Two Pilots & an LSW: Alabama and Back

I was afraid that the weather going down to Alabama yesterday was going to be questionable. It was supposed to be originally, with turbulence and ice and snow and low IFR. I decided that it looked like I had enough outs to make the trip, but the first thing I checked when I woke up was the weather, with some trepidation, but fortunately for me it was better than expected, both here and there. Well, I'll take that! About halfway down to Alabama, I noticed a trend, and it was going downward. Then a controller came on to give us a weather alert for an area of widespread low IFR from such and such area to such and such area, which was right by where I was going. Sure enough, I started seeing airports go under minimums, and hearing planes deviating to alternates. But I couldn't tell what MY airport was doing. The airport that reported to the ADS-B to the south of my airport was socked in, but the airport just to the north of mine was still at 900'. My airport was right in between the two and I was too far away to listen to their AWOS and they didn't otherwise report. So I made my deviation plan in case it was socked in, kept on trucking full speed ahead to try to beat the spread of the low IFR. Short version, I made it in, and it wasn't even at minimums yet, so, yay. I dropped off my passenger, topped off with gas, and then took back off to head to the next airport which was only about 50 miles away. That meant before I was even leveled off, ATC wanted to know what approach I wanted. I needed another ILS, but up here the weather was much kinder, so it wasn't even interesting. I had hand flown the first ILS, so this time I set up the autopilot. It was going to be slow capturing the needle, making me wander around a bit, so I kicked it off long enough to get it established gently myself, then turned it back on. George needs some practice. ;) When I broke out of the clouds, I saw the airport nestled in near some little mountains, and it was pretty, I enjoyed the view.

Once in Anniston, I picked up my rental car, checked into my hotel, and then went exploring. I drove around for awhile, went to see a movie, and then there were so many places to eat right by my hotel that I just parked the car and then walked to dinner, which I did because I knew I was going to eat plenty. And so I did, and thus I enjoyed. ;) After dinner I walked on the treadmill for another 45 minutes, first time I've ever exercised in a hotel. Probably not the last. The treadmill was close to a full wall mirror, and I don't know that I appreciate that. I did appreciate that I didn't look too bad--when you're extra large you don't need to watch yourself exercising, and when you're not so much, it is a bit more motivating, I admit. But when I got off the treadmill and started walking, someone in the room startled me by moving off to my right. Yeah, me. Doh.

I took my time checking out of the hotel this morning, had a nice Japanese lunch, went out to the airport and returned the rental car, preflighted the airplane, and then went for a nice walk around the grounds. The sun was out, it was in the 70s, and the airport had a bunch of blooming trees around. The grass had tiny little purple and white flowers growing, and the air smelled like light flowers, and Spring. It was beautiful. I walked around to walk off my lunch, and to just enjoy the air. I was in a t-shirt, with the sun beating down on my head, and a light breeze blowing the flower scent around, and it was lovely. I almost didn't want to come home, minus the people I'd miss, of course.

The pilot of a 172 came up to another guy in the FBO and said "Hey, that's a really nice 340 you have there. A friend of mine had a 340, it was a great airplane." The other guy said "That's not mine, that's hers", pointing over to me. The other pilot looks at me, I smile, he looks back at the other guy and says "HERS? Oh, I saw you coming from that area so I thought it was yours." Other guy says "No, she just let me climb up in there and look around. Beautiful airplane, you should check it out!" 172 pilot says "Yeah, okay", then walks outside and sits down in a chair. Other guy looks at me and shrugs, I smile and shrug, and go back to waiting for my passenger.

While I was waiting, a guy came into the FBO and tells the guy behind the counter that he'd like to learn to fly. The worker says "We don't offer flight training here." Silence. "Well, where can I go to do flying lessons?" FBO guy tells him that the nearest place is such and such. No number, no name, just the city name. Guy says "How about a ride? Can I arrange just to do a ride?" FBO guy says "No, not really. Insurance costs a lot, you know. There's a guy who sometimes gives rides but he has a twin and that's really expensive, so, no, not really." And we wonder about people not jumping into flight training so much. I looked around, and there wasn't a single CFI card in there, nowhere any info on where to go for flying lessons, nothing but a bulletin board with the usual GA safety info, a few airplanes for sale, and some airplane parts/services for sale. Kinda sad.

This morning I looked at the weather forecast for the trip home, and saw that Kokomo was supposed to go downhill this evening, again with the icing, and lowish IFR. There was a bunch of turbulence being reported all over too, and for a bunch of altitudes. My passenger is not a fan of turbulence. So I went looking around, and the majority of the complaints were below 11,0000' and above 22,000'. So I picked 19,000' to try, and hit the jackpot. We didn't have a single bump until I started my descent into Kokomo, at which time we got the turbulence and some icing, but I stayed high until I was about 12 minutes out and then dive bombed down through it to give us as long a time as possible of smooth air. Worked pretty well, he did fine, and I was home.

As soon as he opened the door, I reached over and pulled on my sweatshirt over my t-shirt, and then as I stepped outside, pulled my coat on over top of that. It was 40 degrees colder than where I just came from. Le Sigh.

But it's still good to be home...