We had 4 inches of snow last night. I had some flights I was supposed to do in the morning around 8:30, but the boss said if the weather doesn't look great when I wake up just go back to bed. Sounds good to me. Sure enough as my alarm went off this morning I got up and peaked out the window. I was surprised to see the winter wonderland out the window, but it didn't look to good for flying. Just to be sure I checked the weather reports, and they confirmed the Mark 1 Weather Observation System (aka living room window), so I crawled back under the gloriously warm blankets.
About an hour or so later the boss knocked on my door as per usual and said the weather's looking better, so to be ready in a half hour. We were supposed to have a couple freight trips, but we didn't end up getting all of the freight for one of the trips, so that's been pushed till tomorrow, so I just had the one, and then I had one pax trip after the train arrived in the afternoon.
The Cherokee is down south for maintenance, so I'm flying the C206 in the meantime. I've got almost 50 hrs in it now, and its starting to grow on me, but I think I still like the Cherokee a better. The 206 is just so awkward to climb into. You have to move the seat all the way back, then climb in by vaulting off the tire, and somehow squeeze your feet through the 6" space between the seat and the front of the door openning. Then you have to slide the seat forward, watching that you don't tangle your feet in the dangling headset wires in the process. Before you do that however you have to latch the back cargo door, which can only be done from the inside. Not a big deal if you have a full load of passengers, you can just get them to do it, but if the back of the airplane is all loaded up with freight you have to go in from the front door, somehow reach across the airplane through/over the baggage, feel for the handle, and latch it (you'll have to do that again to unlatch it). Boarding was not a top priority on the engineer's design features for Cessnas.
We got out to the airport, and thankfully it was still well below zero the snow was dry and fluffy so it was just a matter of pulling the wing covers off and then brushing off the rest of the airplane. No scraping ice. We also ended up waiting 15 min or so for the freight to be delivered out to the airplane, so I got a chance to brush the snow off the Twin Comanche as well. Better to do it now than when it warms up a few degrees and turns crusty. The first trip was uneventful. After I came back we still had a couple hours until the train came in so I had a chance to go home and get something to eat before I headed out for my second trip.
The second trip was two adults, both large people, with a baby and a small toddler, and a TON of stuff. It was awkward stuff to pack too. Things like a shovel, a baby basket and a sled as well as the usual boxes and bags. Finally we managed to pack it all in and squeeze the doors shut. The packing job was a work of art. Next came loading the passengers in from the other door. I keep my flight bag in between the two front seats, but that presents a problem for the front seat passenger in boarding since he has to climb over the pilot seat into the front right seat, so I pulled my bag out and put it on the ground beside the airplane. I'll throw it back in after my front passenger has boarded and then I'll be the last to climb in myself. The woman climbed in and got seated in the back, and I waited to host the toddler up onto her lap as she dug around for her seatbelt. She found the one strap, but couldn't locate the other one. I tried to poke my head in and help her dig around to find it, but with no luck. It must have been buried under the bags packed beside the seat. I couldn't get it with her still seated, so she had to extricate herself from the airplane so I could better dig my hands under the bags and pull it out. Still no luck, I couldn't find it. I did however find the rung that it should have been attached to, so that means it wasn't there. Dang. So I wormed my arm through the stacks of cargo to unlatch the back door, and then walked around to the other side of the airplane to see if I could dig up the seatbelt. I tried rustling around with my hand wedged under all the cargo to find it, but still had no luck, so getting quite frusterated, started UNPACKING the back of the airplane again to locate the missing seatbelt strap. I ended up unpacking the entire airplane, because the strap must have somehow come loose during the previous freight trip and been thrown by someone to the very tail end of the cabin.
