Flight Log 30-May-10a

I plan on going back to some airports I have been to before and getting some new pictures.

Weather Brief

Originally I planned on flying to the Kansas City area, doing some touch an gos a some new airports, stopping for lunch, then back to St Louis.

When I started my planning, I checked the weather and it was forcasting storms for the day of my flight.

I thought about where else I could go. I checked the weather north, south, and east. South or east looked to be clear but I figured I would wait a few days and see what the weather looked like.

Wednesday night, I checked again and east looked good. I planned on flying to the Frankfort Kentucky and Louisville area, stopping for lunch at either a Ethiopian Restuarant or an Italian Pizzaria, then back to St Louis.

I plotted the flight on my charts, got the airport information, radio frequencies, and wrote everything down in the notebook I take with me on the plane. All was good.

The next day, the weather changed and now it was calling for thunder storms in the Louisville area.

I checked north, west, and south. Storms to the west and south, clear to the north. I decided to go to Iowa and get some pictures of airports I have been to before but didn't have good pictures.

I plotted, got the airport info, radio frequencies, and filled out my notebook again.

Saturday, the weather was calling for clouds 12,000 and above, chance of rain, and chance of thunderstorms along my route of flight. Rain is ok. The plane still flys. I don't like thunderstorms.

I figured we could play it by ear and if we had to, I could shorten or cancel the flight if the weather got bad.

Sunday morning I got up and checked the weather. It was still clear of clouds along most of my route and a chance of rain or thunder storms in the afternoon.

I called and got my VFR Flight Briefing. The weather at Spirit was reporting visibility of 5 miles and haze, sky clear, winds light and variable. I figured the haze would burn off and I would be fine so I headed for the airport.

There were some scattered clouds along the way, but nothing bad and I planned on climbing up to 8,500 feet for the flight any way so I figured I would be above the clouds.

At the airport, I preflighted the plane and got ready to go. It only had half full tanks of fuel so Paul called and the fuel truck came and filled it up.

While I was waiting, I found that the indicator for the rudder trim was mis-aligned. The trip was ok, just the indicator was off to the right of center. I told Paul and he basically used a pen to push the indicator wire back towards center.

When we were ready, I pulled out, turned about on the ramp, did my final checks, and called Ground.

I said I was at Air Associates with Lima, ready to taxi for departure to the northwest. Ground cleared me to 8Left via Echo. I acknowledged and headed for the runway.

When I was at the hold short line, I called Tower and said I was at 8Left ready to depart. Tower cleared me to takeoff 8Left, left turn out approved. I acknowledged, rolled onto the runway, applied power, kept the plane centered, and took off.

I climbed up to 2,800 feet and leveled off. I was about 6 miles out from Spirit before I called St Louis Departure and requested flight following to 4Kilo6 at 8,500. Departure gave me a squawk code and cleared me to climb to 4,000. I entered the code and responded climb and maintain 4,500. Departure told me 4,000 for now. I acknowledged, 4,000.

It surprised me because normally, VFR flights are at thousand foot altitudes plus 500 (3,500, 4,500, 5,500, etc.). Instument flights are on the thousands (3,000, 4,000, 5,000, etc.).

About the time I got to 4,000 feet, Departure cleared me to my requested altitude. I acknowledged, climb and maintain 8,500 and continued my climb.

Even with a turbo charged 182, it takes a while to get up there. From takeoff to altitude, with some delay at 2,800, it took almost 20 minutes. I could have climbed faster but way push it?

I leveled off at 8,500 feet, trimmed the plane and let the autopilot take us towards Bloomfield, IA.

The scattered clouds were becoming more broken (smaller holes between them) and were climbing.

To stay out of the clouds, I told Air Traffic Control and I was climbing and climbed up to 10,500 feet.

Some of the clouds were still higher than us but I could easily stay clear of them.

The cloud layer was still broken and I could see the ground but I didn't want to stay up this high if I didn't think the clouds would clear before we had to start down.

After passing over one high ridge of clouds, they started to spread out again and I was less concerned.

At ground level the temperature had been about 85. At 8,500 it was 51. At 10,500 it was 44.

