… seem to have passed since my last update. Sorry about that.
I did drive to church the weekend before last, as I indicated was likely in my last post. I flew last weekend. It was a beautiful flight up on Saturday, but unpleasant weather was forecast for Sunday evening. They said it would be clear by 0800 Monday, though, just with a little wind. I made arrangements to stay Sunday night and fly back Monday morning.
I woke up to a dusting of snow. The rain had turned into snow for the last two hours, and the result had crusted over as the temperature dropped below freezing. There were still clouds around 4500 feet, and the wind forecast was from 300 with gusts to 36 knots. Runway is 34. That’s a crosswind component of 23+ knots. I wasn’t looking forward to that takeoff at all, and I knew it was going to be a bumpy ride all the way home.
I had to knock a thin layer of ice and snow from the wings during the preflight. Actual wind, when cleared for takeoff, was 27 knots. I managed to keep it straight and get it in the air. As expected, it was a bumpy ride, but not so bad that I had difficulty maintaining heading and altitude.
I filed 4,000 and direct TTA after the SID, but the system cleared me out over the mountains. That would’ve required 6,000 feet, and put me smack in the middle of clouds with an outside air temperature in the teens Fahrenheit. I requested and was given clearance direct TTA once west of CSN (the termination of the SID), which allowed me to stay at 4,000. Had they not done so, I’d have canceled IFR and gone direct anyway, flying wherever I needed to in order to stay VFR. Side note: I ended up making probably my best ever landing at TTA at the end of the flight.
As of now, I plan to stay home completely this weekend. I could easily fly up tomorrow (Saturday), but a storm system is supposed to roll in that night and stick around until Tuesday. The precipitation should end on Monday, but just like last weekend, winds. I saw 42kts in the forecast. That’s a hard NO. And with 1-2 inches of rain forecast overnight Sunday night, I’m not going to try to drive it, either. My night vision isn’t good enough to drive in the pouring rain all night. I’ll check the forecast again tomorrow morning, but I’ll likely take advantage of streaming technology this time around. I’ll miss seeing the kids’ Christmas program in person Sunday night, but such is life.
Mom’s condition is little changed. She’s having more frequent cognitive issues in addition to everything else, but otherwise the same.
I had a bit of automotive excitement this week. I needed to get an inspection done, so I headed out to the shop I’ve used for the past ten years or so. Coming up to the first stop sign, the brakes went mushy. It stopped, but I wasn’t sure if it was going to or not for a bit. I limped it into the shop, sure that I’d busted a brake line. By the third stop, the light came on telling me that I was losing fluid. The shop confirmed a ruptured line. A section had rusted through. A couple of $30 fittings, some bulk line, and an hour’s worth of labor later, and it was right as rain.
And that’s about it.
Grumpy 