I needed a holdging pattern and approach in January to regain my IFR currency.
My tanks were full so I needed somebody lighter than John, my regular
instrument instructor.
Alisa is better looking, but that didn't make any difference since I
was under the hood.
I shot two more approaches on the 31st before the clouds went away.
Below: Sucker hole near Forest Grove
Sunday the 4th the weather forecast promised a reasonable flight to the Flying M Ranch for breakfast: solid MVFR with good visibility below 2500 feet AGL.
TAF KHIO 041725Z 041818 19010KT P6SM SCT025 BKN040 OVC080
TEMPO 1821 -RA BKN025
FM2100 20012KT P6SM -RA SCT020 OVC040
TEMPO 2101 4SM -RA BKN020
The forecast said visibility will be greater than 6 miles with
scattered clouds at 2500 feet from 10 in the morning, except for a
period of light rain and broken clouds. The coulds would come down
a bit in the afternoon.
Looking out the window at Caddyshack, I had my doubts about the accuracy of the forecast. By the time I got to Romeo's tiedown the Hillsboro had declared IFR. I called Flight Service to get the current weather and file for some instrument approaches. I was hoping the weather would improve to what had been forecast, allowing me to get into Flying M later in the morning.
Air Traffic Control gave me the SCAPO 3 departure from runway 20. This calls for a climbing left turn to a heading of 280, three quarters of a full circle. This gave me an impressive view of the airport before entering the clouds. I entered clouds at 1000 feet but didn't completely lose ground contact for another thousand feet or so. I picked up light turbulence as I entered the clouds.
I flew in and out of clouds many times during the one hour flight. Unlike the 31st, a warm front was passing and the unsettled weather created interestting cloud formations.
I've flown for hundereds of hours, some of it in "interesting weather", and I still haven't gotten over the power and majesty of it all. My airplane and my Instrument training give me license to walk through a living breathing wonderland unknown to most of us.
FT 3000 6000 9000 12000 18000 24000 30000 34000 39000 PDX 2232 2439+02 2544-01 2553-07 2568-19 2584-29 259944 760153 269760First, I chose the NDB approach. I didn't know if I'd see the airport on this approach, but it didn't matter as I was going to go missed anyway. A healthy crosswind from the right required a crab to keep on course.
The last time I flew an ADF approach in percipitation the beacon signal disappeared in static well short of the airport. Since then I replaced the worn out static wicks and added others. This time the beacon was loud and clear all the way to the airport. (Note the condensation on the wing strut in the picture above.)
The airport appeared under the clouds in time to make a landing if I so chose. Instead, I went missed and came around for the ILS approach. The runway came into view as I descended through 800 feet (AGL).
No breakfast at Flying M Ranch, but I did get some more practice flying in the soup.
Above: Flying M Ranch from the east. Below: from the south.
I inspected the strip and adjoining areas. Tire tracks in the snow suggested I was not the first to land this morning. But no airplanes were parked there. For that matter, there were hardly any cars in the parking lot. I prepared for landing, not expecting to have much braking action.
Touchdown was a surprise. A cacophony of noise greeted me as slush kicked up by the wheels sloshed around inside my wheel pants. The slush exerted such force that I immediately decided to apply a fair amount of power to avoid stopping short of the parking area. Normally I coast to the parking area, possibly with just a bit of power.
At least I don't have to worry aout spinning the wheels on my Skylane.
After a while the usual suspects arrived.
Notably absent were the Apple Valley crowd.
Neither Dick nor I had any experience operating aircraft in snow or slush.
We'd driven cars or trucks in the stuff but not Cessnas.
A Skylane isn't like a front wheel
drive car, not like a Beetle, and not like a 4WD rig.
Fortunately, the sun was out and the slush was melting.
We didn't have to worry about slush freezing up and interfering
with the landing gear.
Left: Dick kicks up some water on his takeoff roll.
I watched the other pilots take off ahead of me.
The lower the prop clearance the more dramatic the "rooster tail"
kicked up during takeoff.
Before returning to Hillsboro, I stopped at Scappoose to get some cheap(er) fuel. Transwestern at Scappoose is still 15 cents a gallon lower than the second lowest in the area. I am still refining my calculations to decide the cheapest refueling option as a function of distance and price.
Scappoose is east of the West Hills. Compared to Hillsboro it was the tropics Sunday.
TAF AMD KHIO 181453Z 181512 VRB02KT P6SM SCT012 BKN035 OVC100
TEMPO 1517 5SM -RA BR BKN012
FM1700 VRB02KT P6SM SCT025 BKN045 OVC080 TEMPO 1719 -SHRA
FM2100 VRB02KT P6SM SCT045 BKN100
TAF KHIO 181738Z 181818 VRB02KT 2SM BR BKN004 OVC015 TEMPO 1819
5SM BR SCT015 BKN040
FM1900 VRB03KT P6SM SCT030 BKN060 BKN100 TEMPO 1921 -SHRA BKN025
FM2100 VRB03KT P6SM VCSH SCT035 BKN060 BKN100
FM0300 VRB02KT P6SM SCT060 BKN100
Sunday the 18th was supposed to be a reasonable fly day,
at least good enough to scud run from Hillsboro to Flying M Ranch
for breakfast.
