How Quickly Things Can Turn!

This, by no means is as exciting or interesting as some of the other
threads I have followed, but serves as a constant reminder to me, how
quickly things can change!

Wanting to get my plane down to Cameron Park before Feb 1. for an
annual, I determined that yesterday was probably my best opportunity
due to the stoms that have, now rolled in, and are supposed to hang
around for a few days.

I checked the METAR's, late morning/early afternoon, and the reports
and forecasts were P6SM, with areas of haze and a hint of MVFR (METAR's
seem to be amazingly accurate sometimes, don't they?). Cameron Park
being about a 10 minute hop from Georgetown, I figured I could get to
the plane, pop-up and make the call, always having the out to turn
around and land at Georgetown to try another day.

I took off out of Georgetown about 4:00, on what from the ground
appeared to be a slight haze. I popped up to 3,000 ft and was amazed
at how hazey it was towards the west. I stayed at 3,000, and always
had visual reference to the ground, although it was very hazey and I
really couldn't see much at a slant-distance. Having flown this dozens
of times, I knew right where I was going, but I didn't have favorite
landmark (Pilot hill) in sight. I always see this, as soon as I pop up
off of Georgetown. I continued on, always making sure I could see
down, and having the out to turn around as I mentioned before. (There
are a couple of private strips between the two airports that I always
like to have a visual on, when I'm in the area)

I got closer to Pilot hill and could finally make it out through the
haze and entered a 45 for left traffic 13. There was one other plane
departing the pattern, and I called 10, 5 and 3 miles out, so he knew
where I was and what my intentions were (I never heard from him, other
than is departure roll-out call).

I entered the pattern and had one of my nicer landings in a long time,
especially considering the lack of flying I have been doing recently.

I secured the plane, gave the mechanic my squawk list and went to the
parking lot, where my wife was waiting with my kids, and we went out
and grabbed a pizza.

Here's the kicker... We had a meeting to attend at my daughters
school, and had to eat our pizza pretty quickly to make it on time.
When we walked out of the pizza place, it was starting to get dark, but
more striking to me were the ominous clouds that were present.

Hiding behind the haze was a nasty bit of cloudiness that seemed to
have rolled in over the whole area. Had this not been a 10 minute
flight and had I not prepared for an out, this could have turned ugly,
quickly!

Gotta get back to work, so that's it for now... I just thought, having
seen so many postings on weather changing quickly, that I would share
my observations on a VERY routine flight that could have been anything
but routine if it had been anything other than a quick hop from
Georgetown to Cameron Park.

Best Regards,
Todd

On 01/26/06 08:52, three-eight-hotel wrote:
This, by no means is as exciting or interesting as some of the other
threads I have followed, but serves as a constant reminder to me, how
quickly things can change!

Wanting to get my plane down to Cameron Park before Feb 1. for an
annual, I determined that yesterday was probably my best opportunity
due to the stoms that have, now rolled in, and are supposed to hang
around for a few days.

I checked the METAR's, late morning/early afternoon, and the reports
and forecasts were P6SM, with areas of haze and a hint of MVFR (METAR's
seem to be amazingly accurate sometimes, don't they?). Cameron Park
being about a 10 minute hop from Georgetown, I figured I could get to
the plane, pop-up and make the call, always having the out to turn
around and land at Georgetown to try another day.

I took off out of Georgetown about 4:00, on what from the ground
appeared to be a slight haze. I popped up to 3,000 ft and was amazed
at how hazey it was towards the west. I stayed at 3,000, and always
had visual reference to the ground, although it was very hazey and I
really couldn't see much at a slant-distance. Having flown this dozens
of times, I knew right where I was going, but I didn't have favorite
landmark (Pilot hill) in sight. I always see this, as soon as I pop up
off of Georgetown. I continued on, always making sure I could see
down, and having the out to turn around as I mentioned before. (There
are a couple of private strips between the two airports that I always
like to have a visual on, when I'm in the area)

I got closer to Pilot hill and could finally make it out through the
haze and entered a 45 for left traffic 13. There was one other plane
departing the pattern, and I called 10, 5 and 3 miles out, so he knew
where I was and what my intentions were (I never heard from him, other
than is departure roll-out call).

I entered the pattern and had one of my nicer landings in a long time,
especially considering the lack of flying I have been doing recently.

I secured the plane, gave the mechanic my squawk list and went to the
parking lot, where my wife was waiting with my kids, and we went out
and grabbed a pizza.

Here's the kicker... We had a meeting to attend at my daughters
school, and had to eat our pizza pretty quickly to make it on time.
When we walked out of the pizza place, it was starting to get dark, but
more striking to me were the ominous clouds that were present.

