A Beautiful Easter Flight

Nice story Jay.
I am just a couple of hours east of you and we had an entirely different
Easter flying experience.
I departed 3CK which is 30mile NW of Chicago Saturday morning with the
intended destination of Smith Field in Fort Wayne Indiana. Saturday morning
was MVFR to VFR in the Chicago area with IFR and icing condition in Northern
Indiana improving to MVFR around noon that day. So our plan was to take the
172 first to Morris for some breakfast, recheck weather and decide to push
forward, wait it out or go home.

Around 10:30am things were looking better towards Ft. Wayne still and airmet
for icing but the PIREPs were showing no icing below 6000 which is where the
OATs that were reported to finally be at 0C and the while ceilings were low
(900 to 1200) there were tops at about 3000 with the next layer at 5500MSL.
So we decided to push on.

Upon take off I could not raise departure to get my clearance and the vis
was going down so I was just starting to begin a turn back to the field and
try the cell phone when I was finally able to get Chi-Center on the radio
got my clearance and climbed to 4000MSL.

For the first 45 minutes we were between layers with a distinct blue band
visible way off in the distance in every direction except in my direction of
travel. The OAT was 3C, I kept an eye on it and pushed forward. As we got
just past the OXI VOR we got into full IMC but the OAT was still 3C so again
I pushed on but got out approach plates for a couple of alternates incase
some ice started forming. I talked to Flight Watch and a the only recent
icing report was for 7000 feet and thing would improve as got closer to Ft.
Wayne.

But about 10 minutes after that the temp started dropping and clear ice
began to form. The 172, I have been told, will hold a lot of ice but I never
intend to see how much. So at the first sign of ice I asked for lower since
I knew that in this case higher was colder, I got 3000MSL but it was still
0C and there was still trace ice forming. I'll take the safe road and knowin
g it was warmer behind me I asked for diversion to Valparaiso were there is
a nice airport with an ILS on runway 27, this set me up almost for a
straight in approach..

Within 2 minutes of turning around I was back into the warmer air and the
little bit of ice that formed was gone. I was still in IMC and shot a
perfect ILS breaking out 400AGL, landed, and hung out at the airport lounge
for 2 hours until it warmed up at Ft. Wayne.

At about 1pm all along the route of flight things had warmed up, no icing
reports but still low ceilings, we departed and stayed at 3000MSL, which
had warmed up to 2C and when we got to Smith we broke out a few seconds
after starting the approach.

On Easter We departed VFR but hit some IMC around the southern Lake Michigan
Areas but we had filled IFR and were well above the low layer with high
cirrus above. When we lost that low layer around Joliet the air got really
rough, like you describe and we could not find any smooth air. So we bumped
our way home and landed. My wife said it was the first time she felt like
she was going to throw up in an airplane.

Scott

--
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Scott F. Migaldi, K9PO
MI-150972
PP-ASEL-IA

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"I can accept that Bush won the election. What I have a hard time
swallowing is that I live in a country where more than half the
population is willfully ignorant, politically obstinate, religiously
prejudiced, and embarrassingly gullible."

-------------------------------------
"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:zEJ1e.112246$Ze3.15858@attbi_s51...
We wrapped up a quiet weekend at the hotel (holidays are usually slow in a
college town, since no one is actually *from* here), and the weather
couldn't have been better. Sunny skies, light winds, temps in the upper
50s, and expected to hit the 70s tomorrow.

But where to go? We wanted to do an Easter Brunch somewhere, but our
usual
haunts were closed, and the greasy spoon diner in Lone Rock -- normally a
favorite -- just didn't seem up to the stature of the day.

Mary struck upon the idea of visiting the Black Angus, located in Prairie
du
Chien, WI (PDC - http://www.airnav.com/airport/KPDC ) . This grand old
restaurant, located right across the street from the airport, never
disappoints, with its old-fashioned soup and salad bar, excellent service,
and great steaks. And landing in PDC is beautiful in any season, with the
airport located at the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers.

We figured that the Angus would surely be having an Easter brunch of some
sort, but it seemed that a phone call was in order, just to make sure that
food would be waiting at the other end of the flight. Digging out our
spanking-new copy of the AOPA Directory, we were surprised to find that
the
Angus is no longer listed in "the Bible" (as we irreverently call this
indispensable book.). I suppose someone forgot to fill out the
paperwork,
or maybe the owner got in a snit with the airport manager? Who knows?

Second surprise: No answer at the FBO. Amazingly, this municipal airport
was closed on a Christian religious holiday -- welcome to small-town
America!

