Category: Rant

Every time I fly to Canada, I’m impressed with how helpful the flight service center weather briefers are. They don’t just read you the forecast, they tell you what they think is going to happen that isn’t reflected in the forecast, suggest options, and generally act as a partner in your decision making process.

Yesterday morning, when I was trying to figure out if I had a hope in hell of getting home by plane, I used the hotel phone to call the flight service center weather briefers (and because I was using a land-line, it connected me to the most local one in Burlington – there is one 1-800 number for the country, but it connects to different flight service depending where you are). The guy I was talking too was just like the Canadian ones – he helped me make a good mental picture of the weather, discussed alternate routes and what I’d encounter on that route, etc.

Later on, I called flight service again from the Barnes Airport. But I couldn’t find a land-line phone so I ended up using Vicki’s cell phone, which connected me to Buffalo flight service. And I got what I’m used to from weather briefers – a monotone reading of the SIGMET ZULU (icing advisory) that came out early in the morning and hasn’t been adjusted since. I asked for PIREPs (pilot reports) of ice, and he said they didn’t have any – which is annoying because the DTN weather system in the FBO at Barnes had shown me a couple. I asked for information on where the cloud tops would be, and he read me that day’s area forecast. He didn’t offer any interpretation. He didn’t offer an iota of information that I couldn’t have gotten from DUATs or DTN or the AOPA web site.

All the time I’ve been a pilot, I’ve been dealing with Buffalo flight service. And all this time, I’ve wondered what the point is of having flight service stations in this age of internet. Hell, even a voice response phone system could do the job they’re doing. And so I cheered when the government announced they are outsourcing flight service to LockMart. But now it’s hitting me – maybe it’s just Buffalo that sucks. Maybe every other flight service center in the country is staffed by knowledgeable and helpful people with local knowledge and a feel for what you can and can’t get away with in your type of plane in this type of weather in this type of terrain. If that’s the case, I’m pretty sure that outsourcing and privatizing will make it worse. And that’s too bad.

When I planned this flight, I relied as always on the AOPA “Forecast Graphics” (by Meterologix) to give me my best view of what’s coming up in the coming days. But on Friday, their chart for Sunday showed some showers, and for Monday showed a big clear sky over MA and NY, with a front off shore, and then Wilma off on the other side of that. But now, on Sunday, the chart for today shows a big freaking mess, with a similar mess tomorrow and maybe a clear map on Tuesday or Wednesday. Other non-aviation forecasts still say rain for Tuesday and sun on Wednesday, so I’m not so sure about Tuesday’s clear map.

The Aviation Weather Center shows a big ole AIRMET for icing over my entire route, calling for icing in clouds or precipitation anywhere above the freezing level, and a freezing level of 6,000 feet or lower. Of course, the MEA (minimum enroute altitude) for the first section of the flight is 6,000 feet. That spells ICE. And light general aviation planes do not get along with ice.

The flight briefer at the Burlington Automated Flight Service Station suggested I call back at noon to see if they’ve amended the forecasts any, but right now I’m thinking that we take our rental car, drive home, and I’ll come back on Tuesday or Wednesday to fly the plane home.

Today I flew up to Oshawa. It’s not a long flight – almost not worth it, really, but I haven’t flown in months and I figured I needed the practice – especially since there is a nice overcast layer at about 1000 feet AGL and the freezing level is still up over 10,000 feet, so I could get some IMC time without worrying about ice.

Next weekend I’m hoping to fly Vicki to Barnes MA, so it would be good to knock the rust off without her in the plane.

It’s a good thing I did, too, because as soon as I got into the clouds, I found that I couldn’t take my attention off the panel for even a second without ending up way off course. Even a simple frequency change or copying down a altitude restriction and I’d be in a thirty degree bank. Bad. Not dangerous, but bad practice and not conducive to passengere comfort. After a few minutes, I settled down and didn’t have the wild deviations, but I still wasn’t what I’d call proficient. And soon after that, I was on top, out in the brilliant sunshine which we haven’t seen on the ground for a week.

On the other side of the lake, I was being vectored for the LOC/DME RWY 12 at Oshawa, and there was a solid layer between 1200 and 2000 AGL (and a MDA of 960), so it was a real loggable approach. I was only 2 DME outside the FAF and the controller said “turn right 030 for the base leg”. I turned, and almost immediately blew right through the localizer. I asked if he’d meant me to intercept, and he turned me to 150 and gave me a proper approach clearance. But by the time I intercepted, I was right at the FAF and I had to start down before I got stabilized. It was not a pretty approach going between three dots left and three dots right, but it got me to a point where I could see the runway (and the VASI was all white), so I landed uneventfully.

I really need to get out and practice approaches in real IMC. Practicing in foggles just doesn’t seem to do it for me.