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Hi Folks,
Here is the whole story on my Sunday, November 26, cloud experience.
Every Sunday morning at 1O, Redwoods Flying Club has a board meeting. No,
I'm not a member of the board, but I go anyway. The board meetings are
open
to all flying club members. Since I've been going, no other general
members have shown up, but that's OK. I go because I'm interested and
it's a good opportunity to learn. Andres, my CFI, Jim, the club's A&P and
the man I went flying with that Sunday, are board members - along with a
few other people.
To set the stage properly, I should tell you that ECHO, one of the club's
172s, was recently bought by Dan, one of the club's board members. Dan
has a lease-back arrangement with the club. So far this is working out
for Dan and for the club. Dan has been researching various potential
improvements to the plane. He purchased a tuned exhaust. Jim had planned
to install it that day. From what I understand, with this particular
exhaust, installation is fairly simple. Also, I have been told that this
type of exhaust has been shown to improve climb performance by 125-150
fpm. Jim wanted to make before and after climb performance comparisons.
He wanted someone to go with him and be and take notes. After the board
meeting he asked me if I wanted to go. "When?", I asked him. "Right now.
Do you want to go?" "Jim, I almost always want to go flying, so sure!" I
wasn't expecting to fly Sunday, but I had stashed my headset in the car,
just in case.
The sky was looking iffy during the board meeting, but by the time Jim
asked me to go flying, it was better. Not clear, but better.
We didn't waste any time. We grabbed our stuff and walked right over to
the plane. Now, I don't know what the proper protocol is or even if it
exists. But I do know the 172 well enough by now to be trusted with
pre-flight (at least all the outside stuff). So unless the pilot asks me
not to, I assume s/he wouldn't mind the help and I start checking things.
Jim didn't tell me to stop, so apparently it was OK with him.
Before long we were on our way and Jim was explaining what he wanted to do
in terms of climb performance testing. The plan was simple. Keep the
airspeed and RPMs constant. Climb. Record the climb rate and outside air
temperature every 1000 feet up to and including 10,000 feet. Not a
difficult task in exchange for a spectacularly scenic flight. (Oh, I'm
sure I would have been welcome to go along even if I weren't taking
notes.)
The higher mountains to the east were snow covered. I noticed how clear
it was in that direction. I think I would have had to go east, to
Redding, if I had to get out of our eventual mess by myself. But right
then, while we were involved in the testing, I was having a wonderful
time. I could see plenty of clouds out over the ocean. They seemed so
far away. Deceptive.
Getting back to the numbers derived- it was interesting to me to observe
how the climb performance worsens with altitude. Jim was explaining to me
how eventually a plane reaches an altitude beyond which it will not
climb and why. Sounds a lot like the the law of diminishing returns from
economics.
By now I could see that clouds were moving in off the ocean, underneath
us, but there were many open areas in the vacinity - or so I thought at
the time. I wasn't concerned yet.
Jim asked if I objected to his "quick descent" technique. That's where he
uses 40 degrees flaps, maximum nose down trim, and descends at 1000FPM.
He
demonstrated it on our full moon flight and I had no problem with it, but
our
friend, MaryBeth had ear pain all the next day.
On our way to do the tests, I had been asking Jim about farmers' dirt
landing strips in Ferndale (approx 20 miles south of Eureka). Since we
would be passing over Ferndale on our way back to Murray, Jim wanted to
point out a couple of them to me. Maybe we should have headed back right
then and not looked for the strips, but the few minutes it took probably
wouldn't have made that much difference in getting back to Murray. I
suspect that it was already socked in. There was a thick layer of clouds
underneath us but from our vantage point it didn't look like it extended
all the way to Murray. We were wrong. We were using the Fortuna VOR to
make sure we were where we thought we were, with part of the ground being
obscured and all. When we got to where Murray was supposed to be, it was
completely covered. Jim called Murray Unicom and they said the fog was to
the runway and Murray was closed. Then they asked, "How's your gas?" I
wasn't upset at all before that point. But when they asked about the gas,
it made me wonder if they thought we'd have a long search for a place to
land. I don't remember the number Jim told them but it was a few hours.
Next, Jim called Arcata (approx 10 mi north or Murray) Unicom. The fog
wasn't down to the ground there but there was not enough visibility
on/above
the runway to land.
Rohnerville Airport, near Ferndale, is the area we had just come from and
it was clear there when we started back to Murray. So Jim turned around
and headed back south to Rohnerville.