Hiding behind the haze was a nasty bit of cloudiness that seemed to
have rolled in over the whole area. Had this not been a 10 minute
flight and had I not prepared for an out, this could have turned ugly,
quickly!

On the other hand, Todd, if you had been planning a flight that was longer
than the quick 10-minute hop, would you have continued once you popped-up
and saw the extent of the haze? It sounded to me like the only reason
you continued was because you knew you were just going next door.

There's a good article in AOPA's flight training magazine this month
about a fellow that got caught in some nasty weather/ice. It's worth
a read.

I remember one flight back to the home airport from a local practice
area. I climbed to 1,500', but the haze was getting thicker. It was
really difficult to tell where the haze stopped and the clouds began.
I estimated that at 1,500' I still had 3-5 miles visibility, but decided
to descent to 1,000' where I had P6SM (after all, it was only 5 minutes
to the airport).



Gotta get back to work, so that's it for now... I just thought, having
seen so many postings on weather changing quickly, that I would share
my observations on a VERY routine flight that could have been anything
but routine if it had been anything other than a quick hop from
Georgetown to Cameron Park.

Best Regards,
Todd



--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA

Todd,
Who is doing your annual at Cameron Park? Main Air, Rex Mann??
My Mooney is parked out on the ramp at Cameron Park.

-Robert

On the other hand, Todd, if you had been planning a flight that was longer
than the quick 10-minute hop, would you have continued once you popped-up
and saw the extent of the haze? It sounded to me like the only reason
you continued was because you knew you were just going next door.

I'm not current, and plan on going up with my instructor to get some
hood time, as soon as my plane is out of annual, before I take it home.
If I was going to SAC or further... hmmmm.... I think I may have
turned around. Not being able to see Pilot hill is one thing, but not
being able to see the Sacramento landscape is another. If I were
current, and could make an IFR request to get to my destination...
hmmm... maybe. But I would have done much more research on the
weather, than I did, before making the trip.

There's a good article in AOPA's flight training magazine this month
about a fellow that got caught in some nasty weather/ice. It's worth
a read.

I'll check it out... Thanks!

I remember one flight back to the home airport from a local practice
area. I climbed to 1,500', but the haze was getting thicker. It was
really difficult to tell where the haze stopped and the clouds began.
I estimated that at 1,500' I still had 3-5 miles visibility, but decided
to descent to 1,000' where I had P6SM (after all, it was only 5 minutes
to the airport).

Yeah... haze is one thing, when it's just a matter of stability in the
atmosphere and simply a bad air day, but when there's haze and a nasty
system looming behind it, I would really want to know what I was up
against and be prepared before I ventured too far away from known
satisfactory conditions.

Todd

Main Air...

I actually looked over for a Mooney, on the ramp, and think I have
probably seen it in the past. Is your's the only one parked there? My
172 is the Orange/White one parked south of the Main Air hangers.
"three-eight-hotel"... ;-)

Todd

On 01/26/06 11:28, three-eight-hotel wrote:
On the other hand, Todd, if you had been planning a flight that was longer
than the quick 10-minute hop, would you have continued once you popped-up
and saw the extent of the haze? It sounded to me like the only reason
you continued was because you knew you were just going next door.

I'm not current, and plan on going up with my instructor to get some
hood time, as soon as my plane is out of annual, before I take it home.
If I was going to SAC or further... hmmmm.... I think I may have
turned around. Not being able to see Pilot hill is one thing, but not
being able to see the Sacramento landscape is another. If I were
current, and could make an IFR request to get to my destination...
hmmm... maybe. But I would have done much more research on the
weather, than I did, before making the trip.

That was basically what I was saying. You didn't dodge a bullet
because had the gun actually have been loaded, you would have
never stepped in front of it ;-)


There's a good article in AOPA's flight training magazine this month
about a fellow that got caught in some nasty weather/ice. It's worth
a read.

I'll check it out... Thanks!

I remember one flight back to the home airport from a local practice
area. I climbed to 1,500', but the haze was getting thicker. It was
really difficult to tell where the haze stopped and the clouds began.
I estimated that at 1,500' I still had 3-5 miles visibility, but decided
to descent to 1,000' where I had P6SM (after all, it was only 5 minutes
to the airport).

Yeah... haze is one thing, when it's just a matter of stability in the
atmosphere and simply a bad air day, but when there's haze and a nasty
system looming behind it, I would really want to know what I was up
against and be prepared before I ventured too far away from known
satisfactory conditions.

Todd



--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA

That was basically what I was saying. You didn't dodge a bullet
because had the gun actually have been loaded, you would have
never stepped in front of it ;-)

I figured that's where you were going with that... ;-) and... you
are right! I didn't dodge a bullet, because I wasn't or wouldn't have
been willing to put myself in a situation that might have got me into
trouble. I knew the conditions I was coming from were favorable, with
a slight haze, and could have easily turned back to try again another
day.

