deflated flying
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It was a great winter day!
The lake, with all the ice fishermen out to their huts...
A bit of low flying....
A bit of fun, sliding around on the ice...
A stop offshore, by a pile up of ice...
I think I'll go again tomorrow, and enjoy more of winter's charms...... Hang in there aerofoil1, the charms of winter flying will show themselves to you too!
The lake, with all the ice fishermen out to their huts...
A bit of low flying....
A bit of fun, sliding around on the ice...
A stop offshore, by a pile up of ice...
I think I'll go again tomorrow, and enjoy more of winter's charms...... Hang in there aerofoil1, the charms of winter flying will show themselves to you too!
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Between a rock and a hard place
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He he… original story sounds so familiar to me I don't know if I should laugh or cry. Feel sorry your daughter didn't get what she expected but I am sure there will be more times. Pre-flight planning under time pressure can be uncomfortable at best, dangerous at worst.
When I was newly qualified, keen to fly for free and get some extra hours, I was asked by some friends to fly them up for a skiing holiday. Started early with my planning, weather was looking good, and thought everything was working out pretty good until some 15 min before go time… shoot, forgot to put the engine heater on the plane. Even though plane was in the hangar it was some -15 deg. C outside. Cutting corners I plugged it in, warmed it for some 15 min (…by far too short) and of course the engine wouldn't start. Anxious if I primed too much or too little, battery starting to feel weak, not wanting to ruin this trip for my friends, decided to pull aircraft into hangar again to heat it properly. Now next problem… destination airport closing at midnight and this was eating on my time reserve. 45 min later, pulled aircraft out again and IT STARTED…pewhh! Taxiing over to fuel station, the damn pump had frozen over! I am sweating at this point, despite the temperature. Running up to club house, find number to the club manager, ask him for advice… finally getting it to work! Off we go with full tanks, trusting my best friend the GNS430, we seem to make it with a few minutes margin before closure time. At arrival everything is sorted, fuel truck is standing by, taxi is arranged for my friends and tower happily work 15 min overtime to send me off safely on my return trip.
Relieved that everything worked out I felt the flight home over a dark, quiet, northern Scandi country could be quite enjoyable. The pressure was off and … AHHH, there I AM, on-top, in the middle of the night and not instrument rated.
The weather was not looking better down south either, although it wasn't terrible with OVC020 but good vis underneath. Time to strangle that weather forecaster
Should I turn back? Good weather but the airport wasn't opening until 8 in the morning and it was - 20 deg. C outside. Should I continue? Carry on through the clouds and show up at work tomorrow with the aircraft back in its hangar. I choose the second option… Imagine the sigh of relief when I parked the aircraft on familiar ground, around 3 o'clock in the morning, scrambled all my belongings and thought… OH BOY, that was an adventure!! Realizing good judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgement.
When I was newly qualified, keen to fly for free and get some extra hours, I was asked by some friends to fly them up for a skiing holiday. Started early with my planning, weather was looking good, and thought everything was working out pretty good until some 15 min before go time… shoot, forgot to put the engine heater on the plane. Even though plane was in the hangar it was some -15 deg. C outside. Cutting corners I plugged it in, warmed it for some 15 min (…by far too short) and of course the engine wouldn't start. Anxious if I primed too much or too little, battery starting to feel weak, not wanting to ruin this trip for my friends, decided to pull aircraft into hangar again to heat it properly. Now next problem… destination airport closing at midnight and this was eating on my time reserve. 45 min later, pulled aircraft out again and IT STARTED…pewhh! Taxiing over to fuel station, the damn pump had frozen over! I am sweating at this point, despite the temperature. Running up to club house, find number to the club manager, ask him for advice… finally getting it to work! Off we go with full tanks, trusting my best friend the GNS430, we seem to make it with a few minutes margin before closure time. At arrival everything is sorted, fuel truck is standing by, taxi is arranged for my friends and tower happily work 15 min overtime to send me off safely on my return trip.
Relieved that everything worked out I felt the flight home over a dark, quiet, northern Scandi country could be quite enjoyable. The pressure was off and … AHHH, there I AM, on-top, in the middle of the night and not instrument rated.
The weather was not looking better down south either, although it wasn't terrible with OVC020 but good vis underneath. Time to strangle that weather forecaster
Should I turn back? Good weather but the airport wasn't opening until 8 in the morning and it was - 20 deg. C outside. Should I continue? Carry on through the clouds and show up at work tomorrow with the aircraft back in its hangar. I choose the second option… Imagine the sigh of relief when I parked the aircraft on familiar ground, around 3 o'clock in the morning, scrambled all my belongings and thought… OH BOY, that was an adventure!! Realizing good judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgement.
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: stoke on trent england
Age: 49
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Thank you all for sharing your advice and experiences have taken it all inboard lesson learned from now on I won't be booking the 1St slot and will make sure it's at least a 2hour slot with plenty of time for planning!
