- Joined
- May 24, 2016
- Messages
- 957
- Display Name
Display name:
4RNB
Background. I've got maybe 20-25 hours in a new to me Vans RV10. Cylinders had some corrosion, waiting on first oil analysis. Good power, good compressions. Plane needs some work, specific to this is upgraded and properly working lights. Right position light only works when landing lights are on, this causes intolerable static in the headsets. I am doing well with AP and GPS but have yet to practice instrument approaches. Built in ADSB is showing me traffic but not TAF/Metar/wx, flying with a Sentry and iPad Foreflight wx. My plan has been to fly VFR a lot before a first "annual" in November where everything will be fixed, at which point I'll be willing to fly IFR, expect that by then I will have a 2nd oil analysis back from Blackstone which shows improving numbers, along with maybe 50 hours on the engine giving confidence. I've owned the plane just over a month.
Last night there was a family gathering about 2.5 hours flight away. Initial plans to fly up Saturday were quashed by the weather, low ceilings, T storms. Yesterday looked better, VFR here and there, each with 12K ceilings. I checked cloud layers, it looked like I would have to fly VFR over the top above some 3k layers for the last part of my journey, breaking out 20-50 miles from destination. Nothing showed from 5K to 10K, so I felt confident flying 8500.
About an hour or an hour and a half into the flight we encountered decreasing visibility and some clouds at our altitude. On flight following I flew east for a bit, things looked a bit better, turned north again but encountered more clouds, or at least the appearance of more clouds. Did a 360 turn going down the 6500 as I looked at ADSB radar on the iPad. The clouds I was seeing were not showing up on ADSB and I could not make a determination on the iPad of what all played ahead of my planned flight path. I think I could see the mountain tops, knew they might have been 4000-4500, but I could not see the ground or a well defined top layer. I also could not see any blue sky beyond. I recall checking ADSB radar and clouds while in flight. I was not expecting these clouds, knew not what lay ahead, and was not willing to push things much in a newer plane so I stayed VFR and did a 180 for home. I had checked some along the flight path settings for ceilings and they seemed lower than expected.
What I saw back home maybe an hour after we landed was little in regards to additional info.
Enhanced satellite showed lots of grey with things clear at destination.
I don't recall the cloud settings showing much more info until later in the day as more visible moisture showed up.
Airport ceilings seemed to wedge lower along the flight path.
I think I made the right decision coming home but don't want to let fear rule the day when reasoning, rationale, and good data can keep me flying. We did this 180 before when I could have made it (trying to out climb some very distant mountains before I knew the profile view on FF existed, man I was way above those mountains. I was not willing to stack risks going IFR in a newer to me plane.
When I was getting trained in this plane, my CFI approached things with a "go up and kiss them" approach which was fascinating as I learned my visual assessment of heights was often way off. Some that I thought of as at my altitude were often much lower. I did kiss some 8500 ft clouds and saw more down to 7000.
So, I am looking for feedback as to how to address these things in the future, in the interest of my learning and not being held back. How do you address these things in flight, how do you trust your senses/assessment of things versus going to kiss the clouds and actually seeing. Would Sirius XM wx give me additional data to better know cloud layers?
Thanks.
Last night there was a family gathering about 2.5 hours flight away. Initial plans to fly up Saturday were quashed by the weather, low ceilings, T storms. Yesterday looked better, VFR here and there, each with 12K ceilings. I checked cloud layers, it looked like I would have to fly VFR over the top above some 3k layers for the last part of my journey, breaking out 20-50 miles from destination. Nothing showed from 5K to 10K, so I felt confident flying 8500.
About an hour or an hour and a half into the flight we encountered decreasing visibility and some clouds at our altitude. On flight following I flew east for a bit, things looked a bit better, turned north again but encountered more clouds, or at least the appearance of more clouds. Did a 360 turn going down the 6500 as I looked at ADSB radar on the iPad. The clouds I was seeing were not showing up on ADSB and I could not make a determination on the iPad of what all played ahead of my planned flight path. I think I could see the mountain tops, knew they might have been 4000-4500, but I could not see the ground or a well defined top layer. I also could not see any blue sky beyond. I recall checking ADSB radar and clouds while in flight. I was not expecting these clouds, knew not what lay ahead, and was not willing to push things much in a newer plane so I stayed VFR and did a 180 for home. I had checked some along the flight path settings for ceilings and they seemed lower than expected.
What I saw back home maybe an hour after we landed was little in regards to additional info.
Enhanced satellite showed lots of grey with things clear at destination.
I don't recall the cloud settings showing much more info until later in the day as more visible moisture showed up.
Airport ceilings seemed to wedge lower along the flight path.
I think I made the right decision coming home but don't want to let fear rule the day when reasoning, rationale, and good data can keep me flying. We did this 180 before when I could have made it (trying to out climb some very distant mountains before I knew the profile view on FF existed, man I was way above those mountains. I was not willing to stack risks going IFR in a newer to me plane.
When I was getting trained in this plane, my CFI approached things with a "go up and kiss them" approach which was fascinating as I learned my visual assessment of heights was often way off. Some that I thought of as at my altitude were often much lower. I did kiss some 8500 ft clouds and saw more down to 7000.
So, I am looking for feedback as to how to address these things in the future, in the interest of my learning and not being held back. How do you address these things in flight, how do you trust your senses/assessment of things versus going to kiss the clouds and actually seeing. Would Sirius XM wx give me additional data to better know cloud layers?
Thanks.
