XC woes in a VFR aircraft

Big Ed

Big Ed

N50247 - '79 Super D
Joined
Jul 20, 2020
Messages
1,938
Location
Tampa, FL
Part of rationalizing the purchase of my Super Decathlon was the ability to use it for business travel. That has worked out reasonably well for short trips of 3-4 hours in the Southeast. However, I am running into the limitations of that approach on longer trips in the middle of the country. Have boosted revenue for several hotel chains in the last week.

My current trip started out well. 4 hours from Tampa, FL to Hattiesburg, MS. Stayed there for 2 days observing a business project. Then 4 hours from Hattiesburg to Oklahoma City to visit a business we work with. So far, so good.

Then the delays started. Had hoped to continue on to Colorado Springs, but the winds were too strong, so I waited a day. Then the winds were too strong in Oklahoma to take off (30 gusting to 45!), so I waited another day. On the 3rd day, I decided to change my plan and go home.

I took off yesterday heading east, got to the OK-Arkansas border, and found a large area covered by an unbroken layer of low clouds. Top of layer was at about 2,000 feet AGL, with ceilings underneath reported as 400 feet and mist on ADS-B. I am usually comfortable going over the top of a cloud deck if I know I will find openings at my destination. However in this case I did not like the idea, since I would not be able to descend thru the layer and set up for a landing if I had engine trouble. I contoured northeast along the edge, hoping I could bypass it to the north.

After about 30 minutes, I decided my decision making would be better on the ground, so I landed just beyond the edge of the cloud layer at Fayetteville, ARK. Dumb mistake. After I landed, that layer moved right over the top of the airfield I had just landed at and flight conditions changed to MVFR. There were periodic holes I could have climbed up through, but then I would have been on top of the same deck I had issues with earlier. After a few hours of waiting and checking weather, I got a hotel room and decided to try again today.

Woke up today to solid IFR. Am sitting right on the edge of a big cold front. Forecast is just as bad tomorrow. Probably won't get out of here until the front pushes through on Monday, and then the front is between me and my destination.

Soooo ... when all is said and done, I will have spent at least 5 days sitting in hotel rooms waiting out weather, and possibly more.
 
When I first started flying I wast given this advice “if you have time to spare go by air” so when I was among the working class I always heeded this now that I’m retired I’m flying more places and yes I’m IFR and so is my Warrior. But there is a difference in what I’m able to fly in and what I’m willing to.

Safe journey and remember it’s better to wish you were up there and safe on the ground than up there wishing you were on the ground.
 
Cheer up. This is not always the way it goes. I have 16 Cub transcontinentals and one in a Chief - most of the time it is straight through. As a guess, I would say five days total for weather, and one for maintenance. Oh, and two stopped cold at mid-point.

But November is a horrible month to start.
 
Bruce said:
When I first started flying I wast given this advice “if you have time to spare go by air” so when I was among the working class I always heeded this now that I’m retired I’m flying more places and yes I’m IFR and so is my Warrior. But there is a difference in what I’m able to fly in and what I’m willing to.

Safe journey and remember it’s better to wish you were up there and safe on the ground than up there wishing you were on the ground.
Click to expand...

Bruce,

I'm cracking up, my first thought was "time to spare, go by air"! I wasn't going to say it, Ed likes us so far and we need all the people we can get! lol

Sorry to hear it Ed! Traveling by tailwheel is more challenging because our x-wind constraints are more challenging and our aircraft are usually less equipped for flying in and around weather. I like your gumption for giving it a try though!

As a person who spends a lot of time in hotel rooms clicking off the hours until I can leave, it's maddening, sorry you're experiencing it, especially at the beginning of a holiday week when you're probably trying to wrap things up so you can get back home. But it sounds like business is good so you've got that to be proud of!
 
It may be blasphemy around here, Big Ed, but have you considered that at the rate the hotel bills are piling up, it may be worth considering biting the bullet and upgrading to IFR capability? If your ship already has gyros, I think (sure I'll be corrected if wrong), it's not that big a leap to add a heated pitot tube and a basic IFR NavCom...

Just thinking out loud...
 
We wish it were that easy. In November, sometimes it is best to hop on a Greyhound or rent a car, do the meeting, and return when the weather gives you a break.
 
Definitely bad time of year for this. I have left my plane stranded for months on end on several occasions.
 
This is a 2 airplane problem. If you really want to travel 1/2 the country in winter you need horsepower and ability to fly over the layers. In summer, speed to outrun or run around weather systems. And when it is 90 degrees in the mountains a plane that can take off at gross at 10,000 ft density altitude. Basically high horsepower. Power and speed do bring safety when flying long distances through or around weather patterns. It’s all part of the fun.
 
As much as I hate to say it, you need all of that and a nose wheel if you really want to take advantage of whatever IFR equipment you install. My landing crosswind limits are much less in my Citabria than they would be in any Cessna. My personal record is a 777 with the winds across the runway in the mid twenties gusting into the high thirties so I'm not afraid of crosswinds but who has limits that are the same in both types, anyone?
 
I think it is a function of speed and control authority, with weight helping in gusty conditions. My max in the J3 is actually higher than in the Decathlon (20 kts at 90 degrees).
 