The winds at ground level had been light. At 8,500 there was a 1 knot tail wind. at 10,500 there was an 11 knot tail wind.

As we descended below the clouds, it got hazy and darker. Instead of 20+ miles, now visiblity was probably less than 10.

We approached Bloomfield from the southeast. There was another plane on frequency that was reporting skydivers over Brooklyn. He was busy today and we heard him alot.

I was only about 8 miles from Bloomfield when I told ATC I had the airport in sight. He told me to sqawk VFR, frequency change approved, have a good day. I acknowledged and reported 7 miiles to southeast of Bloomfield, inbound for touch and go on 18, Bloomfield.

To get down to pattern altitude, I ended up doing a 360 degree turn to loose altitude.

I entered the left downwind on the 45 and got set up for my first touch and go of the day.

I reported my turns to base and final, put in flaps, reduced power and touched down nicely.

The runway is only 3,401 feet long so Paul put 10 degrees of flaps in just to help since I was a little long on the landing. He did it while I was still rolling so it didn't cause any sink or any other problem.

I reported airborne off 18, staying in the pattern, left traffic, Bloonfield Traffic.

I went around and did 2 more nice touch and gos before reporting airborne, departing to the northwest.

I reported inbound for touch and go on 13 and ended up doing 3 more nice landings. The wind was from the southwest so almost a direct cross wind but it was light so not to hard to deal with.

3 more touch and gos with only a little squirliness as the wind was picking up and still a crosswind.

As we got closer, Paul and I talked about the people down on the lake and he took some pictures.

The weather was reporting wind calm. Since I was coming in from the west, I decided to use runway 34.

I reported inbound and did 3 more fairly nice touch and gos. I keep coming in a little low and fighting the trim a bit but the actual touch downs aren't too bad.

Originally I had planned on stopping at Pella for food and fuel. Paul and I talked and decided to go on a little further before deciding if we needed to stop.

There were lightning strikes showing on the storm scope and the fuel range ring was showing we would reach our 30 minute remaining about the time we reached Spirit. Since I was planning on doing more touch and gos before that, I didn't think we would make it back with enough reserve.

I decided to land at Ottumwa and get fuel and go to the bathroom. Paul wanted to look at the radar since he couldn't get the G1000 in the plane to show the NexRad images on the screen.

The weather at Ottumwa was reporting variable at 3 knots. Since I was coming in from the northwest and could see the airport in front of me, I decided to use runway 31. I was almost on downwind for it already.

I entered downwind and when I was about to the end of the runway, before turning base, Unicomm told me the winds were from 150 and runway 13 would be better. I said that was ok, I could land with a slight tailwind.

Ottumwa use to have a lot more traffic. The runways are over 5,000 feet long and 150 to 200 feet wide. I had lots of runway to deal with a tail wind.

I reported my turns and touched down just past the faded numbers. I let the plane roll to slow down and turned off, reported clear of runway 31, and headed for the ramp.

As we were shutting down, someone came out and asked if we needed anything. We told him to fuel it up please.

You could see that Ottumwa had already had rain. The ramp was still wet. There were new storms growing to the south.

Paul suggested we do a quick turn and get out ahead of the storms or we might have to wait a while till they passed.

I agreed and headed inside. I went to the bathroom then paid for the fuel. 44.4 gallons for 221.55 dollars. 4.99 dollars per gallon. About normal around the mid-west.

Fueled and ready, we did a quick check and while I entered the rest of our flight plan in, Paul taxied us out. He did the runup at the hold short line then gave me back to controls.

Ben from MidWest Aviation Center fueling the plane

This has been parked on the ramp for months. It hasn't flown anywhere.

ATC had me flying along at 4,000 feet for a while

From Scattered

Less Scattered

To Broken (at 8,500)

More Broken (at 10,500)

Still Broken (at 10,500)

Back to Scattered

On downwind for runway 18

Turning final for runway 18

On final for runway 18

On final for runway 18

Rolling down runway 18

On final for runway 18

Planes parked at airport

Flying along at 2,620 feet
14.7 miles from Albia Muni (4C8)
on a heading of 305 degrees
Airspeed of 114 knots (131 MPH)
Ground Speed of 120 ish knots (138 MPH)