Iffy Weather

This day was all about decision making, arguably the most important skill a pilot needs to develop after he/she has managed to fly the plane right side up, mostly. Already yesterday evening we knew that there were was moist air moving into the area from the south-east and a low pressure system approaching from the west. What that results in is a pretty good chance of heavy rain showers, thunderstorms and strong, gusty winds. The previous evening the forecast held not much hope of being able to continue on. In the morning, however, things didn´t look as bad as we thought they might. So I checked the internet and got on the phone with a briefer. The story was that in St. Joseph (that´s where we were) the east moving moisture would “ignite” around 2 pm. Out toward Hays (that´s where we wanted to go), the west moving front was expected to stir things up a bit around noon. Looking at my watch it was 9 am. If we can take off by 10 am and we shove the throttle forward quite a bit, we might be somewhere useful before the rains and storms. On the other hand, if the atmosphere decides to make things interesting a bit earlier than planned, we might be in for a surprise.

Weighing the options and discussing them with Robert we decided to take a calculated risk and go. So we skipped breakfast, got ready fast and John picked us up from our hotel and dropped us right in front of our gyros. We checked them over, pulled them out and got ready. Eula, John´s wife, said they´d “leave a light on” in case we needed to turn back. A quick wave and off we went.

From 2000 feet up the view wasn´t much better. Low ceiling and a crappy visibility. The good point was, though, that a tailwind helped us along.



The other thing we had to worry was the fuel situation. In order to beat the weather, we didn´t have time to organize fuel and top off the tanks. We had enough fuel for a maximum of 2 hours and the first leg to Salina was not much shorter. So between going fast to beat the weather and flying economical to conserve fuel we had to make another decision. But this one was easy: having no fuel and falling out of the sky is more embarrassing than getting rained on. So we landed at Manhattan Regional (KMHK) to filler up (they even have Mogas). Fifteen minutes later we were back in the air and the weather situation was about the same, maybe even a bit better. Remember, we were running away from one bad situation moving west and toward another situation moving east. So somewhere in between, we hoped, the weather would have to get better before getting worse again. And it did.

Actually, it was looking up in a way that, as we approached Salina (KSLN), were debating to press on to Hays – another hour of flying away and with friendly folks, a hangar and fuel. All very tempting. But the sun had also destabilized the atmosphere and the cumuli were building ahead of us. It all still looked very pretty but the signs were there. I haven´t been to this neck of the woods before and therefore give a lot of weight to the opinion of local pilots. They all tell me that a storm can cook up fast and winds get strong quickly. All at a time scale shorter than our trip to Hays would last. So we decided not to press our luck and call it a day in Salina.

Here is the town of Salina:



And the airport on approach. Again, one of those runways that seem to run off to infinity:



Right near the airport we caught a few sprinkles from the sky as a friendly warning and confirmation that we made the right decision.

We taxied to parking and unraveled the tarps we had fabricated the day before yesterday in St. Charles (KSET) with the help of Bert and Doug. So we tucked our gyros in for the night, the tarps might be put to a test today.



A twin jet landed and parked right beside our gyros, so they were in good company. There was an apparently rich couple with their grandson traveling in it, and the pilot and co-pilot were pampering them and running hither and yon to fetch various things for their employers` comfort. Robert and I looked at each other and knew that this was not what we wanted. Flying gyros and having the wind blow in our faces is where we want to be. But we needn´t worry, there is currently no danger of either of us turning rich unexpectedly. Phew!

The FBO (“Flower Aviation SLN”) was super nice. They had a rug before a fire place (not lit) and cozy armchairs to relax, cookies and iced tea to enjoy while waiting and a nice lady behind the counter. She got us a special rate at a hotel in town and a crew car along with directions to a hardware store. The latter was because I had lost one of the screws holding on my right wheel pant, which I needed to replace. Nothing structural or major, but still.

Just as we got into the car, it started to rain. It wasn´t terrible, just a quick shower, but there were several of those in the vicinity and some really dark looking CB´s.

After checking into our rooms, we went out for some Mexican food and gorged ourselves to make up for the missed breakfast. Having some time at hand, I decided to make good use of it and did my laundry. Then I broke out my sectional charts, laid them out on the floor, fired up the little laptop and proceeded to get a better look on the rest of the route to California. At Salina we are pretty much at the half way point, with some challenging flying still ahead of us.

So here is the update of our route:

May 26: Salina – Hays – Colby.
May 27: Colby – Kit Carson – Colorado Springs.
May 28. Colorado Springs – Trinidad – Las Vegas, NM – Santa Fe
May 29: Santa Fe – Grants Milan – Gallup – Winslow – Clark
May 30 : Clark – Valle - Grand Canyon – Valle – Clark
May 31: Clark – Kingman – Lake Havasu – Thermal
June 1: Thermal – Borrego Valley – Gillespie

This is can be either easily doable in good weather or terribly ambitious if the weather only permits flying in the morning hours. We´ll see. We have to be in San Diego by Sunday, June 7th and that seems realistic.

I want to thank Larry (“lanichol”) and Todd (“Racer”) for their offer to help us along in Kansas and Colorado Spring. I hope to meet you all and want you to know how much I appreciate your interest.

Robert & Chris.