Don Jones
Line Up and Wait
Thanksgiving trip-- Ice ain't nice!
The wife and I have been planning a Thanksgiving Day trip for a while now. It is about the only time we both have 4 days off in a row. We decided to fly to Fredricksburg Texas (T82) and stay at the Hangar Hotel. It is supposed to be a pretty neat town that has lots of shopping and such, and the hotel is done up like something from the fifties.
I have been watching the weather this whole week keeping tabs on a cold front that was threating our departure on Thursday. Wednesday evening the front had passed here and the weather along the route was clear. There was another disturbance moving out of the Baja area bringing rain/snow and cold temps with it, not looking good.
I got up early Thursday morning and checked on the weather again. Clouds had moved in here tho no precip was falling and the ceilings were quite high, so maybe it's doable after all. I called up flight service and the breifer also agreed with my analysis so off to the airport we go.
I had filed my IFR flight plans the evening before just in case we needed it, however the freezing level was around 10K and since mea's are 10K around here I thought it would be better to go VFR if possible. We loaded the airplane and departed around 7:30 on our way. I knew we were in trouble as soon as we crossed the mountains into El Paso airspace. The radar was showing up several small showers that had sprung up just east of El Paso and they were growing. Strike one! They were very isolated although growing in intensity and I decided to try to pick my way through them since they ended 30 miles or less from my current position. That was not to be, for the last group of showers gathered up and formed a wall that streched from the Mexico border as far north as I could see. The wife made a 180 and I keyed up the mic to let center know of our change in destinations and we began a climb to 8500. I had been closly watching the outside temp as we picked our way along at 7500 feet it was holding around 2 deg C, at 8500 it was 4 degrees, strike 2! We picked our way back through the showers with help from El Paso approach and when clear of the weather and terrain headed direct LRU across a couple of Restricted areas that were inactive. We started a decent to 6500 and I watched as the temp began falling as we decended, Strike 3! We were passing through a small area of precip and just as I was making a comment to the wife about the falling temp the windshield turned to a sheet of ice
The wings didn't pick up but a trace on the leading edge and none on the tail I could see. It only lasted for a second or two as we passed through 7000 feet, but that was enough for me. I keyed the mic and gave El Paso the pirep which she immediately passed on to several others in the area. Temperature was back to 2 degrees at 6500 and 2 minutes later the ice was gone and we cruised un-eventfully back home.
So I have officially picked up my first ice, I felt a little dumb for pressing on and I learned a big lesson. It could have easily been worse.
The wife and I have been planning a Thanksgiving Day trip for a while now. It is about the only time we both have 4 days off in a row. We decided to fly to Fredricksburg Texas (T82) and stay at the Hangar Hotel. It is supposed to be a pretty neat town that has lots of shopping and such, and the hotel is done up like something from the fifties.
I have been watching the weather this whole week keeping tabs on a cold front that was threating our departure on Thursday. Wednesday evening the front had passed here and the weather along the route was clear. There was another disturbance moving out of the Baja area bringing rain/snow and cold temps with it, not looking good.
I got up early Thursday morning and checked on the weather again. Clouds had moved in here tho no precip was falling and the ceilings were quite high, so maybe it's doable after all. I called up flight service and the breifer also agreed with my analysis so off to the airport we go.
I had filed my IFR flight plans the evening before just in case we needed it, however the freezing level was around 10K and since mea's are 10K around here I thought it would be better to go VFR if possible. We loaded the airplane and departed around 7:30 on our way. I knew we were in trouble as soon as we crossed the mountains into El Paso airspace. The radar was showing up several small showers that had sprung up just east of El Paso and they were growing. Strike one! They were very isolated although growing in intensity and I decided to try to pick my way through them since they ended 30 miles or less from my current position. That was not to be, for the last group of showers gathered up and formed a wall that streched from the Mexico border as far north as I could see. The wife made a 180 and I keyed up the mic to let center know of our change in destinations and we began a climb to 8500. I had been closly watching the outside temp as we picked our way along at 7500 feet it was holding around 2 deg C, at 8500 it was 4 degrees, strike 2! We picked our way back through the showers with help from El Paso approach and when clear of the weather and terrain headed direct LRU across a couple of Restricted areas that were inactive. We started a decent to 6500 and I watched as the temp began falling as we decended, Strike 3! We were passing through a small area of precip and just as I was making a comment to the wife about the falling temp the windshield turned to a sheet of ice
The wings didn't pick up but a trace on the leading edge and none on the tail I could see. It only lasted for a second or two as we passed through 7000 feet, but that was enough for me. I keyed the mic and gave El Paso the pirep which she immediately passed on to several others in the area. Temperature was back to 2 degrees at 6500 and 2 minutes later the ice was gone and we cruised un-eventfully back home.So I have officially picked up my first ice, I felt a little dumb for pressing on and I learned a big lesson. It could have easily been worse.
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