Montana and Back

Yesterday (Friday) I got called up for an all-day Cessna 340 trip for today. The weather was supposed to stink -- rain, storms, and cold all day so I figured why not make the run to Great Falls, Montana instead of sitting around?

Bright and early (well, not really bright) this morning I left the home of my gracious hosts Ted and Pat, with only a 15-minute drive to Oshkosh. When we took off it was nothing but nastiness between us and Rochester, MN. I flew left seat and used the onboard weather radar to pick our way around the heavier cells of precipitation. Oddly enough, it was mostly smooth - just really rainy. This picture shows our zig-zaggy route. (After a while, this link probably won't work anymore.)

We picked up our passenger in Rochester and flew west to Bismarck, North Dakota for a fuel stop. I noticed on the GPS that we'd be crossing the path that Julie and I took during our big Ercoupe trip to Montana in 2006. In fact, we flew right past Ortonville, MN, which I remember so well. Peering down at the landscape from the comfort of the Cessna 340, I could not believe that Julie and somehow managed to traverse such a long distance in such a tiny little plane, in just two days. It brought back great memories!



The weather became pretty decent toward Bismarck with mainly cumulus clouds. You can guess by the pictures that it was pretty bumpy below the clouds. In Bismarck I felt like I was going to get a sunburn standing on the ramp, the sunshine was so nice and strong. Mmm. And it was still yucky back home.

After Bismarck, next stop: Great Falls. We flew over horses on approach and could see mountains in the distance. The FBO had a beautiful western outdoors theme and a map of the Lewis & Clark expedition.

Leaving there, with a tailwind and a cruise altitude as high as 23,000 feet (my new record), we managed to make it to Rochester in one long four-hour leg. I think I have finally learned to read the altimeter without being confused above 10,000 feet. ("Let's see... really little hand plus little hand plus big hand...") I'm remembering to set it to 29.92 above 18,000 feet, and I can finally read out flight levels to air traffic control ("Two-three-zero") without thinking too hard. For someone who's spent most of 10 years below 10,000 feet, it takes some getting used to.

21,000 Feet

23,000 feet, almost touching the cirrus clouds

I also had plenty of time to learn more about the airplane's systems, especially how to manage its five fuel tanks, which requires transfering fuel and paying attention so as not to vent fuel overboard.

The sun went down enroute and I landed in the darkness and rain in Rochester. It was like landing on a lit-up carpet with all the approach lights, runway centerline lights, and touchdown zone lights. Those were a welcome sight through my wet windshield.

With one more hop, through lots of clouds and rain showers, we were back in Oshkosh by 11 p.m. It's not every day I fly from here to within 50 miles of the Continental Divide and back. It was a good way to spend a Saturday.

Spring Reunion of Online Pilot Pals

My student Vanya is nearing the end of private pilot training and needed to get some night cross-country time. He wanted to do a longer trip than most people in order to see the lights of Chicago at night. OK - I'm cool with that, so we planned a visit to Schaumburg, IL, which is just west of O'Hare and under a very low shelf of Class B airspace.

I had only been there once before and that was riding with someone at night. I remembered the airport being quite surrounded with obstacles and hard to find. That plus the airspace meant that I wanted us to go in during the daytime and leave at night.

I posted an open dinner invitation on the Pilots of America message board. I hadn't seen my online pilot friends in a long time and hoped some could make it. I ended up getting some takers and made a reservation at Pilot Pete's for 12 people: four from my plane and potentially eight others. We wound up with 11, not bad! I knew everyone except for one person and he hadn't met any of us yet. It's always fun to make new pilot friends.

It was a good thing I made a reservation. We could hardly hear each other over the din of that packed restaurant. The food was good and they gave us enough that everyone onboard our 172 brought a box home.

We took off in the dark and saw the big expanse of lights below. We could see Chicago's skyline off on the horizon behind us. We watched the lights of jets approach O'Hare and one jet went right above us so close it was scary.

My student learned about diversions and unplanned stops when we landed at Racine and then Waukesha for refueling. We were getting tired but enjoying the scenery.

We landed a little past midnight back at Brennand Airport. Everyone agreed it was a lot of fun to hang out with other pilots at such a neat restaurant.

Kate and Tony's Excellent IFR Adventure

What a great educational trip today! My student Tony and I flew the school's Piper Arrow from Green Bay to New Castle, Indiana which is east of Indianapolis. Both on the way there and back, we flew the Green Bay to Gary, Indiana portion VFR so we could fly along the Chicago lakefront and save time. The weather definitely turned sour south of there, so both ways we flew IFR in the clouds for that portion.

We couldn't have been blessed with better conditions to practice actual IFR flight. It was very smooth most of our time in the stratus clouds. The temperatures aloft at our altitudes were a above freezing the whole time so we had no chance of getting ice. This was awesome considering it's still early in the year and hard to get in the clouds without asking for trouble.

