Unpredictable Weather

I was supposed to take the Cherokee down for the 50 hr inspection today, but they were fogged in down south, so that got nixed until tomorrow. We still had a couple hours to spare before the inspection was due however, so we decided to fly a few trips up the coast.

The weather started out around 2500 ft ceilings at home, with afternoon t-storms and rain showers forecast. The first trip was uneventful, with the ceilings up the coast going down to 700 ft. Lower than ideal, but still easily flyable. By the time I got back the other pilot was there with a fresh weather update and ready to join the flying. The storms were now visible on the horizon but looked like they may pass to the south of us, and there were no lightning strikes observed, so we decided to depart and try to get one more flight in.

The flight on the way up was pretty much the same as the first trip. I landed 9 minutes ahead of the other pilot, and was just unloading the last of the freight when he pulled in and shut down. A passenger was flying back with me, so I installed the seat I had brought and we were off again.

As we worked our way back south the clouds were getting thicker and thicker, and we flew into some rain showers. Up ahead there was a dark foreboding patch of cloud, which looked like it had some serious lightning potential. It wasn't big at all, maybe a half a mile across, so we made a quick diversion around it.

Steadily the rain was getting heavier and the clouds thicker and lower as we approached home. About 40 miles out I checked the AWOS (weather reports), which was calling 6 miles visibility, 700 ft vertical visibility, and light rain showers. A few minutes later I tuned in again and it was calling for 1300 ft VV, even better. So far so good. It was not. In fact today was the first time working here, and the first time in a couple years now (since I had an adventure flying through torrential rain over the middle of Georgian Bay in the Twin Comanche) I became a little nervous about my situation. By the time I was approaching the airport the rain was coming down heavy enough that the rain drops and water flowing on the windshield made it difficult to see ahead. On top of that the clouds had pushed me down to 3-400 ft agl. On my 3 mile base leg I still couldn't see the airport. I had the runway guidance punched into the GPS and aside from being able to see the trees below me out the side window I was 100% on instruments. Following the GPS I turned final, and at 2 miles I still couldn't see much through the rain on the windshield. Frig I need wipers - or RainX. That stuff is awesome. But anyways. During my turn to final it crossed my mind that flying on instruments at 300 ft agl isn't exactly an ideal situation, even if it is flat everywhere. I don't have any reservations about flying on instruments, at least during cruise portions of the flight, I'm comfortable doing that. But the only navigational aids the Cherokee is equipped with is an old Apollo GPS with a text-only display, and my own handheld Lowrance. I didn't anticipate having poor visibility due to the rain on the windshield. Despite the unanticipated factors, I decided that landing was probably my best option anyways. It was either land or fly the 40 minutes back up the coast, as that is the nearest airport. By then the weather very well might be over top of that too, and I would be pretty low on fuel. My other option would be leave the zone and do a VFR hold with the GPS somewhere in IFR weather until it cleared up, which didn't seem to make much sense. So land it is. Its times like these that make me feel most alive. This is what makes flying interesting, challenging and exhilarating. Such is flying in the north - where airports and weather stations are few and far between.

By 1 mile final the runway popped into sight, and we landed uneventfully. I was suprised that the runway showed itself so far ahead, I was half expecting it to fill my windscreen at half a mile or less. I guess the rain on the windshield wasn't as bad as I thought, I just thought it was worse because trees and clouds don't allow much visual reference for how good the visibility is.

After I landing I taxied over to the terminal to drop my passenger off. There was a Dash-8 parked there, but there was still lots of room for me to pull up close to the door so my passenger didn't have to make a run for it in the rain. It wasn't until the last minute I noticed a ground power cart cord stretching across the ramp. I noticed it and slammed on the brakes at the same time a ground attendant saw that I was about to run over it and frantically motioned for me to stop. I stopped short of running the cord over, but so much for the passenger not having to make a run for it in the rain. Sorry 'bout that, but you gotta get out here.