It?s amazing how fast two years can go by ? 600 hours or so on the airplane and in my logbook, and it is time to take another ride with my friend, co-worker, neighbor ? and CFII! We?d talked about the fact that I needed a ride before the end of June, and yesterday he got a call from the avionics shop up in Conroe (north side of Houston) that had been holding his Cessna hostage for two weeks ? it was all ready to pick up with brand new Garmin stuff in the panel! So we decided a ferry flight with a little flight review along the way would kill two birds with one stone.
We both had to work in the morning, but agreed to meet at the hangar about 1330. Well, this is Houston, and it is the summer ? by that time, a blob of thundershowers had built up to the north of Houston, a blob that was more or less an east/west line of cells about twenty miles wide with little motion, and it was right over our destination. So to kill the time, we sat down in the air-conditioned lounge (in our hangar) for some good old fashioned review. Now Jeff and I have both been doing this airplane thing for a lot of decades, and it is always a bit of a challenge to come up with new stuff to talk about. We cover rules changes (none to speak of), and I always try to ask a few esoteric what-if?s about instrument rules that might stump him (today?s was ?with the advent of almost universal moving maps, why do we still have to do procedure turns and holds over the FAF when cleared for the full approach, while we routinely get vectored right on to final with radar coverage?? The answer? Well, best we could come up with was tradition!) This year I showed Jeff Weathermeister, and I think I may have gotten Sharpie a new client?
After a good hour and a half throwing stumpers back and forth at each other, and some time spent talking about the rules of our Airpark (Jeff has lived there for years, Louise and I are just moving in), we took another look at the radar. Sure enough, the line had sagged south, and Conroe was in the clear ? but the line was between us and there. It looked like we could fly around the west side, but I was a little worried that much further development might close things off for the afternoon. But hey, it wasn?t like the world would end if I didn?t get back, and it?s not a problem to go have a look, so we strapped in and launched. Sure enough, the ceilings and visibility were good, the storm cells were very visible and coincided with the picture on the XM, as were the holes. We had to head out about to the west edge of the Class B airspace, but we needed the hour anyway, so we enjoyed ourselves watching the cells develop and staying in the sunlight. We even saw some dust plumes on the ground that were visible proof of the storm?s outflow ? very educational!
Jeff was in no hurry to get back, and wanted to test fly with the shop technician before accepting the work, so I dropped him off and immediately headed home. Well, the weather was predictable ? the line had intensified and thickened up, sagging south towards Hobby, just about 7 miles north of our field. I didn?t really need the XM to stay clear of the weather- it was painfully (and darkly) obvious where the bad stuff was, and headed west, it was easy to keep on my left. But the XM told me what was on the other side ? and that there was, in fact, another side ? and knowing that home base was still clear was important. This time I had to head out almost all the way to Eagle Lake (60 miles or so west of Houston) before getting around the end of the line of dark and impressive weather. From there, I could see the sunshine on the coast, and I had a line of easily reachable airports on my right, all the way to my destination, as ?abort sites? should the weather squeeze me out. Sure enough, the cells started to blend into one big monster storm as I flew quickly east. The Garmin showed nine minutes to go as the edge of the green stuff edged over home base, but I had a visual on the area, and I could see that was precip in the clouds, not yet down to the ground. Ceilings and Vis still good, I pressed on. As I rounded up about five miles south of the field, the wind on the EFIS had clearly shifted around to the northwest, essentially the outflow from the storm. This was good because it allowed me to shoot straight in to our runway 29, rather than have to venture up into the rain on base. Yeah, it was that close as I settled in to a final about a mile out, using the prop as a speed brake to quickly get down to flap speed. I could see the main road about a mile northwest disappearing in rain as I crossed the threshold with the first drops hitting the windshield. By the time I was stopped and back-taxied, I was getting more rain on the canopy, and it was time to get the airplane in the hangar!
Now of course, that sounds pretty dramatic, but in the big scheme of things, it wasn?t that risky, because I had carefully discussed limits and abort options with myself as I headed in to the field. First, I wasn?t committed to land ? I still had good clear air to the south and east, and airports (and fuel) to go sit at if I needed to. Second, I decided that if, at any time, I needed more than 1/3 control deflection in any axis, I was adding power, turning out to the right, and getting out of Dodge. Third, I kept an eye on the visibility to make sure that it was way more than legal. These big afternoon boomers usually have plenty of good clear air around them. And lastly, I had XM weather telling exactly what was going on around and behind me so that I couldn?t get trapped. While there were clouds and rain drops over the field, it was sunny just two miles southeast.
