Stuck for a while
The second day of my trip went reasonably well. Ended with a bit of a weather delay, but nothing terrible.
My dad and I took our time and got off the ground from Kankakee about 10 o’clock CDT this morning, destined for home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (KCID). We had smooth sailing until about 40 miles east of Davenport, IA when the ceilings started dropping.
I had discussed the weather in detail with a flight service briefer before leaving, so I knew what to expect. There was to be about a 40 mile wide line of low ceilings running north/south along the Iowa/Illinois border, then it was supposed to open up further to the west. Chicago Flight Watch confirmed the current conditions once I was in the air.
I dropped down to about 1000 feet off the ground to get under the cloud bases which were at about 1500 AGL. Then my GPS started losing satellite reception for some reason. Maybe the rain clouds interrupted the signal? I don’t know. Whatever the case, after fiddling with it for a few minutes, I said, “Screw it, I’ll do this the old school way,” and glued my finger to the sectional, following along with every turn in the roads.
It turned out to be more enjoyable that way anyway. I’d forgotten how much fun it is to look down at all the little towns and farmhouses as they rolled by under my wings.
So we made it through the weather no problem. As we approached Cedar Rapids, I tuned in the ATIS. Winds 180@10. Runway 13/31 closed for construction, leaving Runway 9/27 as the only available option. Nice. A ten knot crosswind no matter which way I went. No biggie in a tricycle gear aircraft, but I’m still not 100% confident of myself with this tailwheel stuff in a crosswind.
I got cleared to land on Runway 27 and had two aircraft following me in. While on a three mile straight in final the tower called winds 170@9. Nice. I was tempted to ask for Runway 9 instead, but didn’t want to cause sequencing problems for the two aircraft following me.
“Tower, are the winds favoring the southeast at all, or have they been swinging around all over?” I asked.
“They’ve been mostly 1-8, 1-7, and 1-6-0…and umm…I saw 1-5-0 briefly a minute ago. Winds now 160@9,” the controller said.
A quartering tailwind. Even nicer than a crosswind. I warned my dad not to be surprised if I went around, but I’d give the landing a shot with the winds and see how it went. Can’t learn anything if I don’t at least try, right?
I kept the flaps retracted, got stabilized, and held it in the center. Thankfully the wind was very steady, not gusting at all, and not turbulent. I kept working it all the way down, keeping it in the center, keeping it straight, keeping the wing down, and bringing it in to the three point attitude. My touchdown was smooth, right on centerline, and without the slightest bounce or swerve. Very nice. Good confidence boost.
We drove home and had lunch. I looked at the radar and decided getting to my grandpa’s house in Brainerd, Minnesota didn’t look good today–thunderstorms all over the place up there. Maybe I could head west and get to my brother’s place in Lincoln, Nebraska instead? It looked good and was forecast to stay clear.
I laid down to take a 45 minute power nap before getting ready to fly again. After I woke up I did a quick check of the radar, only to find thunderstorms popping up all over western Iowa, associated with the low pressure system that has caused all the storms in Minnesota. Great. Looks like both Brainerd and Lincoln are out of the question for today.
Even tomorrow looks kind of sketchy. Isolated thunderstorms forecast all over throughout the day. I don’t have a solid plan on where to go tomorrow.
Oh well. If I’m going to get stuck somewhere, this is the place to be. At home with my parents beats a cheap motel any day.
Oh, and an interesting little side note for the day–I got to see Hillary Clinton. I went back out to the airport to put the cover on my plane before the storms rolled in. As I pulled in to the FBO parking lot, I noticed some police cars and black SUVs on the ramp. After inquiring about a hangar for my plane overnight ($50/night? no thanks) I ask them to let me out on the ramp so I could put the cover on. “Sorry, we can’t let you out the door yet. We’re waiting for Hilary Clinton’s jet to park.”
Sure enough, ten minutes later a nice big bizjet rolls in, a bunch of political types hop out, then Clinton steps out. They all got in the string of SUVs and headed out to see some people who I’m sure were happy to see them.
Now I’ll work on posting some pictures…