warmest room at the Fly-In, so we remained
inside for about twenty minutes.

With plans to be home by dinner, I opted to get a weather briefing and
depart early. The briefer informed me of level 3 and level 4
precipitation returns in northern and eastern Pennsylvania (along my
most direct route home), so I filed and IFR flight plan that included a
VOR in western PA, sure to take us around the cells.

Interestingly, Potomac clearance would not grant me that route, instead
giving me a route that sent us directly into the precip. Rather than
negotiate with clearance (as he warned me of significant delays if I
needed to do so), I opted to depart and take the matter up with
departure in the form of a deviation request. Plan B involved changing
my destination to a western PA airport, with another change back to my
home airport while in the air.

As it turned out, both Potomac departure and NY center were very
accommodating and granted me whatever westerly deviation I needed to
comfortably avoid the embedded cells to our east.

While the Fly-In had all the makings of an enjoyable day, I was simply
too cold and wet to get the most out of it. Even though I logged a
couple hours of actual IMC time and my first circle-to-land approach, I
am wishful that next year the weather will cooperate.

--
Peter







----== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000 Newsgroups
---= 19 East/West-Coast Specialized Servers - Total Privacy via Encryption =---