After my trip to Italy, I had to jump right back onto another plane to head to San Antonio (SAT) for work, which meant I spent quite a lot of time in aircraft this month. As I was sitting on the connecting flight through Atlanta (ATL) to Dulles (IAD), I ran the mental math and it came out to be about 25 hours in the back of commercial aircraft. Of course, even though I spent all that time in aircraft, I couldn't log any of it. After landing at IAD, I decided that I'd take a plane out before the month's end so that I could at least log a couple hours.
After blowing up Facebook asking people if they'd like to join on a trip to Charlottesville (CHO), Phil and I worked out a plan for what we'd like to do. As with all plans down to CHO, we would fly down, grab some food from Timberwood, and fly back. Since Phil's brother was down near CHO, we also diverted course slightly to fly over where he would be.
After another quick check of the weather both online and outside, Phil and I set off to take up a plane in the fleet that I had not yet flown. Oddly enough, the last time I flew, I walked by it noting that fact and thought to myself "maybe next time." Phil checked the fuel while I gave the aircraft its shakedown, and then after tossing way too many electronics into the aircraft, we set off towards CHO.
As soon as I could, I threw the blinders on after departure so that we could both start logging time. Phil kept us clear of the clouds, while I brought us out towards Upperville (2VG2), and then slightly west of the normal course to overfly Wolftown, VA. We had to descend a couple times to avoid the clouds, but they lifted as we flew south. After practicing a couple turns around a point, which turned out to be the wrong point (house), we almost gave up to land at CHO when Phil got a text message with his brother's location in a field. After turning around, we spotted them standing next to their truck and took a couple laps around them before heading back towards the airport. On the way, tower assigned Runway 3, and then switched it to Runway 21 because the wind shifted. The change in runway ended up saving us some time with a straight in landing.
The video picks up after passing Piney Mountain. The banter in the background is both Phil and me negotiating my target on the runway, which ended up being the old numbers and the new thousand foot markers. After that, you can hear me groan a bit as I realized I missed it, Phil asking if I'm going to get the nose up for once, and then me groaning a second time about letting the plane float. The landing was pretty smooth, but in an effort to jump off at the first taxiway I pressed a little too hard on the right brake, causing it to skid. You can hear me jokingly denying it and then reading back the taxi instructions before the clip ends.
We passed a Gulfstream on the way in, and for the first time in the entirety of parking at Landmark, nobody came out to park me. I, of course, took it as an opportunity to park wherever I wanted, and did just that. The rampies were actually busy towing another plane, but one stopped by to check on us and see if we needed fuel before returning to marshal another plane out. It was only after walking inside that we found that the crew car had just been taken by the pilots of the aforementioned Gulfstream. I gave Keya a hard time about letting someone take my car, but her retort was something to the effect of "well I had no idea what to do with it since you haven't been around in so long." Valid point. It wasn't a huge deal in the end as she just dropped us off with their van.
Brief pause for Clint Eastwood burger consumption.
Getting ready to head back, I paid for the fuel, and then Keya asked me a ton of questions about the Superbowl in order to get some idea of how to fill her pool sheet out. Phil and I walked back outside to set up all of the electronics again, started up and set off towards JYO. Since I've started a tradition of my own signature departure from CHO, here's the video of it.
After turning on course, I threw the hood back on to log more time, which amounted to 0.9 hours of hood time for the day. Just 0.5 hours left before I could finish the rest of the instrument requirement in a simulator if I really wanted to, but where's the fun in that?
Getting closer to JYO, and after switching controllers, our radar service was terminated because the radar up at IAD wasn't picking us up in all of the snow. For a second, we came back up, but then dropped off again, so I told the controller we'd cancel the radar services and just utilize the normal JYO Maneuvering Area procedures. It added a couple minutes to the flight, but it also kept us from giving the controller a headache. The clouds dropped back down again, along with the visibility because of the snow falling. Similar to the rain video I got a while back, the snow looks like you're hitting light speed as it flies by. It was somewhat unnerving to hear Potomac working an IFR flight on the ILS Runway 17 approach to JYO as we continued in visually, but we sequenced ourselves properly over the frequency, landing in between that IFR Cirrus, and another VFR Bonanza behind us.
Right before I shut down, I snagged the AWOS weather report for insurance in case anyone questioned how visual the weather really was:
KJYO 262115Z AUTO 32005KT 5SM -SN BKN038 OVC044 00/M02 A3026 RMK AO2
I wouldn't recommend buzzing around an area you don't know very well in conditions like that, but if you know the area well and have good tools for situational awareness, you can remain reasonably safe even in degraded conditions. I'll put it this way: I'll take those conditions in the day over clear and moonless with a low altitude at night.
Another awesome flight for the books.
Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 2.0 - 76.2 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.9 - 10.5 (of 40)
