First 400 nm xcountry

OK, inspired by Jay's trip to Reno, here's a report on our trip to KOSU in
Columbus, OH from NJ and back last week. I, too have pondered the relative
merits of getting my instrument rating, and have reached most of the same
conclusions as Jay. The discussion is relevant to this trip, too.

7:00 AM Monday morning. Call FSS to see if the weather is as good as it was
supposed to be. Some fog at KSMQ (Somerset, NJ) that is supposed to lift,
but the real problem is beyond Harrisburg. Altoona and Johnstown are in
fog, that isn't predicted to burn off for a couple of hours. Other than
that, things are supposed to be VFR all the way, although there is a lot of
haze in Ohio. Ivan is still in the Gulf, and not expected to affect the
weather up here until Friday. So we go back to bed for an hour, and then
head to the airport. Susie's not real comfortable with weather problems,
and needs to get back in NJ later in the week. It looks like there should
be little problem getting back as long as we beat Ivan.

From the airport, the weather is still IFR at Johnstown, but expected to
lift shortly, so we wait for a bit longer and then depart just before 11:00.
Pick up Flight Following from Allentown. Plan a fuel/pee stop at Washington
County, PA. The GPS is showing 89-95 knot ground speed, so we have a bigger
headwind than I had expected. Nothing else noteworthy about the leg to
Washington at 6,500', except that the Pgh. Approach controller is obviously
bored to death and chats incessantly to anyone who comes into his airspace.
A very friendly guy who even asks one plane how he could get some stuff from
their company for their controllers' golf outing. Nice to hear someone so
friendly over the radio, but it seems a bit strange. The only traffic call
we have the whole leg is for someone 4,000 feet below us. Hardly a factor.

The cheap gas I was expecting at Washington, where I'd landed once before,
is $3.06. Cheaper than SMQ, but not that much cheaper. Call my brother to
tell him of our delayed departure and arrange a pickup at OSU. File a new
flight plan, and launch again. Try to pick up Flight Following from Pgh,
again, but are immediately handed off to Cleveland Center. Ground speed
picks up. The circulation centered over Western PA is now pushing us West.
The last 45 minutes the visibility gets progressively worse - heavy haze. I
descend to 4,500' to try and get a better look at the ground. Visibility is
less than 5 miles. OSU ATIS confirms marginal VFR, but still legal. We get
handed off to Columbus Approach and are told to descend at our discretion
and contact the tower with field in sight. I see an airport, which I deduce
from the GPS is OSU and not CMH, and contact tower. They clear us for a
straight in approach to 27 left, but there doesn't appear to be two runways.
Trying to make sure I line up on the correct runway, I confess that I am
"unfamiliar" and ask if 27 left is the long runway I can see. Tower
sarcastically tells me 27 left is the one with "L" painted on it. OK, I
deserve that, since I can now see a second short runway on the far right,
but I still can't read anything. We land smoothly, and Susie begins to
relax. Ever since we had a bad crosswind landing experience a couple of
years ago, she has been less comfortable flying with me. She still does,
though. A wonderful woman. Hobbs time, 4.2 hours. Not too bad given the
winds.

After a good visit with my brother, who is struggling with Lou Gehrig's
disease, we begin to think about a Wednesday departure. The plan to take
Dave flying on Tuesday is abandoned due to his being too tired. He's an
instrument rated private pilot with a lot more flight time than I do, so you
know he's hurting. It's really painful to see him going downhill so fast.

Wednesday morning the weather is not good. Showers and thunderstorms moving
up from the south toward eastern and central PA and fog over Johnstown and
Altoona again. The fog is supposed to lift, however, and it's clear skies
with haze again between Columbus and Washington, PA. We can't delay too
much, because the weather to the east is expected to worsen the next day,
and Ivan is waiting in the wings. So we decide to launch and make our way
at least as far as Washington, and see how things are. The good weather is
moving slowly east, so we may be able to get a bit farther.

Weather over Washington is fine, although we're above a broken layer that is
not getting any worse, yet, so we press on to Rostraver, and then Latrobe,
listening to AWOS reports up ahead as soon as we can pick them up. However,
when we get to Latrobe, we can hear from Johnstown that they are still 3
miles and 800 feet. A lunch stop in Latrobe seems appropriate. We drop
through a big hole in the broken layer and land at Latrobe.

Flight Services assures me that the fog in Johnstown should have lifted in
about two hours, so we enjoy a leisurely lunch. Arnold Palmer airport is a
beautiful place, but deserted. Our waitress in the excellent restaurant
overlooking the ramp area tells us that they recently lost their one
airline, and except for a casino flight to Atlantic City three times a week,
all they get are the odd corporate jet and a few little planes like ours.
Sad. Are the small town airports going the same way as small town railway
stations did 75 years ago?