All of our local airports are uncontrolled. At the very smallest ones,
sometimes you can contact somebody and sometimes you can't. There wasn't
anyone on the ground at Rohnerville or on its frequency period. So we
couldn't tell before we got there what conditions were like. As I said,
when we had flown from that area a short time before, it was clear. As we
flew south, it looked like Rohnerville would be open. As we got closer we
could see the Eel River and the airport, which is up on a bluff next to
the river. It looked like we had it, but as we got even closer, the
clouds quickly closed in and obscured the runway. I swear it was like a
door slamming shut. We watched it happen. Rather disconcerting. About
then Jim asked me, "How do you like the flight so far?" "It depends on
how it turns out." Yeah, I know. Everybody's a commedian.
There was one more nearby possibility: Kneeland. It is about 17 mi NE of
Rohnerville and at 2737', it is sometimes above the fog. But this day was
foggy and cloudy. Jim already knew about how high the clouds extended.
He wasn't hopeful about Kneeland. While we were in the
Rohnerville-Fortuna-Ferndale area, the remaining holes in the clouds were
above farm fields. Those fields were getting to look awfully good to me.
I knew that several farmer/pilots do take off and land on those fields.
Maybe it was a stupid suggestion/question on my part, but I just had to
ask Jim what he thought about landing on one of them. "I don't think we
need to do that. With all these paved runways around here, we ought to be
able to find one to land on." I wasn't so sure, but he's the experienced
pilot who has contended with our North Coast weather for many years. We
went towards Kneeland. Kneeland is on the same radio frequency as
Rohnerville. So I didn't think we could contact anyone and unfortunately I
was correct. But then we couldn't get anybody anywhere! Not at Murray,
Arcata, Seattle Center, or Oakland Center.
Oh great. Not only are the clouds getting thicker by the minute,
extending
vertically and horizontally. Now the radios aren't working either. It's
a bad feeling, a lonely feeling, not being able to talk to anyone on the
radio when one could use some assistance. I picked the wrong time to look
at
the gas gauges. It looked to me like both tanks were about half way down.
I started to get a bit more upset. No, I didn't freak out or anything like
that. Jim had enough problems as it was. Besides, I felt that it was my
job to
keep myself under control and help him as much as I could.
I suspected that the brand new radios were working but that Jim didn't
have the audio panel set correctly. I found out since that Andres has
been
having an ongoing debate with Jim and with ECHO's owner, Dan, on this
subject. Although at the time, with Jim and I both being stressed out, it
took a bit of switch flipping before Jim got it set right. It sure was
reassuring to be able to contact Seattle Center.
At some point in our wanderings, Jim told me to look at the sectional and
find and airport for him to land at. That is, an airport other than the
ones we had been checking out. "Dinsmore?" It is farther inland than
Kneeland, although it is about the same elevation. Jim was not impressed.
I don't know what he was thinking, but the clouds were moving east, so
maybe he thought Dinsmore was closed too. "I'm calling Arcata one more
time and if there isn't enough visibility to do an instrument landing,
we're going to Redding - while we still have enough gas."
Now Redding is about 85 nautical miles, over the mountains, from Murray.
Well at least we would have had a tail wind. Redding, incidently, is the
closest airport with a tower. I thought the flight would be interesting
but I didn't like the idea of having to rent a car and drive back. The
road from Redding to Arcata, #299, is long and arduous. I'm sure Jim
would have stayed there until the weather was good enough on the coast to
fly
back so maybe I would have been better off to wait and fly back with him.
At any rate, Jim's second call of the day to Arcata revealed that there
was
about 200' visibility above the runway. "We can make it. But you must
realize that we will be doing almost the entire approach in the soup."
Then
he said something to the effect that I needed to do whatever I needed to
do to
stay calm. "No problem. I'll be OK." He went up to the altitude
necessary
to enter the ILS and then called Seattle Center. Sorry folks if I'm not
up to
par on all the jargon as yet, but I do, pretty much understand what was
going
on. Seattle center gave Jim the number to dial in on the transponder and
then
shortly thereafter told us where we were - which is exactly where we
thought
we were. Nice. Remember this is all new to me and impressive. Put
simply,
Seattle told us where to go.