In a hurried frusteration I started REPACKING the airplane again. It wasn't quite the work of art that it was the first time, but still managed to get it all in there. Time for take two. Once again I closed the door and walked back around to start the boarding process again. Somehow try to latch the back door, load the back passenger, get her belted in, hand her the toddler. Hold the baby while the front passenger climbs in. I've held so many babies this year than I ever thought I would. I used to generally avoid holding babies cause I had never really done it before, but its kind of a requirement of the job here. Apparently I'm doing something right because when the father handed him to me he was crying away, but as soon as I took him in my arms he stopped instantly, lol. Finally everyone was good to go, so I hauled myself up into the airplane. I got seated, and was just about to put my seatbelt on when the passenger in the back piped up, "What about your briefcase?" Aww frig, there it is, still sitting on the ground beside the airplane, out of arms reach. So I extricated myself from the airplane to retrieve my bag, stuffed it between the seats, and climbed back in. I'm glad she said something. I probably would have started up the airplane, then reached for my notebook to record the time, and done the 'ol slap the forehead routine. What a gong show. FINALLY everyone was aboard, the doors were closed, and we were ready to go. Just one of those days.
Showing posts with label winter flying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter flying. Show all posts
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Winter Flying is Here
So winter arrived for real yesterday. We got about 2 inches of snow over the course of yesterday and last night. As the afternoon rolled around my boss came by to tell me the weather looked ok to try some flights. We had a couple trips booked.
When I got out to the airport they had the Cherokee fueled and loaded up and the wing covers off already. I had to take one passenger and a load of the usual freight up to the usual destination. The AWOS was calling 1500 ft ceilings and good visibility before I took off, with the surface temperature just above freezing. I took off into a crisp 13 kt wind directly down the runway. Most of the flight we went through some mist/drizzle, so I stayed at 500 ft, knowing that the temperature up above would probably dip just below freezing, making the drizzle turn into icing conditions. I was sure to be vigilant in checking for carburetor icing. Carburetors have the interesting property of being able to ice up even in atmospheric temperatures well above freezing. Carburetors employ a bernoulli effect to create a lower pressure and draw up the fuel and mix it with the air. A side effect of this air pressure lowering is a cooling effect on the air. So even though outside air temperatures may be above freezing, its quite possible that the air in the carburetor is well below freezing temperatures.
As I left the airport area I passed the local Navajo coming back from where I was going. We gave each other a quick call to make sure we were safely separated, and he also let me know conditions up the coast were about 1500 ft ceilings, good vis underneath, with the winds on a direct crosswind to the runway. The winds weren't too strong, and I touched down lightly on a slushly and soggy gravel runway, with two tiny snow piles plowed alongside the runway.
I dropped off my passenger and unloaded the freight tromping around on the slushy gravel. I bought some winter boots about a week ago when I was down south for the last inspection, and today I was glad I did, my feet stayed warm and dry. They're kind of like a high hiking boot except with a fully rubberized foot section so they're fully waterproof up to about 3 inches, but the lace and toungue section is also fully attached to make them near-waterproof up to the full height of the boot. My summer-weight hiking boots I've been wearing all summer are cracked in the bottom of the rubber sole and no longer waterproof in the least. For the price I paid they didn't hold up to much actually, they started cracking like that 4 months after I bought them, and I haven't really abused them in the least. Don't ever buy Prospector brand boots, waste of $120. Pieces.of.crap. Hopefully my new winter Columbia brand boots hold up better. They were regular $76, but when I took them to the counter to pay for them, surprise! They were on sale for $60. Sweet deal.
Anyways, once again the cops were there to do a quick search. They've really been cracking down. They've been at the airport almost every time I've been there the last few weeks. Its good.
I took off and climbed out to head back south. I knew for the second trip since it was getting late in the day it would cool down a few degrees more, so I decided to do some experimenting and climb up to 1500 hr ft, where it would be cooler, and I could simulate what the misty conditions would do on my second trip back up north in the cooler weather. Sure enough as the temp dropped below 0 the water droplets on the window would start to freeze. That's icing, so I went back down lower where we were still in the positive temps. By the time I had made it back further south and temperature had already dropped a couple of degrees, and even at 500 it was -1. I checked the AWOS and the surface temp was reported as being right on 0.
My windshield had started collecting trace amounts of ice even down at 500 ft. I wasn't going through the drizzle for the entire flight, so the ice would collect on the windshield for a few minutes, and then sublimate off, then collect some more etc, so I never got a build-up any thicker than just a paper-thin layer, but it was icing nonetheless. I landed and my boss pulled up with another passenger with him and asked me how the weather was. I told him about the icing.
"Oh, well thats not too good, I guess we'll try the second trip in the morning."
