Going West... (and back again)

People of the world...

Hello!

I thought I'd report back on my latest expedition across Texas. A couple of Sundays ago I hopped in a small tin can with wings, and buzzed across Texas to Kerrville. Unlike the previous time I visited, I did not break the plane, and was able to return it to whence it came. Splendid.

Flushed with success, I took a checkout in a nice new (year 2000) Cessna 172, which has 4 seats, 180 horsepower, and has more buttons than you can shake a stick at. It has no less then two GPS systems, so all you do is get in, turn it all on, choose where you want to go, and follow the nice magenta line on the screen. That's it.

This weekend I thought I'd take it out for another spin solo (no pun intended), and this I did - over to Kerrville, and then on to Real County (Leakey), where some work freinds were hanging out on the Rio Frio. I really apprecite being picked up guys - I buzzed their cabin, and they drove into the airport as I circled to land!

After overnighting there, I headed back east, up to Fredericksburg for fuel, and then back to Houston. It was pretty overcast, and low clouds, so I found a hole, and climbed through the gap and buzzed along in the clear blue, with a sea of white below me.

Now, all this is very well, but as I am not instrument rated, I am not allowed to fly through clouds (and nor is anyone unless they are on a filed instrument flight plan). I was kept on my toes tuning in the weather reports for airports along my route, and flew from airport to airport that were reporting broken clouds, just so I was sure I could get back down to the ground again! There's nothing worse than getting 'stuck' on top (well, actually, there is. Like your wings coming off or accidentally violating George Bush's airspace...), so it's a bad idea to do if you don't have a good idea of what the weather is doing along your route of flight. Also - be as paranoid as me and don't use more than a third of your fuel without a 'get out' plan that will work.

Anyway, all was well, and I cruised back to Houston at 130 knots (150 mph), with a minor detour south to fly back through a big gap in the clouds, then blundered the final 30 miles in 7 mile visibility. This might sound a lot, bit it's not - it's yucky (to introduce a technical aviation term). I checked in with the Houston controllers early so they could help me look out for other aircraft - hard to see in icky weather.

Great trip - one of my best to date!

You can see the tracks from all my flying in Google Earth format, or by clicking the Flying Tracks link over in the quick links area on the right. I've split them all up into folders, so you can look at all of them, just local ones, the hill country ones, etc etc - have a play!

posted by Sam @ 22:38