Cloud layers foil Christmas!

[Codeeno]

Well yesterday morning I depart Front Range bound for Norman. Feeling like it's going to be a nice flight. Cold weather, plane is performing well and the added bonus of being cleared into the Class Bravo!

About 45 mins later, with a layer below me and the layer closing in from above - I make a 180. To the East I have a little bit of blue sky and a hot MOA with three F-16s playing. So east is gone. West didn't look good so I aborted the trip.

While heading back to Front Range, I asked Denver Center what they knew and studied my I-pad. No routes looked VFR-ish enough for me to call it safe. I landed back at Front Range - called family told them I wouldn't make it then met a hangar neighbor. He was prepping for a Pilots and Paws flight.

The lesson - More confirmation that I need my instrument ticket. I would have been IFR for about 200 miles but would have arrived. I wonder if it's too late to have Santa slip that into his sleigh for me. Lol

Dean

 

[N295TC]

Re: Cloud layers foil Christmas!

- I make a 180.

Dean

Dean I'm proud of you my buddy.....extremely nice call to turn back before it was TOO LATE. It's better to miss one Christmas than all of them from now on because you tried to push on and found yourself in trouble and then none of us nor them ever see you again.

And yes you need to get your IR ticket but as my instructor once told me "an IR ticket" isn't a ticket so you can fly on bad weather days, it's a ticket to educate you on when Not to go fly and to Help get you out of accidental weather trouble when it's closed in on you.

I'm proud of you, GREAT CALL

 

[Frank]

Re: Cloud layers foil Christmas!

Considering the conditions you describe I think it was a great call.
If I really want to get to a place I go commercial. When flying my own airplane I do not really care about a schedule. I for sure make plans but they are entirely flexible.

 

[wiguy]

Re: Cloud layers foil Christmas!

And it sounds like you have some type of cockpit weather, XM or ADS-B? If so it's a great help to see what options are available, of course after one has done the customary preflight weather analysis.

 

[kgrant]

Re: Cloud layers foil Christmas!

Good call Dean. I cancelled to Seminole, OK (about 50 SE of Norman) yesterday. IFR options weren't that great either. My guys drove. k

 

[JimParker256]

Re: Cloud layers foil Christmas!

Great call, Dean. So many pilots press on, "hoping" things will get better. But as someone said "Hope is NOT a plan!" I am proud of you far making a tough, but undoubtedly correct, call.

 

[JayB]

Re: Cloud layers foil Christmas!

Better to be down here wishing to be up there. Than being up there praying to be down here. good call.

 

[plight]

Re: Cloud layers foil Christmas!

Great call and that Safety First trumped Get There Itis …

 

[Codeeno]

Re: Cloud layers foil Christmas!

Considering the conditions you describe I think it was a great call.
If I really want to get to a place I go commercial. When flying my own airplane I do not really care about a schedule. I for sure make plans but they are entirely flexible.

Frank - I totally agree - Initially - I had 5 days in advance of my departure to leave earlier - that was my buffer. I had a work project go side-ways and ended up working all 5 of those days - so my buffer was gone.

In the motorcycle world they have the rungs of an accident ladder - meaning an accident is rarely just one thing, but, a combination of factors. Losing my buffer in retrospect was a potential first step.

Dean

 

[Codeeno]

Re: Cloud layers foil Christmas!

Dean I'm proud of you my buddy.....extremely nice call to turn back before it was TOO LATE. It's better to miss one Christmas than all of them from now on because you tried to push on and found yourself in trouble and then none of us nor them ever see you again.

And yes you need to get your IR ticket but as my instructor once told me "an IR ticket" isn't a ticket so you can fly on bad weather days, it's a ticket to educate you on when Not to go fly and to Help get you out of accidental weather trouble when it's closed in on you.

I'm proud of you, GREAT CALL

Todd - thanks. I agree the IFR ticket is not a be all end all - it's additional education to help make better decisions. I think - if I would have had an IFR ticket, my decision would have been to divert west/south - down past Colorado Springs, then the TX Panhandle - there was an area of cloud cover down there that was small - with an IFR ticket I might have been able to cross through around it. VFR-wise and not knowing - seemed like to big of an unknown - unless I was willing to spend the night(s) in Amarillo.

Dean

 

[Codeeno]

Re: Cloud layers foil Christmas!

And it sounds like you have some type of cockpit weather, XM or ADS-B? If so it's a great help to see what options are available, of course after one has done the customary preflight weather analysis.

Joe,

I had weather from my i-Pad - but this also exposes the 1976 panel I have. So when I get the panel project done - I will have more information information in the cockpit too.

Dean

 

[RNC]

Re: Cloud layers foil Christmas!

One of the things you'll learn in IR training is that they cannot know what cloud layers are above the bottom-most one (reliably). If the bottom layer is solid overcast, no one knows what's above unless someone flies through them and reports them. If the bottom layer is scattered or broken, surface readings will pick up the bases of any layers they can see.

Multiple layers this time of the year are an issue not just for the vis, but for the freeze level. If you are above freezing you can reliably fly through them all and not care (IFR). If you must stay out of them due to being below freezing and not having de-ice equipment, it becomes more of a head scratcher.