After Jim made his turn, we needed to go 15 miles, all of which would be
in the clouds. Although I could see that we were going into the soup, it
was considerate of Jim to remind me again that we would not be able to see
anything at all until we were almost on the runway. I know that I don't
need to describe to you what it's like to look out the windows and see
only an even whiteness. But is new to me. I have been in the clouds only
once before and that was for about only a minute and I knew that we would
be climing out of them soon. Descending through the clouds was another
matter. Since there really isn't anything to look at outside anyway, I was
soon as focused on the instruments as Jim was. It is a rather bizarre
feeling, being totally surrounded by clouds. I felt like I was in an
unreal situation, like I was in a twilight zone. Jim told me to look at
the DME and count down the mileage. "15, ...14.9,...14.8,...14.7,..."
Good ploy on his part. It was strangely relaxing, calming me down,
calming
Jim down, and also he didn't have to look down and to the right, diverting
his attention from the other instruments. When we got about 2 miles from
where the runway should be, I could see the fog starting to thin. I could
barely see the tops of redwood trees. At about 1.5 miles, all of a sudden
I
could see Arcata's runway lights! It was the most beautiful I have ever
seen
them look. What amazes me is that when we popped out of the fog, we were
lined up perfectly on the centerline. I guess that's the way it's
supposed to
work, but I still think it's amazing. Good job, Jim!
On either side of the runway, the fog was fairly thick and actually we
couldn't even see the entire length of the runway. But he could see enough
of
it to get us safely dowm. Jim had a little trouble with the landing but
considering how wired on adrenaline he was, it's not surprising.
When he taxiied over to a parking place and then shut everything off, I
just sat there for a minute. Then I started to help him secure the plane.
He told me, "I'll take care of the plane. Get your stuff and go to the
terminal. Phone the people we need to contact." I was grateful.
Arcata is a small airport compared to what most of you are used to, but it
is
our largest one. Anyway, it seemed like I walked forever before I got
inside
the terminal.
I went to the phone right away to call the folks who were probably getting
concerned by now. I called the flying club as I was sure Dan, ECHO'S
owner would be there, or at least somebody would be. I was wrong so I left
a message on the machine. I hoped that it was coherent. I suppose it
would be to pilots, but I doubt anyone else could understand me at that
point. Next I called Andres at home. He must have been near the phone
because he answered immediately. "Oh hi, Georgia", he said as he always
does
when I call him. But this time I think he sounded slightly less relaxed
and
casual than he usually does. When I was talking to him, I think that I
must have been babbling. I felt like I was. But apparently he understood
what I said. The first thing I said to everyone when I called was, "We're
fine and the plane's fine." Then I went into the details. "You know I
could hear you guys on the radio." "That's what I figured, Andres." He
told me that he would contact Dan. "I suppose Dan's kinda worried about
his plane?", I asked. "He is starting to get concerned." Yea, I'll bet
he was! We were gone about 2 hours longer than we had planned to be.
Next, I called a friend who I had made plans to go hiking with, after my
expected 1 hour flight. Since my friend knew where I was, when I was
supposed to be back, and had no radio, he was really worried. I had to
cancel on the hiking.
Jim had offered to buy me dinner at the airport restaurant, for what he
called, "putting me through all of that". I didn't feel that he "put me
through" anything. We found ourselves in a situation that he handled very
well and I think, I hope, I was able to help him to some small degree.
And I learned a huge amount. I did accept his dinner offer as I thought
that I needed to eat something to counteract the adrenaline although I
wasn't particularly hungry. More importantly, I felt a need to sit and
talk with Jim about the flight and "decompress".
I know that Jim would have loved to have a drink, but since there was a
possibility that the weather might clear enough to fly the plane back to
Murray later that evening, he passed on it. It was good to sit and go over
everything with Jim. I joked about the flight being a set-up between him
and Andres, to test my resolve about learning to fly. I assured Jim that I
was not discouraged at all by the experience. I learned so much - more
than I'm going to enumerate here!
However, what my ride through the clouds did show me is:
1. How much I have to learn yet
2. A few items I don't ever want to be without when I go flying
3. I want to get an instrument rating
That night I had a dfficult time sleeping. When I did sleep I dreamed of
wandering around above lovely, white, fluffly clouds hopelessly lost and
running out of fuel.
Next time I'll tell you about the follow-up or "after" tests we did today.
Similar conditions but we kept a very close eye on the clouds and
everything went as planned.
Spook
The last thing he did before we (intended to be) headed back to Murray was
what he called a power run. I wish I could remember everything he said.
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The last thing he did before we (intended to be) headed back to Murray was
what he called a power run. I wish I could remember everything he said.
Basically, the engine wouldn't red line at 9500'.
I am not telling the entire list this part. I think Jim was not acting as
wisely as maybe he should have. I think we should have gone back to
Murray after the tests.
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