Deb and I do a lot of VFR flying in 339A and have been very fortunate this year that the weather has cooperated on most of our trips. That is until our recent flight to Virginia/back. Being a VFR-only pilot, I thought it might be a good idea to share our experiences from that trip.
We couldn’t attend LOE this year because I had to be in Gordonsville, VA for a two-week work project starting on the 28th of Sept. The plan was to fly 339A there and back, weather permitting. This time of year, changing weather patterns can be a bit problematic. Usually, though, 3 days will allow enough time to cross the country in spite of what the weather is dishing out. When we left on Saturday, there was a front ahead of us that I knew we would catch up to. And we did, while going through MO. This forced us to land short of our planned stop in Owensboro, KY.
It’s interesting to note that I decided to get cleared through Columbia's class D. When I called the tower and communicated my intentions, the controller cleared me through and then asked a few questions about my RV. Turns out he owns a 7A and keeps it at Fulton where we were headed.
We got the keys to the courtesy car and headed to a hotel a few miles from the airport. About two hours after checking in, the room phone rings and it’s the tower controller/7A owner that I had been in contact with earlier. After talking for a bit, we realized that we had met at Osh in 2008. TJ Boos and his wife had camped right across from us. Small world. We headed out to dinner that night, TJ’s treat.
We continued on the next day following weather all the way. Our planned destination was Culpeper, VA. Once again, we wound up short. We had been flying for over an hour on top of a solid overcast when a hole opened up, and I decided to go down through. It’s worth noting that this is one of those occasions when I should have trusted my 696 with XM weather. We don’t normally like to talk about the woulda, coulda, shoudas of PIC decisions, but the XM showed Culpeper and surrounding airports as “clear” at our destination. At 45 minutes out, it just didn’t look like it was going to clear up. I believed my eyes and not my instruments. As it turned out, it was clear at Culpeper. It’s been said that hindsight is like foresight but without a future.
We ended up spending that night in Buckhannon, West Virginia. Weather next day wasn’t any better, so we sat around till three in the afternoon waiting for it to clear. Well, we finally did make it to Culpeper that afternoon, a day late for work.
Fast forward two weeks and it’s time to head home. First I had to fly over to Bay Bridge Airport to pick Deb up as she had been visiting our son in Centreville, MD. Always fun to navigate through the outer “speed ring” of the DC TFR without crossing over into the FRZ, while staying clear of all the restricted airspace on the south side. Have I mentioned that I love my new 696?!
We began our trek home knowing that we could not get all the way to Front Range that day since neither weather nor time would allow for it. As the day progressed, it was decided that we would head back to Fulton, MO where we knew a courtesy car was available and the weather was still good. After arriving at the hotel that night and looking at the forecasts, I started to worry that we might not get out of there for a few days. Next morning, my fears were confirmed. A low pressure system looked as though it was just going to sit in our way till possibly the end of the week. This just wasn’t going to work since I needed to be back at the office in Denver before then.
On to Plan B. Did I mention you must always have a Plan B when flying VFR … not only in the air, but on the ground as well? My plan was to rent a car and drive the 11 hours back to Denver. I called TJ and explained our predicament, and he was most helpful. He was working, yet managed to get hold of his wife Donna who picked us up at the airport in Fulton and drove us over to Columbia so we could pick up the rental car I had reserved. From there we began the long drive back to Denver. On a positive note, the rental was a Lincoln Town Car. Nice!
So now it’s Tuesday … 339A sits on the ramp in Fulton, MO and we’re back in Denver. With the weather forecasted to clear out for the weekend, I booked a one-way Frontier flight to Kansas City to retrieve it. I had been in contact with TJ about my plans for fetching the RV. Just so happens he has a friend whose been wanting to fly into Kansas City Airport to gain some class B experience. TJ offered up Allen’s services to come and pick me up in a 172. This arrangement makes Allen and Scott very happy. Now a two-fold mission would be completed.
Deb and I stayed at the hangar on Friday night and watched a movie on the big screen. It’s only a 15- minute drive to DIA and with a 7:00 AM departure on Frontier it was the best choice. The flight over to Kansas City in the tube was nice until about halfway across Kansas when it went solid below us. I’m thinking, “Oh great, I’m not going to get out of here today”. Once on the ground the conditions were VFR but with several layers and overcast at 6000.
A half-hour after landing in the tube, TJ calls me and says they will be over to get me in 5 minutes. I wait outside the Frontier pickup and sure enough here they come in the Executive Beechcraft van. We head back over to the general aviation ramp, pay for the fuel and load into the 172. With Allen doing the flying duties and TJ handling the radio calls, we were out of there in about 10 minutes on our way to Fulton. The flight over to KFTT was interesting as I haven’t been in the back seat of a 172 ever! The weather was clearing up and actually very nice on the ground in Fulton. A quick lunch with Donna and TJ at the diner in town and then it was off to Denver, Front Range.
I did have to fly over another solid layer for about an hour-and-a-half while crossing Kansas. This cleared up somewhere around Salina. I landed for a quick fuel stop in Beloit, KS then flew the rest of the way to FTG. It was a looong day, but good to get 339A back into the home hangar again.
Many thanks go to Donna and TJ Boos for all their help. Thanks to Allen also for flying into MCI in a 172. Not sure what we would have done without them? The RVing group is full of great people who are willing to lend a hand on a moment’s notice. We've made so many new friends all over the country thanks to the airplane we built in our garage. In the now infamous words of Rosie, we are “expanding our circle of friends.”
Most of our trip write ups don’t delve into what happens when we can no longer continue flying VFR. My intention in posting this was to show what happens on the other side of VFR. That is, you cannot always complete a flight the way you intended.
(See Rosie’s rules for cross country flying #1 and #9 as they certainly applied on this trip.) This is the downside to VFR-only flight. But then again, we still managed to get home and even had some fun doing it thanks to the friends we have made within the RV community.
KPR = “Keep pounding those rivets.”
The Other Side of VFR
. Keep flying and stay safe as always. IFR! (Not the ... kind. 
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