So, we launched "blind", but with the assurance that we could always call
the nearby casino and get a ride over to their excellent buffet. (A
casino
never misses a trick, Easter or not!)

The flight was surprisingly bumpy, given the sunny skies and calm winds --
until we broke out on top of the haze layer at 5000 feet. Once above it
all, the air was as still as a wading pool, and the kids and I sat back to
enjoy the flight while Mary did all the work.

The landscape unfurled beneath us, and it was interesting to see the mix
of
winter and spring on the ground. From our lofty perch one could still see
a
hint of snow and ice in the darkest forests and ravines, while in exposed
sunny areas the first blush of green grass was apparent. It's easy to see
how it will only take a couple of warm days to make life spring from the
earth anew -- and, boy, are we ready for it!

The pattern for Rwy 14 always takes you perilously close to the bluffs
that
loom over the city, which makes for great sight-seeing and a relatively
high
workload landing. (For sure don't EVER get low landing there at night!)
Mary pulled off a nice greaser with her usual aplomb, and we taxied in to
park next to a gorgeous 1949 Bonanza.

We knew it was a '49, because the owners cousin was right there, and had
to
tell us all about it. The owner himself was no where to be found, but the
cousin had felt compelled to come out to the airport on this sunny spring
day, just to hang out near this beautiful machine, fresh as it was from
the
restoration shop.

I understood completely.

The Angus was open, the meal was excellent, and reasonably priced. After
a
long, leisurely repast, we ambled happily back to the plane, to find that
our neighboring Bo had been replaced by a 2000 Commander 115. This
perfectly stunning machine was owned by a strangely unfriendly couple, who
sullenly said "thanks" to our compliments about their beautiful steed. We
shrugged it off to bad luck at the gaming tables, and got on with our
preflight.

My 14-year old son was "pretend PIC" for this flight home, so I handed him
the fuel tester and let him have at it. Following him around silently, he
absent-mindedly overlooked giving the wheel pant a wiggle, so I pointed
this
out to him. He gave it a gently tug, and we were both surprised to find
the
top two screws quite loose!

Both looking accusingly at Mary, who immediately 'fessed up to having
forgot
to check it earlier, we dug out a screwdriver and tightened the offending
screws down. Knowing that I was the last guy to have installed those
screws, I inwardly cursed myself -- but wisely kept quiet....
;-)

The rest of the preflight went well, and we hopped into the plane. Joey
ran
through the pre-start checklist, and did everything "by the book"
including
startup and taxi. He announced our intentions to taxi to the runway on
the
radio, and stopped at the hold-short line, where he conducted a
picture-perfect run-up.

Rolling out onto the runway, he smoothly applied full power, and we
trundled
down the runway and into the air. With the river bluffs looming in the
distance, we racked it around fairly tightly and proceeded downriver,
admiring the usually invisible campground where the kids and I usually
motorcycle camp each summer.

The bumps were still there, but Joey did an excellent job of ignoring
them,
keeping us on course and climbing. He's been flying all of his life, and
is
just a natural. I had to chastise him a bit for arguing with his little
sister on the intercom -- an absolute no-no while flying -- but otherwise
he
was a smooth stick all the way home.

Cutting loose from Cedar Rapids Approach ten miles out, Joey did the
announcing again as we approached the pattern for an overhead entry to
Runway 30. He spotted traffic off the arrival end of the runway (that
never responded to my radio calls, and eventually disappeared), and
expertly
brought us into the downwind leg before I took over, mostly due to the
bumps
that were making a stabilized approach impossible.

After landing, he taxied us to our hangar, and completed another .9 hours
of
"flight training" that will hopefully make getting his ticket a breeze.

The weather was so nice that we decided to pull the Mustang convertible
out
of the back of the hangar, and clean the plane up a bit. (It sat outside
for a week in Florida, and was really a mess.) While polishing the prop,
a
new neighbor pulled up on his motorcycle, and we happily chewed the fat
with
him about his 5-year-and-counting RV-9 project... The sun was warm, the
winds were light, the music was playing... It just doesn't get any better
than this.

I don't know about you guys, but I simply can't imagine a better way to
spend Easter Sunday. Can you?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

snip

I don't know about you guys, but I simply can't imagine a better way to
spend Easter Sunday. Can you?

Yeah, the Badgers could have won.... Had the game on the ADF. Cable (3CU) to
Waukesha (UES) at 5500, if they'd have gone into overtime like everyone
else I would have had to circle the field for a while. As it was we landed
15 minutes after the game ended.

--
Frank....H