Lake Michigan Ice Report 03.02.2015

[Paul K]

Finally, the sun is out and the temps are above 20! Good enough for the first flight in a month and a look at the ice in Lake Michigan.



Ice Station Zebra? Nope, just Lake ice off Grand Haven, MI. Far off to the right side of the photos there is a dark sliver. That is open water, about 5 miles wide. The other 78 miles is solid.





Closer to the open water and not very comfortable being this far out from terra firma! Talking to Muskegon approach the entire time.





Grand Haven pier and channel are solid. People are walking on the ice at least a mile off shore

[petehowell]

Great Pics!!

Maybe it will quit snowing on Mom in South Bend for a while.....

[aturner]

My ice story: I got up on Saturday for the first time in five weeks. It was just 22 degrees, but I really needed to fly. It took two solid hours of chipping ice from the base of the hanger doors, shoveling the taxiway, etc.



The big bird sees the light of day for the first time in weeks.



30.63 inches of Hg and at 3000 feet, an OAT of -10 gave me a density altitude of 150 below sea level. Living on a plateau, we don't see that around here very often, so I decided to see what she could do in the thick air, and ran her up to maximum available power for a couple of four way runs.



Tucked the bird away, and pulled the memory card from the G3X for analysis. Used the GPS-PEC spreadsheet from the National Test Pilot School to process the GPS ground track and ground speed data:

http://www.ntps.edu/information/downloads.html

Drum roll: 189 kts. I had a hard time sleeping Saturday night.

[Bevan]

189 knots at 150 feet below sea level would be keeping the Navy awake too!

Bevan

[longranger]

I'm relocating to SE Michigan in a few months, and contacted several EAA chapter presidents in the area to get a heads up on hangar space. One (a 7A builder to make this RV-related) said he didn't have a good handle on hangar availability because all the doors were frozen shut...

[spark68]

Originally Posted by longranger

I'm relocating to SE Michigan in a few months, and contacted several EAA chapter presidents in the area to get a heads up on hangar space.

Try 1D2 Canton-Plymouth-Mettetal Airport. Lots of GA activity. Active EAA chapter. Airport manager told me last week he had T-hangars available.

Mark

[9GT]

Originally Posted by longranger

I'm relocating to SE Michigan in a few months, and contacted several EAA chapter presidents in the area to get a heads up on hangar space. One (a 7A builder to make this RV-related) said he didn't have a good handle on hangar availability because all the doors were frozen shut...

GA is shrinking here in MI that past few years. Years ago most airports had long waiting lists for a hanger. My buddy waited 6 years for a hanger in Troy MI at KVLL. Now there are empty hangers at just about every airport. You should have no trouble finding one when you need it.

[Ebeswick]

I was inspired by this post to go see the ice on Lake Michigan from above, and with the sun shining today I couldn't help but go check it out.



I know, I know. It's no RV, but hopefully someday!



Here's the Grand Haven pier. Pretty incredible to see the amount of ice surrounding the channel.



Looking out across the lake. Ice as far as the eye can see.

Now it's time to get back to the studies. Hopefully someday I will have the resources to build one of these incredible machines!