This mornings flight was one of those, that upon reflection, end up being memorable for starting off as challenging and ending up in a way that proves that the training and experience that a pilot and crew have together count. I knew 3 things for sure this morning: 1) it would be windy at a fairly low altitiude (less than 500 AGL), 2) It would pick up quickly after sunrise and 3) the success of the flight depended on a good flight plan well executed. The inversion was 10-12 degrees in strength and the wind speeds were forecast to be in the 15 kts range at 500 to 1000 AGL. At the surface the winds were out of 190 at 0-3kts and at 800 AGL they were from the west at 270 degrees / 22-25 kts. The pibal showed the calm zone under the inversion to be about 300 ... ground fog and a hard frost also were indicators of a strong inversion. We had about 1.5 hours to 2 hours of fairly benign wind speeds to play in. We started off at our furthest launch field in the SW (which is Big Foot Airfield near Walworth). I told the crew I wanted to fly over the city of Lake Geneva and end up landing somewhere in the area between LG, Lyons and Burlington. The locals call this area The Knobs for its kettle moraine type of geologic structures. Lots of low areas in valleys and wetlands to use as places to slow down the flight and of course land in. Our flight time was 1 hour and 1 minute. We used the winds to execute the plan and land in the front yard of a cul de sac at about 4 kts. We flew about 18 miles and our top speed was 26.7 mph this morning. Weve landed at this exact cul de sac 6 times this year alone. In fact, the kids who live in the cul de sac, now come out of the house to help us pack up. This is the third time theyve helped Shrum It this year! Kudos to the ground team of Timothy J Henry, Bobbi, Rene Ratchek, Michael Konkol and Diane! They were there for the landing after having to detour for a Bridge Out sign! We called the landing spot about 30 minutes into the flight and flew 9 miles to get there! Great teamwork!!!
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 16:14:08 +0000
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