Once again, the speed and range of the RV, coupled with XM allowed me to pick my way safely around the weather with good safety margins. I don?t often use the ?animation? mode, but in this case, it was very useful to see how the weather was developing and moving. All in all, this was probably one of the better biennials we have done ? and Jeff wasn?t even with me for the best part! It was challenging, required some good problem-solving, and the exercise of rules and good judgment. Now THAT is what I like to see in a BFR!
We both had to work in the morning, but agreed to meet at the hangar about 1330. Well, this is Houston, and it is the summer ? by that time, a blob of thundershowers had built up to the north of Houston, a blob that was more or less an east/west line of cells about twenty miles wide with little motion, and it was right over our destination. So to kill the time, we sat down in the air-conditioned lounge (in our hangar) for some good old fashioned review. Now Jeff and I have both been doing this airplane thing for a lot of decades, and it is always a bit of a challenge to come up with new stuff to talk about. We cover rules changes (none to speak of), and I always try to ask a few esoteric what-if?s about instrument rules that might stump him (today?s was ?with the advent of almost universal moving maps, why do we still have to do procedure turns and holds over the FAF when cleared for the full approach, while we routinely get vectored right on to final with radar coverage?? The answer? Well, best we could come up with was tradition!) This year I showed Jeff Weathermeister, and I think I may have gotten Sharpie a new client?
After a good hour and a half throwing stumpers back and forth at each other, and some time spent talking about the rules of our Airpark (Jeff has lived there for years, Louise and I are just moving in), we took another look at the radar. Sure enough, the line had sagged south, and Conroe was in the clear ? but the line was between us and there. It looked like we could fly around the west side, but I was a little worried that much further development might close things off for the afternoon. But hey, it wasn?t like the world would end if I didn?t get back, and it?s not a problem to go have a look, so we strapped in and launched. Sure enough, the ceilings and visibility were good, the storm cells were very visible and coincided with the picture on the XM, as were the holes. We had to head out about to the west edge of the Class B airspace, but we needed the hour anyway, so we enjoyed ourselves watching the cells develop and staying in the sunlight. We even saw some dust plumes on the ground that were visible proof of the storm?s outflow ? very educational!
Jeff was in no hurry to get back, and wanted to test fly with the shop technician before accepting the work, so I dropped him off and immediately headed home. Well, the weather was predictable ? the line had intensified and thickened up, sagging south towards Hobby, just about 7 miles north of our field. I didn?t really need the XM to stay clear of the weather- it was painfully (and darkly) obvious where the bad stuff was, and headed west, it was easy to keep on my left. But the XM told me what was on the other side ? and that there was, in fact, another side ? and knowing that home base was still clear was important. This time I had to head out almost all the way to Eagle Lake (60 miles or so west of Houston) before getting around the end of the line of dark and impressive weather. From there, I could see the sunshine on the coast, and I had a line of easily reachable airports on my right, all the way to my destination, as ?abort sites? should the weather squeeze me out. Sure enough, the cells started to blend into one big monster storm as I flew quickly east. The Garmin showed nine minutes to go as the edge of the green stuff edged over home base, but I had a visual on the area, and I could see that was precip in the clouds, not yet down to the ground. Ceilings and Vis still good, I pressed on. As I rounded up about five miles south of the field, the wind on the EFIS had clearly shifted around to the northwest, essentially the outflow from the storm. This was good because it allowed me to shoot straight in to our runway 29, rather than have to venture up into the rain on base. Yeah, it was that close as I settled in to a final about a mile out, using the prop as a speed brake to quickly get down to flap speed. I could see the main road about a mile northwest disappearing in rain as I crossed the threshold with the first drops hitting the windshield. By the time I was stopped and back-taxied, I was getting more rain on the canopy, and it was time to get the airplane in the hangar!
Now of course, that sounds pretty dramatic, but in the big scheme of things, it wasn?t that risky, because I had carefully discussed limits and abort options with myself as I headed in to the field. First, I wasn?t committed to land ? I still had good clear air to the south and east, and airports (and fuel) to go sit at if I needed to. Second, I decided that if, at any time, I needed more than 1/3 control deflection in any axis, I was adding power, turning out to the right, and getting out of Dodge. Third, I kept an eye on the visibility to make sure that it was way more than legal. These big afternoon boomers usually have plenty of good clear air around them. And lastly, I had XM weather telling exactly what was going on around and behind me so that I couldn?t get trapped. While there were clouds and rain drops over the field, it was sunny just two miles southeast.
Once again, the speed and range of the RV, coupled with XM allowed me to pick my way safely around the weather with good safety margins. I don?t often use the ?animation? mode, but in this case, it was very useful to see how the weather was developing and moving. All in all, this was probably one of the better biennials we have done ? and Jeff wasn?t even with me for the best part! It was challenging, required some good problem-solving, and the exercise of rules and good judgment. Now THAT is what I like to see in a BFR!