At times we were between layers, especially on the way down at 5,000 feet, so we got to see some amazingly beautiful cloud formations. It was Tony's first experience above clouds because the timing never worked out right for us during his private training. (I try to take my primary students on an IFR flight.) Now as an instrument student he got to see what it's all about. Wow, was this one worth the wait. We were both in awe watching these rolling stratus cloud tops go by when we first entered the cloudy area. It was eerie and beautiful between layers. The cloud sandwich closed in on us until we were in solid clouds for a long time after that.

When we got to New Castle (KUWL) the conditions there were definitely still IFR, requiring us to do an actual IFR approach into the airport -- no pretending here. From the time we were at 5,000 feet till the time we spotted the airport at the last second down low, we were in solid clouds.

On the way back, at the lower altitude of 4,000 feet, we were stuck in clouds for long periods of time. Further north, we were between layers once in a while. Then we went back in and flew across a low pressure trough. The difference in wind direction was roughing up the clouds a bit, so instead of stratus we were in some gently-puffed-up stratocumulus. Those were just enough to bounce us around and cause Tony to concentrate on that old instrument flight adage, "believe what you see, forget what you feel." We came out on top of those clouds after a while and then skimmed the tops, "cloud surfing." The whole layer had a tilt to it, so back in we went. A little patience, and a while later we came out underneath, seeing the ground for the first time in over an hour. With perfect timing the sky opened up around Gary, so we were able to go VFR again all the way back to Green Bay.

We got to log about two hours of actual IFR flight and Tony logged almost another hour of simulated IFR (wearing foggles) on our six-hour trip. It's not often you can find the "perfect storm" of IFR conditions over large areas with little wind and turbulence. It was great to get such a long period of practice in the clouds and have to do a real approach. The trip wouldn't have been possible VFR, so Tony learned about the utility of an instrument rating and also how the scenery can be good at times!

View New Castle 4/15 in a larger map

GPS-Less

Mission: Deliver college student cousin Derek back to La Crosse, WI.

Cargo: Duffel bag full of rock- and brick-like objects, overfilled laundry basket, two stuffed-full laundry bags, and the kitchen sink.

Aircraft: Cessna 172.

Official Inflight Photographer: Derek's brother Josh.

L-R: Josh, Me, & Derek
I feel very short. And notice CLI has some of the cheapest avgas.

It was a nice day, I felt like flying, I had time off, and my cousin Derek needed to go from here back to La Crosse for college. I found this out at Easter dinner and thought hey, I can help. He'd never flown with me, but his younger brother Josh could vouch for it being fun.

I planned a route following airways over the Stevens Point VOR and on towards the Nodine VOR. There's a kink in the airway at an intersection named MILTO near Black River Falls. The airway takes you around a couple restricted areas. I punched the route into the trusty Garmin 295 portable GPS. But the GPS could not achieve a lock and just kept flashing a question mark for my location. Its poor little brain stayed confused no matter what I tried. So the whole thing went into the back seat and I reverted to my charts and the VORs. Although I teach the craft it felt very odd to navigate the route with no distance information or "direct-to" function. It was satisfying to have a three-hour round-trip work out just fine minus my beloved GPS.

I always tell my students to have a backup method of navigation handy even if you plan on using GPS. You never know when it will decide not to cooperate. I later figured out my problem was that the wires were frayed and breaking where they went into the remote antenna. I could have switched to the mini antenna without the cord and all would have been well.

It's been a long time since I've made a trip on my own for fun. There's also a certain satisfaction in navigating the old fashioned way.

I rarely get to see my cousins, so that made the trip all the better!

A Day of Flying with a Touch of Prime Rib

No pictures from today, so you'll have to use your imagination.

One of my instrument students and I spent quite a while circling over Oshkosh as we practiced VOR holding at 4,500 feet. It was a great Saturday morning for flying so I could see lots of airplanes taking off and landing below. I knew there was a lot of traffic out there so I requested traffic advisories from Milwaukee Approach.

An airline pilot near Milwaukee called in to report that he saw balloons that looked like they were carrying "concrete blocks" and wanted the controller to alert other pilots. (At least I am pretty sure he said balloons, plural.) The controller was sort of like, "huh?" and questioned the pilot a little, then passed on a warning to the next airplane in trail. Something like "We had a report of weather balloons in your vicinity." This was at 12,000 feet or more.

Well, messages sometimes don't get heard correctly... Five minutes later or so, a pilot came on the radio: "Uhh, Milwaukee, can you confirm there is an airplane flying around with concrete blocks attached?"

That got a chuckle from the controller, us, and probably a few other pilots.

Tony worked on timing his holding pattern legs and getting his headings just right. We flew multiple circuits, which gave me a chance to get a good look at Wittman Regional Airport from up high. I can't believe how many military trucks (looking like these) are on the field. Sometime before last summer, these trucks started appearing in tucked-away corners of the airport, lined up in rows, packed close together. I heard that the Oshkosh Corporation had won a goverment contract having to do with these vehicles and had to store them somewhere. More than a year later, now the trucks are just about lining the airport perimeter, lined up side-to-side and in some places two or three rows deep. Hundreds of them.