The point of my post was not to suggest I dodged a bullet, but to
emphasize how quickly things can turn. Any VFR pilot could have hopped
into a plane from Cameron Park to do some air-work that might have
taken them to a practice area further than where I was coming from, in
Georgetown. They could have ascended up to a few thousand feet in a
light to moderate haze, practiced some turns and stalls for an hour or
two and headed back to Cameron Park to land. In the hour I left the
airport and had pizza at a local shop, things turned from what appeared
to be haze to fairly ominous looking clouds. I would have not wanted
to be away in favorable conditions practicing maneuvers, only to return
to what I saw when I left the pizza place.

Even though it was "only" a 10 minute flight for me, I think I have
something to learn from the observation as well. Weather can change in
an instant, and you can't always know what's looming behind haze or a
layer of clouds without seriously preparing for a flight into those
known conditions. Even then, there are no guarantees.

Best Regards,
Todd

Todd

"three-eight-hotel" wrote in message
oups.com...
This, by no means is as exciting or interesting as some of the other
threads I have followed, but serves as a constant reminder to me, how
quickly things can change!


Found this about a quick VFR jaunt back from some aerobatics practice...

http://iac78.org/newsletter/NL%20Fal...05%20Color.pdf See pages
7,8

"The weather at Waseca was ideal with high cirrus and light winds from the
southeast. The Twin Cities Saturday forecast called for a slight chance of
isolated showers in the area."
....

"Justin had to call FSS because the weather computer at Waseca was down. FSS
said a band of showers had just moved through the Cities, but FCM was now
reporting good VFR conditions. We could see a dark area of clouds in the far
northern sky that seemed to match up with what FSS was talking about."
....
"As we motored north at 4500 MSL clouds were thickening and ceilings were
coming down. We had to descend to maintain VFR. As we approached the
Faribault area, we began to see lightning and it was frequent with direct
cloud to ground strikes. No way we were going to fly into that stuff."

....

"We quickly stacked all three planes in the hangar and no more than got the
hangar door down when wind gusts began to rattle the big 45' bi-fold door.
We latched the door, rain and hail pounded on the roof creating so much
noise, we had to shout to hear each other. We were standing directly behind
the door and the winds were causing the big door to sway in and out with
about 12" of movement."

....

"After an indeterminate amount of time the rain and wind subsided somewhat.
Mel peeked out the man-door and yelled for us to come see what had happened.
The hangar right across the alleyway had it's roof and walls blown off.
Glider trailers parked on the field were crushed from being tossed about
like dice."


--
Geoff
the sea hawk at wow way d0t com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
Spell checking is left as an excercise for the reader.

I think there are 2 and sometimes 3 out there. Mine is the one with the
nice Bruce's cover. The others have old covers that are always half
falling off.

-Robert

"Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe" The Sea Hawk at wow way d0t com wrote in message
...
"three-eight-hotel" wrote in message
oups.com...
This, by no means is as exciting or interesting as some of the other
threads I have followed, but serves as a constant reminder to me, how
quickly things can change!


Found this about a quick VFR jaunt back from some aerobatics practice...

http://iac78.org/newsletter/NL%20Fal...05%20Color.pdf See pages
7,8

"The weather at Waseca was ideal with high cirrus and light winds from the
southeast. The Twin Cities Saturday forecast called for a slight chance of
isolated showers in the area."
...

"Justin had to call FSS because the weather computer at Waseca was down.
FSS said a band of showers had just moved through the Cities, but FCM was
now reporting good VFR conditions. We could see a dark area of clouds in
the far northern sky that seemed to match up with what FSS was talking
about."
...
"As we motored north at 4500 MSL clouds were thickening and ceilings were
coming down. We had to descend to maintain VFR. As we approached the
Faribault area, we began to see lightning and it was frequent with direct
cloud to ground strikes. No way we were going to fly into that stuff."

...

"We quickly stacked all three planes in the hangar and no more than got
the hangar door down when wind gusts began to rattle the big 45' bi-fold
door. We latched the door, rain and hail pounded on the roof creating so
much noise, we had to shout to hear each other. We were standing directly
behind the door and the winds were causing the big door to sway in and out
with about 12" of movement."

...

"After an indeterminate amount of time the rain and wind subsided
somewhat. Mel peeked out the man-door and yelled for us to come see what
had happened. The hangar right across the alleyway had it's roof and walls
blown off. Glider trailers parked on the field were crushed from being
tossed about like dice."


--
Geoff
the sea hawk at wow way d0t com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
Spell checking is left as an excercise for the reader.