A couple of firsts (for me)

[jsstevens]

Thursday I flew my wife and I from Sanford (KSFB) to St. Simon’s Island for the day. The trip up was interesting in that she had wanted to whale spot up the coast so we went VFR. Lots of clouds Thursday morning! They were broken so I climbed up through and flew 5500 until Jacksonville. Then ducked under to 1500 to get past a buildup. Almost as soon as we passed KJAX the ceiling lifted so I went up to 2500 for the rest of the trip.

For the return, I was expecting clouds and some TFRs around Jacksonville again, so I filed IFR. I picked up my clearance when next to depart and then went. Coastal clouds rolled in as we lifted. I hit the cloud deck at about 100 feet, flew instruments through the deck and was out by 450 feet. We had a 30knt headwind (darn near direct) the whole way back at 6000. But it was smooth as glass. Just slow. I canceled IFR 10 miles out and flew the normal Monroe arrival and landed with a 17 knot 45 degree cross. And pretty well I might add. Got compliments from my wife on both landings.

So, first flight to land out of state. First time I filed and flew IFR by myself. First IMC by myself albeit brief.

John

who is excited by the little things…

 

[Salty]

Taking off into clouds at 100 feet is not a little thing IMO. That's below my personal limits.

 

[wheaties]

Gratz. Will also caution against 100 ceilings unless you knew cloud tops were at 500. Even still, an engine failure in the soup that low is disaster.

 

[jsstevens]

It’s not my preferred either. It rolled across as we became airborne. I didn’t realize it was that close until we were in it and by then I was committed. It was good experience (perhaps from bad judgement) but conditions changed very rapidly. About 10 minutes later some in the pattern for KSSI reported VMC after another plane went missed.