Another flight into the winds

Yesterday, I went for a scenic flight with a pilot (Mike) on a windy day. As I told the folk at the airport when I arrived, it is important to me to fly in windy conditions because tanker and helo pilots often fly windy and turbulent conditions. It is my hope that going on flights in windy conditions will make me a better writer. I knew that it was safe for us to fly, otherwise I would have gotten a phone call canceling the flight. Their concern was for my comfort, and being sure that the pilot and I knew where the barf bags were. I am happy to say that I did not need the barf bags, nor was I queasy.

The flight was within safe limits for the Cessna 172, but still windy. The winds were from the north west (330 degrees), sustained at about 8 knots (10 mph) with gusts to 17 knots.  (20 mph). We took off into the wind (a headwind). This was by far the windiest conditions that I have experienced on take-off (and landing), to date. Mike, whom I have flown with on a couple of occasions a few months ago, did all the right things on the take-off. We left the ground as soon as plausible in order to get the plane off the ground and not subject to the winds on the ground. It was rather bumpy and turbulent as we climbed to about 2,500 feet. Interestingly, the winds aloft were not as bad as either of us expected.

We flew for about 30 minutes. Mike gave me a brief explanation about how he was handling the plane in these winds. I wish that I could have taken notes, but in those winds, I knew that I could not. Anyway, I learned a lot. The landing was a little bumpy, but we got down.

The young pilot, Rob, who took me on scenic rides during the spring and over the summer, has moved on to a job at a flight school based at a larger airport not far from me. Later today, I am renting a plane, a Cherokee, with Rob as the pilot. Rob is going to take me on a special kind of scenic ride, a longer flight sometimes known as cross-country flight. A cross-country flight involves flying to and landing at an airport that is over 50 miles from where you departed. Bad weather has canceled this flight three times. The winds today should be calmer then yesterday and the skies look clear.

Stay tuned, and I'll write about the cross-country in a couple of days.

Update: after I posted this article, I got a call from Rob, postponing the cross-country until Wed. afternoon. The reason being that our departure airport is under a TFR later this afternoon into this evening because the Vice President is visiting.