Unfortunately the ceiling at Hillsboro was down to 500 feet most
of the morning, a far cry from the predicted 2500 feet.
TAF KHIO 241732Z 241818 00000KT P6SM SKC
FM1600 VRB03KT P6SM SCT015
TAF KHIO 242326Z 250024 05005KT P6SM SKC
FM1100 00000KT 6SM BR SKC TEMPO 1216 3SM BR
FM1600 00000KT P6SM BKN010
FM1800 00000KT P6SM FEW020
FM2000 VRB03KT P6SM SCT025
TAF KHIO 250534Z 250606 VRB03KT P6SM SKC
FM1100 00000KT 6SM BR SCT003 TEMPO 1216 3SM BR BKN003
FM1600 00000KT 6SM BR BKN005
FM1900 VRB03KT P6SM SCT020
FM2200 31007KT P6SM SCT040
TAF AMD KHIO 251550Z 251612 00000KT P6SM SKC
FM2000 VRB03KT P6SM SCT025
FM0300 VRB03KT P6SM SKC
METAR KHIO 251653Z 00000KT 9SM FEW012 03/01 A3007
This time the sun came out and melted the frost.
From 10 on, Sunday the 25th was sunny and relatively warm.
A nice day for breakfast at the Flying M.
TAF KHIO 031721Z 031818 00000KT 2SM BR SCT001 BKN005 TEMPO 1819
1/2SM FG BKN001
FM1900 VRB02KT 5SM BR SCT005 BKN250
FM2100 09004KT P6SM SCT080
FM0700 10011KT P6SM SCT100
TAF KHIO 032333Z 040024 VRB02KT P6SM SCT050 BKN250
FM0500 VRB02KT P6SM MIFG SCT250
FM1300 VRB02KT P6SM MIFG SCT100 BKN250 TEMPO 1420 BKN100
FM2000 08005KT P6SM SCT060 BKN100
TAF KHIO 040530Z 040606 VRB02KT P6SM SCT250
FM1100 VRB02KT P6SM MIFG SCT100 BKN250 TEMPO 1420 BKN100
FM2000 08005KT P6SM SCT060 BKN100
FM0000 08005KT P6SM SCT035 OVC060 TEMPO 0004 -RA
FM0400 VRB03KT P6SM -RA BKN035 OVC050
TAF KHIO 041129Z 041212 VRB02KT P6SM BKN150 OVC250
FM1700 05008KT P6SM BKN090 OVC150
FM2200 07010KT P6SM BKN050 OVC090 TEMPO 2206 -RA BKN030
FM0600 05007KT P6SM BKN060 OVC120
I wanted to fly to Newport Sunday March 4 for a fly-in but the forecast seemed a bit "iffy".
As I climbed out of Hillsboro the weather to the southwest looked a bit low.
The flight was a bit bumpy, enough that a Cub pilot hit the plane's ceiling.
I decided a flight to Newport might not be all that enjoyable,
and it might be a bit nasty outside once I got to Newport.
I "diverted" to the Flying M Ranch.
Once I got down into the valley, approach and landing were fairly smooth.
This interesting series of forecasts for Sunday (above) show a number of revisions.
The last forecast finally got it right - the rain started about 2 (2200 hours).
The calm air enticed me to see if I could get Skylane 2469R down and stopped before the driveway. This is partly a "male pilot thing", but knowing I could stop short of the driveway could be useful in an emergency. I watched the airspeed and touchdown point more carefully than usual. Albeit with a bit of sliding, I managed a "California Stop" well short of the driveway. The question settled, I released the brakes, powered up, and taxiied to parking.
After breakfast I walked to the edge of the pond to take a few pictures. Dick spotted me on his approach and did a photo pass for my benefit, followed by a pitchup and turn. In the picture on the left, Dick's plane has been magnified about 5x relative to the rest of the picture to give a better impression of the event.
The picture on the right was taken at the moment of touchdown.
There is a special significance to the half dead tree behind the landing lights.
This 150 foot tree is south of the road, opposite the east windsock.
I get a good look at this tree if I use a shallow initial climbout.
Below: East windsock and its reflection in the pond.
Latest stop in my quest for a quiet spot to store my
Blackout Light.
I need a handy spot where I can grab it if the acbin lights
should fail at night.
It also needs to be stowed where it won't be accidentally turned on.
So far I've gone through a few sets of batteries when it was bumped.
Right: Airport Security at HIO
It's annual time. Dirk detected a leaking exhaust valve in one of the jugs.
Here he uses a special tool to compress the valve spring so he can slip
out the rocker arm mount.
The large valve is the intake valve.
The jug had 900-1000 hours on it.
Dirk said everything looked perfect in the cylinder
except the exhaust valve.
Reflections off the slick oiled cylinder wall
caused the curved halo seen toward the bottom of the picture.