Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The Coolest Feeling in the World!!

Ouch!!  I just realized it's been 8 weeks since my last post.  I am happy to say that I have done my fair share of flying in that time, which means I have compiled plenty of footage.  The only problem with that is finding the time to edit all the video, get it uploaded and then blog about it.  Uggh!

I have to admit, I brought some of it on myself.  Since my last post, I have upgraded to a pro video production software package and I have also added in-flight audio.  This all adds up to lots of new pieces added to the puzzle, as well as plenty to learn - especially with the software.

I'm going to leapfrog several trips to our most recent adventure from this past Sunday.  My wife and I were scheduled to take a flight up to Beaver Island to see one of our favorite bands perform on Friday night.  Unfortunately, the weather was pretty bad and we had to cancel that trip.  As I was reviewing the weather for the Friday flight, I noticed that Sunday was forecast to be really nice.  I started thinking where we might want to fly to and started checking destination forecasts.  It just so happened that the weather was looking equally as nice down in Lexington, where much of our family lives.  Our work schedules have kept us both pretty busy, so we hadn't been down to visit since January.

I decided that, even though we could only go for the day, we would fly down and surprise everyone after church.  I also decided that I would surprise my wife. Hehe! She had no idea and was elated when she saw me program KLEX into the Garmin 430's.  What a great day it turned out to be.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  You see, the weather didn't turn out to be anywhere near what was forecast; this held true for both our home base and our destination.

We awoke at sunrise to beautiful clear blue sky.  I made a quick check of the METARs and found the weather to be 10SM and SKC (10 Statue Miles Visibility and Clear Skies) over most of our route of flight.  The forecasts showed some slightly reduced visibilities for haze, but nothing that warranted any concern.

About 30 minutes before we were set to leave for the airport, fog and an overcast layer rolled in.  Luckily, the ceilings weren't real low, so this simply meant we would have to pickup our clearance on the ground before departing.  8D4 is a non-towered airport.  As well, there is no RCO to communicate with Grand Rapids or Chicago Center to pickup a clearance.  This means that we have to call KGRR via phone to receive our departure clearance.  I've actually never had to do that outside of my training, but luckily, my Bose A20 has Bluetooth, which made calling up Grand Rapids right from the run-up area a snap.

As you'll see in the video, we departed 8D4 and made our turn to the south.  Shortly after our turn, we entered the clouds.  The climb through the clouds was a little bumpy, as is to be expected and I hadn't had any actual IFR in the last few weeks, so I was alert and prepared to go on the gauges.

We continued our climb and I began to grow eager for what I was certain was to come next.  Most definitely one of the most incredible things a human being can experience is to climb through an overcast layer into the bright blue sky with unlimited visibilities.  It is completely exhilarating to go from the overcast gloom on the ground and the thick grey soup in the clouds to the indescribable contrast of the deep blue sky and the bright white cotton-textured clouds.  The feeling of utter awe continues as you climb higher above the clouds and look down onto a blanket of white beneath you - the clouds with their ever-changing textures and shapes.  If it sounds prophetic, it's because it IS!!  Don't believe me, well, as my blog says, "Come Fly with Me" and experience it for yourself.



So, as I've eluded to, the footage I have for you this time is of our flight through the clouds and into the clear blue sky.  Oh, our trip to Lexington was great!  Though the weather really went downhill just prior to our arrival and we had to fly an ILS into KLEX.  We were solid IFR from Cincinnati until we broke out at 400ft above minimums.  And when I say broke out, I mean broke out of the cloud layer into a haze layer that wasn't much better.  It was a workout, but as always, extremely rewarding!

More from the air soon...

IFR Departure - Coolest Feeling in the World!!! from Short Final on Vimeo.

1 comment:

  1. It was a great flight babe! I never get tired of looking at those beautiful clouds.

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