Interesting flight with Dean :)

[Diana]

Dean finally made it to the farm today, and we had planned to do some aerobatics. First we flew around the area burning off fuel so we could get in the acro envelope. We looked at several of the local grass strips, wagged our wings at Barb at her farm and checked out her cows, then flew on to Stockton Lake. We made our way back down the highway headed for home when we ran into a really interesting and surprising weather phenomenon.

About 8 miles from the farm, we ran into some strange smoke and the visibility started to drop. We hugged the highway and the visibility kept dropping. This was NOT forecast. It was smoke…we could tell from the smell. It covered at least one county and probably more. We didn’t know where it was coming from, but we were in the middle of it. So, we followed the highway home. The winds were blowing about 20 KTS at the surface and were pretty strong at 1000’ AGL. The visibility got worse as we got closer to home. So, we didn’t get to do aerobatics, but we made it home safely with the visibility turning to about one mile as we turned base to final at the farm. Did I say this was NOT forecast?

We could see several small fires from farmers burning their fields as we got closer to home, but it didn’t seem to be enough to turn the entire area into IMC, and so suddenly? Could there have been some kind of inversion layer close to the surface? I have never seen anything like it before, ever.

Other than that, Dean and I had a good visit at the farm. We sat out next to the hangar and watched a beautiful sunset (while smelling the smoke) and saw the first bat of the season and listened to frogs at a nearby farm pond. We’ll have to do aerobatics next time. Here are some pictures of Dean (before the smoke). It looks like his head is hitting the headliner and he didn’t even have the headset on yet.

 

[JasonCT]

Sounds like fun was had Diana!
What were the temps like tonight out there?

 

[Diana]

Sounds like fun was had Diana!

I'll be interested to see what Dean has to say about that.

What were the temps like tonight out there?

It was in the upper 60's this afternoon. Could spring be around the corner? I hope so...this has been a tough winter for lots of people.

 

[tonycondon]

It was in the upper 60's this afternoon. Could spring be around the corner? I hope so...this has been a tough winter for lots of people.

lets hope so.

and happy 2000th post!

 

[JasonCT]

You are very observant Tony!

 

[markb5900]

There was a fire at a boat manufacturer outside of LBO, that is probably where all the smoke was from.
I heard on the news they produced plastic and fiberglass parts for boats.

Mark B

 

[Diana]

and happy 2000th post!

Tony, I didn't even notice that till you mentioned it. I'll never be able to keep up with you though.

 

[Bill M.]

Sounds like fun. Good pics also. How bout posting more of your acro routine films.

 

[Diana]

There was a fire at a boat manufacturer outside of LBO, that is probably where all the smoke was from.
I heard on the news they produced plastic and fiberglass parts for boats.

Mark B

LBO is about 80 miles east of us and the winds here were pretty strong out of the west. When they updated the ATIS at JLN (20 miles SW of here) a half hour after we got down, they were reporting 3SM visibility. As we were watching one of the nearby field fires later from the ground, we could see that the smoke stopped rising at maybe 2000' to 3000' or so, but that's a WAG. So there was some kind of inversion, and the smoke went all the way down to the surface. It looked like all the farmers in this part of the country were burning fields and the smoke got trapped below the inversion layer. This was just a strange thing that wasn't forecast.

What was interesting was the fact that we didn't have the GPS, the LORAN wasn't working, we have no ADF or VOR and no DG. Just a wet compass and the road. We didn't know how far the smoke was in any direction after a bit,or how high it went, and had no idea (at the time) what was causing it. It was nice to know the road led to our airfield and it was just a few more miles ahead.

 

[Diana]

How bout posting more of your acro routine films.

Bill, you're sweet.

We're actually waiting for our friend to get his Yak out of annual and plan to go shoot some more video soon. And I hope to get Tom up to film some hammerheads from inside as well.

 

[Bob Bement]

Diana, It is a good thing that you knew how to fly IFR ( I follow Roads ). Bob

 

[JasonCT]

Diana, It is a good thing that you knew how to fly IFR ( I follow Roads ). Bob

Isn't that a requirement for "Low & Slow" flyers?

 

[Dean]

Thanks Diana for taking a wondering soul in and making me feel at home. You and Tom have a lovely place and I would love to have one just like it. The smoke flying was interesting and will be a story I can tell my grand kids. But I still want an acro ride the next time I'm over
P.S. the feeling came back by midnight

 

[Diana]

Thanks Diana for taking a wondering soul in and making me feel at home.

It was my pleasure.

But I still want an acro ride the next time I'm over

Absolutely! At least we got the egress procedure/parachute briefing accomplished, so it won't take as long to go fly next time.

P.S. the feeling came back by midnight

 

[Linda]

Great photos! Sounds like you had a great time (except for the smoke)!

 

[PiperFlyer]

Well, I guess that would explain why I saw FU peppered throughout my DUATS briefing Wednesday morning. I flew from KC to St. Louis and back. Didn't see any FU, but there was a noticable inversion at 4k'.