We've all been there. Glad you laughed. Figured odds were about 50/50 chuckle/scowling silence going by my church.

Fraser Farmer wrote:"We had a beautiful flight down to Huntington, met up with Satan and Allen......"

You should be careful who you meet up with. Don't want to be meeting up with Satan. ....

What the hell-- every group of flying buddies has (at least) one bad apple.

One last flight for the year...and the conclusion of the adventure from the day before. Adam and I spent the night and Grandma's house and the next morning I started to watch the weather for the day. Dense fog was all along the Wasatch but was supposed to lift to 2-3 miles and 600' broken to scattered. I figured 2pm or so would be my window if it developed at all. I filed an IFR flight plan (hadn't done that since...forever) so I'd have it in the system in case I needed it. Soon family showed up for the party and when Dee got there, we ran over to try and get some heat on the engine. Not sure how much the electric blanket idea worked, but we wrapped the top of the engine and cowled it back up to let it soak for a few hours.

2pm came and some blue patches started to show rough the thin overcast. I could see the ridge lines to the south too. So, I headed to the airport and the plane started right up. It had warmed up to 14 degrees. Brrr... No problem getting out of the valley through a low pass but as I rounded the corner, there was the fog just as advertised. I had talked to the tower before taking off and they said planes were getting in. 2.5 miles vis and 600' overcast. I poked my nose down low and could tell going under for a special wasn't going to work. So, I climbed to 6,500' where I was VFR on top and called for my IFR clearance. Soon I was on vectors for the ILS. Went into the soup at 6,000' and broke out at 5,000' (700' AGL). Unlike the night before, I had it dialed in! This might sound funny to those that know me or that routinely fly their planes IFR, but despite my experience and background, I can count the number of actual IFR approaches that I've flown in single engine, piston planes on one hand...with two of them in the last 48 hours. This is just a result of living where we live and flying the basic planes we fly. So it was a thrill for me to be able to make use of my instrument rating to get me and my plane back to our own beds for the night. Ends up the window I expected showed up but didn't last long. Not 30 minutes after I landed, the ceiling and vis started to drop again. Anyway, good way to end the year!


The wall of low fog in the distance.





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Nice work getting home safe!

robw56 wrote:Nice work getting home safe!

What he said!

That right there is why I wish I had some basic IFR capabilities in my plane. Definitely will have them in the next one.

Again, good job executing safely!

Thanks guys. I think the controllers got tired of me asking for icing reports between the night before and yesterday. Actually I called and talked to the controller before I took off. I know him and it was good to know he knew who I was and what I'm flying. My last plane wasn't up to par with basic equipment. I'm glad this one is. Oh! And FF is awesome! Between the geo referenced plates, to the synthetic vision and the new 500' call out...great situational awareness tools!


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Here is some footage from our flight down to Central/Southern UT last week. Make sure to switch to HD! Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/dxkGxDHW3vo


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Beautiful!!


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Great video GSP, nice to see that area snow free.

Thanks! Yeah there was a lot of snow in Huntington so we were happy to see MM clear. FYI, Huntington has put in two little cabins that people are going to be able to use to stay in. Pretty cool!


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I haven't seen Sprocket featured in your posts in quite a while.
Has he been furloughed?

Hehe! No, he was actually in the plane staying clean and warm. It was a good thing he was with us too because we ended up diverting to grandma's house. Adam told me, good thing we brought him so I'll sleep well tonight! We will get a proof of life pic next time![emoji1]


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I got a message from Pat, aka 58Skylane, a few days ago letting me know he would be in town. We finally got a chance to meet up. He wanted to see my plane and learn a bit more about the 205. I needed to go get fuel and wanted to fly anyway, so it worked out well. A little hazy but still a good day to fly!







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It was great to finally meet you, Cory. Thanks again for flight and learned a lot more about your 205. Fantastic plane and makes for a great cross country flyer and can carry a lot of stuff. A 205 will be high on the list If I decide to buy another plane.

Great pictures Cory. It's wonderful to see Pat back in the air, and I'm glad to see you thinking about your next plane Pat.

mountainmatt wrote:Great pictures Cory. It's wonderful to see Pat back in the air, and I'm glad to see you thinking about your next plane Pat.

Thanks Matt! It felt great to be back up flying!

We'll see what's in store for me the next year or so. Still have a few things to figure out.

After our plans to fly to Idaho fell through due to an iffy forecast, I decided to slip out for a short flight today. I finally got a friend up for a ride. Him and his two sons and one son's girlfriend. Everyone's first time up in a smaller general aviation plane.

Getting hazy.


First lesson.




The Spiral Jetty. Lots of snow.


Nice to have a plane that can take everyone.



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Got up today for a quick test flight. The new audio pane seems to working well. Still a few things to check. The jury is still out on the prop reseal. I'll fly more in the next few days to see what happens.

Beautiful day for flying. Smooth as glass.





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We didn't have a lot of time, but Adam and I made a mad dash to central Utah yesterday to rendezvous with Allen and Stan. From there we headed to Angel Point to scope out some hiking options. I wish we could have stayed the night. Still, we were able to find a place to get off the rim and look forward to going back to camp and do some hiking.








Look closely and you can see my vertical stab above the canyon rim.



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Looks like a great day!