After lunch another call to FSS is discouraging. The fog at Johnstown has
not lifted. Johnstown is in a valley, so it's highly likely that the tops
of the ridge on either side are obscured, and I have a great respect for
"cumulo granite" clouds. We have a couple of options. We can head north to
Jamestown, NY and get north of the bad weather. Then we should have clear
sailing via Binghamton, home. Unfortunately, this will add a huge amount of
distance. An alternative is to climb over the broken layer, head toward
Johnstown, and then see if we can get over the weather there. It's VFR once
we get to Harrisburg. No PIREPS for tops over Johnstown, but some earlier
ones had the tops at 9,000 feet. Within reach of the Archer, although I've
never had it up that high before. I figure that with full tanks I should be
able to see how it is heading east, divert north if necessary, and as a last
resort head back west or back to Latrobe and regroup. The fuel at Latrobe
is $3.60. Ouch, but I want to have full tanks.

We launch up through the now scattered layer and set our course for
Johnstown at 7,500'. The scattered layer rapidly becomes broken and then
solid. I'm not sure I'm 100% comfortable up here, since I know that we're
going to be in big trouble if the fan stops. OTOH, I would have the same
problem if I were IFR, so I relax a bit and console myself that the engine
has never even coughed before. Over Johnstown, which is still reporting 3
miles and 800', I can see a very high layer sitting on top of the cloud deck
out in the distance. Altoona is also reporting IFR conditions, but as I get
closer to the high clouds ahead, I can hear Harrisburg reporting 10 miles
and 2,500'. Unfortunately, the high clouds ahead seem to be sitting right
on top of Harrisburg.

I tell Center that I'm going to climb to 9,500' and see if I can get over
the layer ahead. The poor old Archer struggles up there, wheezing at 300
FPM for the last thousand feet. After releaning, I realize that never I've
seen the mixture lever that close to "idle cutoff" before. We level off,
looking hopefully at the layer ahead. Still looks a lot higher than us. As
we get closer, it becomes obvious that we're not going over in this plane,
and without oxygen, so I begin to consider the remaining options. The high
layer seems to taper off both to the south and to the north, and Susie
suggest that south looks better. I know that we will get better weather
north, however, and I can see some puffy clouds up that way. Perhaps the
solid layer begins to break up that way. I tell Center that we're diverting
to overfly Mifflin County airport to see if we can get around this cloud
layer. As we get near Mifflin, their AWOS is reporting 10 miles and 2,000'.
Great. It sounds like we can get around the bad stuff with only a 30 mile
diversion. That is, if I can get down below this cloud deck. Sure enough,
as I overfly Mifflin, the cloud deck begins to break up just like it looked
like it might from farther south.

A couple of miles north of Mifflin I overfly two big beautiful holes and can
see sunlit farms in the valley that Mifflin is in. Perfect. I can drop
down below the clouds and still have the option of landing at Mifflin if the
ridge tops are too close to the clouds. I tell Center what we're going to
do, and since I'm pretty sure from past experience in the area that they
won't be able to see me once I get below 3,000', I cancel Flight Following
and squawk 1200. Through the second hole as we spiral down from way up
there, I can see clearly the next valley east, which also has an airport in
it. We level off at 2,000, and find that we can easily get over the ridge
into the second valley. I still have that second airport as an option, and
it looks like we have at least an 800' gap between the next ridge and the
clouds. More importantly, beyond that next ridge, I can see that the ridges
get progressively lower, and the weather improves. We cross the second
ridge with a few hundred feet to spare, and set a direct course to
Harrisburg. Not great VFR conditions, but we know it gets better the
farther east we go.

We pick up Flight Following again from Harrisburg Approach, and head for
home.

The rest of the trip is pretty unevenful, except for my blundering into a
thin rain cloud hanging below the rest near Allentown. No big deal, we were
out in five seconds and got some of the bugs washed off the windshield, but
I never saw it coming. We set down at Somerset, and notice the tail of a
Cessna 185 amphibian sticking out of the T-hangar it tried to park in with
the doors closed and a Commanche already inside (see previous post "Stupid
Pilot Tricks" for details). 4.3 hours on the Hobbs. A long day, but we're
home without too many new gray hairs. Susie points out that it took 7 hours
door to door, and that we could have driven it in 9 hours for a lot less
money. I have no answer to that.

Thinking back, I believe I made all the right decisions. With Ivan coming
up the coast, we would have been there for four more days had we not gone
when we did. The only thing that made me uncomfortable was flying a long
way on top of a cloud deck that I could not get down through without my
instrument rating. OTOH, I made sure I had plenty of fuel, and a couple of
option cards to play. I knew that good weather was moving in behind us, so
I could always turn around if absolutely necessary. An instrument rating
would have helped, since I could have stayed on top, gone around or through
that high cloud deck, and then descended beyond Harrisburg. That would have
saved some time, but probably not reduced the risk much. I would have been
in just as much trouble had the engine failed, regardless of which rating I
have.

Sorry if this is long, but I thought perhaps a discussion of the decision
process might help other low-time VFR pilots like me. Flame away.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I don't have to like Bush and Cheney (Or Kerry, for that matter) to love
America