I had the bumpiest, most nauseating flight so far last Friday going from KRLD to 4S2 (Richland, WA to Hood River Or) in a 180HP C172. Friday was the start of a heat wave and the rapidly increasing temperature made for high density altitude, poor engine and flight performance (plus I was carrying 3 pax besides myself and a load of camping equipment with only about 140 lbs to spare before hitting max gross) and heavy thermal activity.
I thought I could climb out of it but the climb rate was so low that by the time I had gotten above the thermals I would have to start descending again. In addition to this I had to balance my desire to climb with the oil temperature gauge which was looking about as happy as my passengers.
My daughter started vomiting almost immediately, my wife held it until we were nearly there but eventually even she succumbed to the roller coaster effects. Even I was starting to feel a little queasy and I was trained in these thermals.
But the lesson that was learned, and something my CFI mentioned to me in training, sadly did not occur to me until today: The whole time I was following the V520 vicor airway if I had just turned south and descended a bit I could have flown straight down the gorge over the nice wide, cool, and most importantly evenly temperature'd Columbia River. Probably avoiding most if not all thermal activity.
Of course the gorge can pose its own problems, heavy winds (probably head winds) are common (though not always present) but still it's an option I could have tried that had a good chance of success.
The second lesson learned was learned the easy way, by listening to my co-worker's suggestion: Don't tell your wife that you could have gotten out of the thermals.
I thought I could climb out of it but the climb rate was so low that by the time I had gotten above the thermals I would have to start descending again. In addition to this I had to balance my desire to climb with the oil temperature gauge which was looking about as happy as my passengers.
My daughter started vomiting almost immediately, my wife held it until we were nearly there but eventually even she succumbed to the roller coaster effects. Even I was starting to feel a little queasy and I was trained in these thermals.
But the lesson that was learned, and something my CFI mentioned to me in training, sadly did not occur to me until today: The whole time I was following the V520 vicor airway if I had just turned south and descended a bit I could have flown straight down the gorge over the nice wide, cool, and most importantly evenly temperature'd Columbia River. Probably avoiding most if not all thermal activity.
Of course the gorge can pose its own problems, heavy winds (probably head winds) are common (though not always present) but still it's an option I could have tried that had a good chance of success.
The second lesson learned was learned the easy way, by listening to my co-worker's suggestion: Don't tell your wife that you could have gotten out of the thermals.