After the instrument lesson it was time for me to switch gears and go on a VFR cross-country. My student Vanya brought his mom and brother with us as we flew to Madison, Sheboygan, and back to Brennand. During the first two legs it was a little bumpy below 4,000 feet, but up at cruising altitude it was mostly smooth. It was gorgeously sunny except so many people were doing controlled burns all day that the sky became hazy with smoke later. Northeast of Madison, one fire was so big that the smoke cloud up at 4,500 feet was just like a real cloud -- solid -- and we had to go around it. Yuck.

We had a delicious dinner at the Final Approach Steakhouse, where you can park your plane right in front of the restaurant. Everyone agreed it was a great stop!

The sun had just set before we took off to head back, and we were treated to an orange sky and lights showing up on the ground. There were still fires burning. A couple of them looked like they had flames as high as houses.

The cross-country trip was fun like I expected it would be, and a great way to finish off a Saturday!

Piper Flights

Ted and Dale and I flew to Watertown in the Piper Archer for lunch at Perkins. The restaurant is a short walk from where you park your airplane. I took some pictures on the ride back.

Everything is very brown right now with no more snow. The ice is gone from the bigger lakes, and the smaller ones have a thin skin of ice left.

Our route took us over Horicon Marsh. I took some pictures of the town of Horicon and the marsh itself.



Despite the 20-knot winds on the ground, there were a few fires scattered around. People are doing controlled burns of fields. There was a fire just north of Brennand Airport and the smoke was drifting into the downwind leg of our traffic pattern.


I can't wait for everything to turn green. The scenery is very bland lately! We have had a dry and sunny weather pattern for several days.

It was too windy in the afternoon to go out in the 172, so I did a ground lesson. Then suddenly in the evening it calmed down very nicely. There was only a light breeze left over when I worked with a private pilot in a 1956 Piper Tri-Pacer. It's a tricycle-gear version of the Pacer, which is similar to the Clipper I rode in a couple months ago.

We flew to Wautoma and then Oshkosh. This morning I read in a newsletter that the old Oshkosh Tower has been torn down. There's been a new tower for a while, and EAA enthusiasts have been wishing for the old one to stick around as a landmark. EAA created a photo gallery of the demolition. Ouch, painful to look at!

On the way to Oshkosh, I took the controls for a few minutes and discovered this airplane would take some getting used to. The ailerons and rudder are interconnected, which eliminates some work during turns. If you do push the rudder pedals, holy cow are they sensitive. The ailerons are not very sensitive, the elevator is somewhere between, and then that rudder oh boy. It is a short-coupled airplane. This is the first time I've been at the controls of anything in this family of Pipers. I turned the flying duties back over to Colin who earned a flight review signoff tonight. I noticed that the Tri-Pacer descends like an elevator with its flaps down.

I regret forgetting to take a picture of the pretty airplane! It has undergone recovering and repainting, and is silver with light blue stripes. I'll try to get a picture here.

When the sun set on our way back to Brennand, it was just about the first color I'd seen all day. I took some pictures across the glareshield. Couldn't have asked for a nicer evening!

Moonrise

My student Vanya, his brother Sasha, and I witnessed a spectacular moonrise from the air this evening. Yesterday was the full moon so today it was almost full. We took off a little after sunset for some night flight practice. As it was getting dark, we saw an eerie-looking red disk rising from the eastern horizon. There was still faint light in the sky from the sunset. As the moon came up, it turned orange and looked like a squashed oval. By the time we finished our night landings, it was still low in the sky and yellowish. Our cameras couldn't possibly have captured the coolness of this event. We were all in awe.

Sasha & Vanya before the flight

For the Fun of it

I went up for a quick solo flight over Clintonville this evening. The air was so dry and clear that I could see Rib Mountain sharply on the horizon. The full moon was low in the sky.

I can't even remember the last time I went flying without a goal or mission. I need to re-teach myself how to do that. Fly just for the sake of flying. Not to instruct, not to move a plane, not to get somewhere. Some part of me is missing lately.

It's not a camera trick: I saw two sunsets tonight. The sun disappeared as I was waiting for another plane to land before I took off. Then as I climbed, it rose again and then set again. I've seen this before, but not often because you have to time it just right. It's another small joy of being a pilot.

Nice Smooth Evening

My students and I have been getting jolted around a lot lately by turbulence. This evening was a welcome respite with very smooth air and barely any wind. I enjoyed the ride. My student practiced soft field takeoff and landing technique and his friend rode with us. With each lap around Appleton's traffic pattern, it got a little darker until the runway lights came on and the sun peeked out from under the clouds. I shot a couple pictures of the sunset. Back on the ground, the three of us agreed that sunsets look much better from the air. It was a great flight.