They had an extensive collection of DVD cases. My friend and I couldn't actually find one DVD Disc in any of the cases.
So far the trip had gone great. The cloud were a little low on Sunday for the trip home, but they were breaking up nicely. I hopped in the RV and got her started. I called up the tower to get a taxi only to realize the airport was still IFR - ATIS was calling for 900' ceiling. I could look up and see blue skies. I asked if they could revise the ATIS and they said they would see what they could do for us. After 15 minutes the new ATIS came out - ceiling 1,000'! Booyah, enough for me to get off the ground. For all of those judging me for scud running, the ceiling was much higher than 1,000'. It was at least 2,000 to the west of the airport. However, due to the proximity of the airport to Lake Michigan, the clouds were very thick directly over the airport, and thinned out almost immediately to the west.
So with the new ATIS information, I went to start the engine again (Hot start procedure). It fired up and quickly died. I tried again - same thing, started sputtering and then died. Primed it. Nothing. The worst eventually happened - I drained the battery and couldn't get her started. I got out of the airplane to see what the problem was - fuel dripping from the bottom of the cowl - I clearly flooded the engine.
I walked with my tail between my legs back to the FBO to try to get an extension cord. The only good thing about my situation is there was a power outlet very close to the airplane. I tossed the battery charger on and headed to the FBO to play the waiting game. Now here is the challenge. It was a 2 AH charger, and the Odyssey manual says at 2 AH, it takes 8 hours to fully charge a dead battery. But how "dead" was this battery? How much time did I need to leave it plugged in to get a good start? If I left it plugged in too short of a time and the starter couldn't crank it through, I would have to start the timer all over again. To complicate things, I was racing sunset back on the east coast. I waited 90 minutes, and that was enough to get the battery well beyond where it needed to be to fire up the engine.
Around Chicago we had a 2,000' ceiling which was occasionally broken.
After we got from underneith of the Chicago class B airspace, we popped up through a hole and headed east. Everything was going fine until I ran into a wall of clouds. Here is a writeup I did for Rivetbangers.com on this experience.
I wanted to share an experience I had this past weekend when I was VFR on top and almost needed to backtrack an hour to get below the deck. I was in Chicago where the cloud layer was scattered at 1,500'. It was a thin layer which I could easily pop through. Looking at the weather METAR's, TAF's and satellite imagery, there was an overcast layer over most of Indiana, breaking up by eastern Indiana. Instead of scud running the whole trip, I decided once I was clear of the Chicago airspace, I would pop up high and cruise VFR on top to where I knew it was clear.
The plan was going well until I saw a wall of clouds that I didn't think I could make it through. My heart started racing - what if I can't make it through in VFR rules? The obvious decision would be to turn back and backtrack an hour to where I knew there were holes in the clouds. Luckily we were able to make it through the cloud build ups and the overcast layer turned back into a scattered layer which we could easily descend through.
A few lessons learned here:
1) I need an instrument rating. I really have no excuse now - my new neighbor is a CFII. I was stuck on the ground at KUGN for over 4 hours waiting for the ATIS to report the clouds >= 1,000', even though I could see blue skies.
2) Ceilings are not indicatives of tops.
3) Be ready to turn around if you are VFR on top.
4) As great as all of the modern weather tools are (ADS-B, satellite imagery, TAF's, METAR's, etc..), none of them told me of this wall of clouds existed.
The skies couldn't of been any clearer in Ohio. It turned out to be a beautiful day.
On the way to Cleveland to drop my friend off, I was deciding on whether to spend the night in Cleveland and leave first thing in the morning for home, or if I would go home that night. My main concern would be any clouds or weather in PA, especially with the mountainous terrain. When I got on the ground in Cleveland, I did some looking at the weather and it looked perfect. I fueled up and blasted off for home. I estimated I would be in the dark for about 30 minutes of my 1.5 hour trip back to MD.
The sunset over Pittsburgh was just awesome.
19 Kts on the tail. I was movin!
180 kts over the ground (207 MPH). It took only 1.5 hours to get home from Cleveland. Smokin'!
Another sunset pic.
And the last pic of the night before the sunset.
