It was the perfect day for flying, clear skies overhead, light winds, and plenty of fuel in the old Cessna 172. Here’s an abridged video of a flight from Brandywine Airport (KOQN) to Bay Bridge (W29). Check out the fall foliage and the upper part of the Chesapeake Bay.
Made it back in a timely fashion, too, with a little bit of a tailwind. The leaves will probably be past their peak by the time I fly again. I’m happy to have seen them this year.
It looked like it would be another good day to go flying. Weather reports indicated the visibility was fair and getting better. So, I worked up a flight plan, headed to the airport, and rolled out the Cessna 172, looking forward to a day above the ground. As soon as I took off, the conditions were worse than had been reported. Sure, it might have been “good enough” for someone else, but these were below my minimums, mostly because of the mist. When you’re flying, you have to consider the worst case. Sure the visibility at cruising altitude may be legal, but what if you can’t see large portions of the ground due to mist and fog. You lose an engine and down you come, landing in what? You don’t know what. Not good. Hence, upon seeing the conditions didn’t suit the mission, I ended up flying pattern, which is always good practice. Here’s the video:
After a few laps around the patch, practicing short field takeoff and soft field landings, I headed back to the hangar. Sometimes, that’s how it goes. (By the way, those stripes you see on the video are due to an anomaly created by the spinning propeller and the shutter speed of the video camera.)
The Cessna 172 is a venerable aircraft in which hundreds of thousands of people have learned to fly. The following video gives you a basic overview of the instrument panel in a typical 172, explaining what each instrument does. Take a look:
Fairly easy to remember, eh? Of course. These instruments have been around for decades, and I highly recommend anyone learning to fly master them prior to moving on to digital cockpits. I’ll be posting more flying videos soon, including footage taken in the cockpit, which can be exciting and fun to watch. Remember, always do your checklist!
There are those pilots who will press on despite deteriorating weather conditions. Many tragic aviation stories start with, “I thought I’d go a litter farther and see if things got better.” Rarely do things get better. And when they get worse, they get a lot worse. Thus, when I was flying recently, this was the view ahead.
If you look just below the cowling, visibility is fairly good. However, over the nose, there’s plenty of mist and fog in those valleys and some of the mountain tops are most likely hidden. Now, the height of the mountains may be known and the altimeter will give the altitude of the aircraft. Someone might press on. Okay, what if something else goes wrong? Engine trouble or the like. Eh? What then? Put it down in the fog and hope for the best. Nah, I don’t think so. Here’s a view off the starboard side.
It looked dicey over there, too. Time to change the plan. Whenever I fly, I always have a few alternate airports pegged along the way. During this flight, only one was optimal and it was well short of my intended destination. Sad, but true. I turned for it and made it safely. Then, because I had plenty of time left until the plane needed to be returned, I swung out to York, PA. Here’s a shabby picture of that fine airport, looking back after getting on course.
The runway is that strip of asphalt above the quarry. The quarry itself helps to make this place easy to find. Landmarks like that are a blessing for pilots, especially when the weather is dodgy. All in all, this flight was a good one. The Cirrus performed beautifully, the diversion was good practice, and the traffic was light until I returned to home base, where there were two helicopters and three other planes going in or out. Looking forward to another cross country with better weather. Photos and commentary will be posted here.
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