Trouble Ahead - Day 2

June 20, 2018


Trouble Ahead

     BIE - GBG


 We had a late morning in Nebraska.
Everyone was waiting for ceilings to lift. Race Central made the decision to bypass the FBL (Faribault, MN) leg, have everyone ferry themselves to GBG (Galesburg, IL) and continue the race once there. 
We were saddened that we wouldn't be making it to Minnesota, as the FBOs do lots of planning to host the event leg. Sometime in the future I will have to visit. 

 This decision by Race Cental started an adventure.

Alyssa and I filed our IFR flight plan, preflighted, fueled up, and were on our way. We made it about 160 nautical miles outside of GBG when we decided to divert due to the thunderstorms connecting making a line of thunderstorms. We ended up diverting from our original "alternate" airport due to winds outside of comfort and aircraft limits. We backtracked to SDA (Shenandoah, IA) where we picked up more fuel (for ourselves and the plane) and to wait on weather.

We waited for the line of thunderstorms to pass over GBG before we got in the plane again. Soon we filed an IFR flight plan again and took off. 

There's something so amazing, terrifying, and intriguing about flying into clouds. Alyssa and I had one point where we were surrounded by clouds on all sides, but hadn't entered the looming one in front of us. No one was talking on the radios and it was silent. 
It was a surreal feeling. I cannot explain it, only if you experience it will you truly understand. We were focused and ready for what we didn't know. 
It's what I can relate to being out in the open ocean, other swimmers and surfers far enough away where you can't hear their chatter. It's you and the ebb of the waves. In this scenario you are subject to nature same as with flying into clouds. You can only expect so much, but outside of that you are traversing into the unknown, held at will by mother nature. 

We navigated with the help of center controllers. Our Quad City controller was very helpful. He vectored us around heavy precipitation and with our go ahead, set us up for the RNAV GPS 21 into GBG. He was ready and willing to help us divert if we needed to. Luckily there was no turbulence in the lower clouds, only rain.  We descended out of the clouds, had GBG in sight and landed. It was raining more than we thought and the poor volunteer who was showing us where to park in an open air golf cart was getting soaked. We too got nice and wet tying down the aircraft for the night.

We chatted with the other girls who made it in before us and headed to the hotel.

 Weather seems to be moving with us, here's to hoping it dissipates soon!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cloud Cruising

Image
June 21, 2018 Cloud Cruising  We woke up in GBG, IL and the cloud ceilings were still too low for the race as well as storms en route to the next stop.  Our friends PPI awaiting IFR release at GBG All the racers were waiting in the hangar when we received the email that the racers were to reposition to Penn Yan, NY (PEO) and we would start the race timing there for the last leg of the race. Alyssa and I filed our IFR flight plan and headed out. There was a wait for IFR release on the ground in GBG due to all of us wanting to get out, though soon we were climbing through the clouds.  We chose to stop at two race points before heading to PEO.  We flew to Auburn, IN (GWB) and had to hold on an approach (not a problem as we had more than enough fuel) for our friends from Lewis as they landed and then we were cleared on the approach. We found Lara, the ARC president, handing us the promised root beer floats and a cold towel, even though it was raining. We had a good ch
Read more

Sweetwater!

Image
June 15, 2018 Arrival to Sweetwater, Texas. Airport code: SWW. The morning of Friday the 15th, Alyssa and I departed from Tulsa, OK to head to Oklahoma City (OKC), along with our fellow racers from PPI and Lewis. This first leg was uneventful and we were soon landing in OKC. Following in the ways of the previous day, we utilized the FBO crew car and were off to lunch where we did some planning for the arrival to Sweetwater.  Megan, Jane, Cathy, Nicoletta, Alyssa, Tiffany Nicoletta, PPI Pilot, had some plans for us to check out a science museum in OKC that was hosting one of the first Women's Air Derby Race Aircraft. The Women's Air Derby would later be known as the Air Race Classic. This museum not only paid tribute to Louise Thaden who flew the plane, but it was an interactive museum. So we made sure to stop by the learning stations including tornados, earthquakes (think simulator), light waves, space travel, and so much more! I would recommend the
Read more