I seek it out. I am very careful, do it at my home sirport so I can walk home if need be, and can always land across the runway if it exceeds my ability.
On those days, at the world's 11th busiest GA airport, I am by myself. Me and a bunch of tower controllers.
There are wind directions for which tower reports are not accurate. A south wind is pretty much accurate. Runways are 28R and 10 L. That way I get experience with both directions.
 
The words rationalize and aviation don't really go in the same sentence. If you must be somewhere it would definitely add to the stress.

You've made the right decisions, so keep it up.

I've got several trips across the country and off hand I think only one crossing went as planned. This one:
IMG_20170901_152625-01.webp
186 knots over the ground in a plane pulled back to about 110 knots. Eastbound approaching Livingston, MT. Landed at Spearfish, SD where a kid on a "follow me" golf cart escorted me to a perfect parking spot. He slapped chocks in and tied it down before my feet hit the ground. Two minutes later he had us a room at a surprisingly decent hotel, restaurant across the street and a small town taxi on the way. The next day was equally awesome, arriving in Minnesota over an our ahead of my original optimistic plan.

I would say that on every other trip I've made, I landed (sometimes more than once) and said "welp. gonna need a ticket home". And always because of weather.

In the early 2000s I flew a (supposedly) nice C172 from Griffin, GA to Tacoma, WA in late December. It was an IFR plane and I flew it IFR from my first departure, so I could gain some trust that the systems worked (Apollo GPS, HSI, KX155, nice panel). There were hold ups leaving town because of money and paperwork so I was off a day late to begin with. First few legs went fine. As darkness grew I was crossing into Louisiana and by listening to the radio traffic I was aware of a Bonanza that had overtaken me over the previous hour or so. He was well ahead when I heard him and ATC discussing lightening. I don't do lightening, so I verified with ATC that is what I heard and diverted to Shreveport.

I like to tell people I spent three days in Texas but never saw it, but the truth is the first 24 hours were at the FBO in Shreveport. I kept watching the weather on the computers trying to time the fronts that were coming through. Lots of pacing back and forth, eating vending machine food and dozing in the leather chairs. Eventually I made it to Midland via San Antonio, in solid IMC the whole way.

The rest of the story is long and involves me making some bad decisions in a plane that was rapidly showing the results of a pencil whipped annual.
But I lived and have since made several more trips.

The one from NC to Seattle this past June started with a plane that the gear got stuck midway on our first test hop. We diverted north at Omaha because of freak winds across our path. After we departed Rapid City that afternoon winds on the ground reached 90mph. We turned back after crossing Casper, WY when we were presented a black wall with lightening on our course. The crazy storm passed over and by 4pm we were back in the air, this time treated to a ground speed of 28 knots in a plane doing closer to 120 in cruise climb.
After thinking we had it made the next morning, not an hour later we were in mountainous terrain with ceilings dropping fast. Damn I was positive we were going to smell kerosene before we got home, but a few hours later we were able to proceed. It wasn't great but it was legal and above freezing.
 
I was able to make it all the way home to Tampa yesterday.

My main frustration is that I could have made a better decision had I flight planned better. I was fixated on the ridiculous winds in Oklahoma City, and did not look closely along the full route to my destination. As a result I was surprised when I encountered the low deck about one hour into my flight. Had I continued over the top or bypassed south, I would have made it home that day. By bypassing north and then landing, I put myself right in the path of a cold front. Once it overtook me, I had no choice but to wait while it pushed through to Florida.

Other than the 45 mph day in OK, winds weren't really a major factor. You can almost always find a runway that favors the wind. When I landed in KFYA, winds were 16G25, but they were only 20 degrees off runway heading so it was no big deal.

Clouds are a much bigger issue. 100 foot thick layer of clouds at 2,000 AGL with clear skies above kept me grounded for 3 days.

See map below from Saturday. I was in NW Arkansas, at the X, trying to get to Florida. IFR conditions from Mexico to Maine.

weather.webp
 
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Just to add my 2 cents here - equipping these planes for IFR (and I've equipped mine) will increase flexibility somewhat, certainly make MVFR flying safer, and tackle some non frontal activity. Also really nice to to just be able to get above a layer, or even bumpy clouds. My IFR experience initially in C172 and then A36 is that speed really helps: IFR routings, winds, and getting around weather can significantly extend a trip. A super D is faster than my 7ECA, but I would feel significantly more comfortable in faster moving weather at like 150Kts or so. In the Northeast, IFR is really limited half the year without ice protection, preferably FIKI. I've been very careful of ice, avoiding any moderate icing, but a TKS equipped Bonanza allows me the chance the take a ski trip with a plane. I wouldn't bother trying with something else. With all that said, I love my IFR 7ECA, it has awesome range, useful load, and allows for safe dependable cross country half the year in marginal conditions - haven't shot an IMC approach yet, but used it en route and have confidence taking off with low clouds, clouds at night, etc. Surprisingly haven't surprised ATC with my IFR flight plans - maybe there are other Citabrias out there regularly flying IFR ...
 
Yeah - wish the Decathlon was certificated under the old rules. You will not get 150 kts out of a Dec - maybe 125.
 
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