The gravatar.com site is not responding, and that was making it damn near impossible to read comments on this blog, so I’ve turned off the plug-in. Hopefully they’ll come back up, because I like the idea of avatars that aren’t tied to a particular blog system.
Maybe it’s just Buffalo…
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.
Weather woes
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.
Nice flight here
Vicki and I flew the club’s Lance to Barnes Muni (KBAF) yesterday so we could be at Stevie’s last Parents Weekend. Vicki’s sister Sherri is here, but she came on a more conventional flight. It was a great flight, in wonderfully clear and smooth air. There was mist below and to the south of us, but in front and to the north side it was “clear and a million”. We did see a strange phenomena at one point where it looked like a dark streak that that went across the ground and then crossed in front of us and up into the sky, all as one very straight line. I wasn’t sure if we were seeing the shadow of the solid sharp-edged layer of clouds behind us (the sun was close to it) or if somebody with a very smokey jet engine had taken off from the north of us and climbed across our flight path.
We flew because I don’t get to fly as much as I’d like, and also because Vicki wanted to go to the Accapella Jam, which Stevie was performing in. If we’d driven, there is no way in hell we’d get there in time. Vicki was later getting to the airport than we planned for so we ended up arriving a few minutes after sunset. According to this extremely cool web site (which will only show our flight for a few more days), we arrived at 6:22pm. And were met by a FBO person who did NOT know how to fill in the rental car agreement. But we got out of there and up to campus just a hair after 7pm, which was plenty of time.
They’ve dropped me off in the school library because they’re doing stuff that’s a lot of walking, more specifically that start-stop wandering like shopping, and that’s hell on my knees. And it will give me a chance to do some work and make up for leaving work hellaciously early.
I’m a little concerned with the weather for the flight home. Today is showing very low ceilings and rain, which I can handle (although I haven’t done an ILS to minimums in actual since last year’s trip here), but there’s also an AIRMET for some occassional icing from freezing level to way high. Freezing level today was just about 6,000 feet, which is the sort of altitude I usually fly, and it’s going to be a little bit colder tomorrow. I think I can manage it if I file for a lower altitude and keep an eye on the temperature probe, or if I can get tops reports that indicate the clouds end below the freezing level, which is frequently the case in this weather. But we may have to stop en-route or stay here another couple of days. Oh well, such is flying. Better to play it safe and be down here wishing I was up there than up there wishing I was down here.
Oshawa Airport
I took some pictures at Oshawa Airport last weekend. You can find them all here. The airport has a bunch of old classics hanging around.