So that was it for the day, he turned around to take the passengers back while I pushed the airplane back into its parking spot, refueled it and put the engine blanket back on. There was still a thin layer of clear ice covering the leading edges of the wings. It was only maybe the thickness of 2 or 3 pieces of paper - not thick enough to see from the cockpit with no sun to glint off of it, but it was still cool to see it up close. I've picked up a little bit of icing a couple times before in the last month, but its always been above 0 degrees on the ground and so had melted off and disappeared before I had a chance to look at it from outside the cockpit.
When I got out to the airport they had the Cherokee fueled and loaded up and the wing covers off already. I had to take one passenger and a load of the usual freight up to the usual destination. The AWOS was calling 1500 ft ceilings and good visibility before I took off, with the surface temperature just above freezing. I took off into a crisp 13 kt wind directly down the runway. Most of the flight we went through some mist/drizzle, so I stayed at 500 ft, knowing that the temperature up above would probably dip just below freezing, making the drizzle turn into icing conditions. I was sure to be vigilant in checking for carburetor icing. Carburetors have the interesting property of being able to ice up even in atmospheric temperatures well above freezing. Carburetors employ a bernoulli effect to create a lower pressure and draw up the fuel and mix it with the air. A side effect of this air pressure lowering is a cooling effect on the air. So even though outside air temperatures may be above freezing, its quite possible that the air in the carburetor is well below freezing temperatures.
As I left the airport area I passed the local Navajo coming back from where I was going. We gave each other a quick call to make sure we were safely separated, and he also let me know conditions up the coast were about 1500 ft ceilings, good vis underneath, with the winds on a direct crosswind to the runway. The winds weren't too strong, and I touched down lightly on a slushly and soggy gravel runway, with two tiny snow piles plowed alongside the runway.
I dropped off my passenger and unloaded the freight tromping around on the slushy gravel. I bought some winter boots about a week ago when I was down south for the last inspection, and today I was glad I did, my feet stayed warm and dry. They're kind of like a high hiking boot except with a fully rubberized foot section so they're fully waterproof up to about 3 inches, but the lace and toungue section is also fully attached to make them near-waterproof up to the full height of the boot. My summer-weight hiking boots I've been wearing all summer are cracked in the bottom of the rubber sole and no longer waterproof in the least. For the price I paid they didn't hold up to much actually, they started cracking like that 4 months after I bought them, and I haven't really abused them in the least. Don't ever buy Prospector brand boots, waste of $120. Pieces.of.crap. Hopefully my new winter Columbia brand boots hold up better. They were regular $76, but when I took them to the counter to pay for them, surprise! They were on sale for $60. Sweet deal.
Anyways, once again the cops were there to do a quick search. They've really been cracking down. They've been at the airport almost every time I've been there the last few weeks. Its good.
I took off and climbed out to head back south. I knew for the second trip since it was getting late in the day it would cool down a few degrees more, so I decided to do some experimenting and climb up to 1500 hr ft, where it would be cooler, and I could simulate what the misty conditions would do on my second trip back up north in the cooler weather. Sure enough as the temp dropped below 0 the water droplets on the window would start to freeze. That's icing, so I went back down lower where we were still in the positive temps. By the time I had made it back further south and temperature had already dropped a couple of degrees, and even at 500 it was -1. I checked the AWOS and the surface temp was reported as being right on 0.
My windshield had started collecting trace amounts of ice even down at 500 ft. I wasn't going through the drizzle for the entire flight, so the ice would collect on the windshield for a few minutes, and then sublimate off, then collect some more etc, so I never got a build-up any thicker than just a paper-thin layer, but it was icing nonetheless. I landed and my boss pulled up with another passenger with him and asked me how the weather was. I told him about the icing.
"Oh, well thats not too good, I guess we'll try the second trip in the morning."
So that was it for the day, he turned around to take the passengers back while I pushed the airplane back into its parking spot, refueled it and put the engine blanket back on. There was still a thin layer of clear ice covering the leading edges of the wings. It was only maybe the thickness of 2 or 3 pieces of paper - not thick enough to see from the cockpit with no sun to glint off of it, but it was still cool to see it up close. I've picked up a little bit of icing a couple times before in the last month, but its always been above 0 degrees on the ground and so had melted off and disappeared before I had a chance to look at it from outside the cockpit.
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