Dulles is open, National is closed, I don’t know about BWI. But all the smaller airports are still closed, the GA reliever airports are still clearing out. They’re probably be clear by tomorrow sometime, just in time for the next storm.
Here on in the Washington DC area we’ve been getting rather more than our fair share of storms this winter. It and other issues have curtailed my flying since I got my instrument rating in November. On Friday I found an opportunity to go flying again, I wanted to see if I could remember what all those controls did!
I took off from the home airport and headed to Winchester VA for a little landing practice. This got me some flight time and I was able to watch the countryside roll by below which I always like. Friday it was a countryside is muted black and white. Mostly white. There was an indistinct ceiling reported at 12,000 ft, but it could have been at 6000 ft and I would have believed it too. Some haze, visibility was around 6-8 miles.
I decided to do the ILS32 to OKV (Wichester) in VFR conditions. This is not loggable as an IFR flight - I was in VFR conditions and not wearing foggles. Traffic at OKV was light - only one guy. I would join the pattern as needed if it looked like I would interfere with his operations.
I was able to track the ILS and GS (glideslope) accurately and correct to the runway. I did this by alternating looking inside and out. I would not have done this on a busy day! I touched down in the softest landing I’ve ever made - I knew I was down when I felt the wheels start rumbling on the pavement.
This is a touch and go, so I tracked the center line while the flaps came up, then I put in full throttle with 2500 feet of runway left. Rotated at 60 mph and lifted off with plenty of runway left over. I climbed at 85 mph (my plane is older and calibrated in mph, not knots) and did the missed approach.
Then, headed north to the MBR 231 radial for the hold at CWINE and the VOR-A approach back to OKV. I over climbed to 3500 feet, my target was 3100. I used the hold to decend to my target altitude and completed the one turn around the hold.
Then I began the VOR-A approach to OKV, but overflew the field at 1500 instead of the 1180 minimum altitude of the approach as the other guy was departing. Then I joined the downwind, 200 feet below the pattern altitude, and did another touch-and-go. Also a very good landing, but not quite to the olympic standard of the first one.
Time to head home. The air was so smooth that I pushed up the speed to the bottom edge of the yellow zone. I don’t usually do this as low-level turbulence is always an issue. But there’s no problem today.
Three of us were coming into the home airport at the same time. It took a bit of collaboration, and trading of distances and landmarks, but we arrived in sequence instead of all at once. Another nice landing, my third in a row, and back to the tiedown.
All in all, 1.1 hours, nine gallons of avgas, three very good landings and one excellent one, and two simulated approaches (non-loggable). A good day and wonderful to get back in the air.
This odd NASA shot below is thought to be the very lucky shot of the aftermath of two asteroids hitting each other. I dunno about you, but the closeup view in the lower left looks like a Klingon Bird of Prey decloaking to me.
I’m just saying that we ought to warm up the photon torpedoes in case they’re in a hostile phase. This photo was taken with NASA’s long-range scanners, also called NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera.
Has it ever occured to you that the long and varied history of human-Klingon relations looks a bit like a disfunctional co-dependent relationship? All the fighting, mis-communication, and later diplomatic overtures to patch things up, it just feels like a bad Lifetime movie sometimes.
A recent load of manure that landed in my email was this notice from the FAA (hyperbole, jingoism, and spelling mistakes are quoted):
On Super Bowl Sunday, as you join with family and friends to cheer on your favorite team, rest assured that our nation’s skies are safe and secure, defended by a highly trained team from Continental NORAD Region and First Air Force — dedicated to preserving our peace and security.
Temporary Flight Restrictions will be in place during Super Bowl XLIV over Land Shark stadium, and CONR fighters may be visible on Sunday, February 7, 2010, while they enforce the FAA’s flight-restricted area in downtown Miami.
Genreal Aviation pilots are strongly encouraged to continue to check NOTAMS throughout the weekend.
Just to clarify a couple points:
1) There has NEVER been a general aviation airplane involved in ANY terrorist incident. The only terrorist incidents have been with commercial transport aircraft such as airlines fly. Yet the TFRs over the Miami area will affect general aviation much much more than they will commercial aviation.
2) The increasing TFRs and special flight restrictions around the country are limiting your mobility without any increase in security. It’s misplaced caution. Ground-level potential threats are easier, cheaper, and happen all the time in other countries.
3) Any pilots in the area ought to damn well check their NOTAMS and watch the every-changing rules. The FAA isn’t in charge here. They’re dancing to the Dept of Homeland Security’s tune and DHS isn’t as nice and friendly as the FAA is.
4) All those who thought the the ADIZ (now SFRA) around Washington DC was a local problem for those of us near there think again. NY has an SFRA. The Feds put up TFRs at the drop of a hat now. You too can have your airspace made non-flyable anytime.
