Ok, this past Saturday I was up in the late morning continuing my Phase I flying task of calibrating my fuel flow instrumentation. My normal
modus operendi for this task has been to fly a specific flight path from my home airport over several local airports in a great big circle that ultimately gets me back to my home airport in a little over an hour.
My path usually takes me from
53OK(
my home airport, grass strip and all) to
KOJA (
maybe some of you recognize the identifyer, but in case you don't, think LOE). Then westward to
KCLK (
Clinton, OK), over
KCSM (
If you click on the link notice the dimensions for 17L/35R). From here I turn back SE towards
KHBR (
Hobart, OK) then eastward to
KCHK (
Chickasha, OK) and then back home to
53OK.
All in all, at least as far as Oklahoma goes, this flight path takes me over some fairly nice scenery. Granted I cannot give it the kudos due a flight over the Rocky Mountains or perhaps the Grand Canyon but we do have the Wichita Mountains to view off in the distance and we have a great many giant wind generators that are stretching out across the entire western half of the state now a days that is quite interesting to look at in flight.
Given this, however, I was really focusing my attention to the task at hand. Take that to mean I was staring at the instruments and turning dials. I was working on stabilizing my flight, getting the engine leaned out to the appropriate LOP operating parameters (
click on the pic below to see the EGT, CHT temps, fuel burn, etc. on the GRT HX display.) and writing down my observations.
Well, if everyone is still with me, you may notice on the Garmin 695 GPS in the picture above you can see I was just SE of
KOJA a few miles with a flight plan in the GPS tracking toward KCLK about 20 miles away. Ok, so I figure, I have had my head inside the cockpit too long now. How about looking out the window to see what was going on outside now that the airplane is stable at altitude, "
George" is steady as a rock flying the plane and I have the engine purring along LOP fine and dandy.
So, out the window I gaze. Well now, that is very interesting. . . How often has anyone seen this outside their windshield?
Ok, I'm not talking about the dark lines on the left side of the picture. No, that is my I-phone camera's bad attempt to capture a moving prop at 2300 RPM. How about those clouds out in front of me? Sure don't see those too often out here in the western plains of Oklahoma. I had thought
Lenticular clouds usually formed in the mountainous areas of the country. Although we have some areas just south of this pic we Oklahomans call mountains, I am not sure they would really qualify. I am pretty sure they would not qualify enough to be responsible for forming these at any rate.
Never the less, there they were. Directly over the Weatherford Stafford airport (
KOJA). Home of LOE that will be held exactly one week from this very moment directly below those very pretty clouds. The clouds had been very strange throughout that morning for sure. There were several layers of clouds scattered all over the visible sky as I flew that morning. There was a scattered layer around 2900 feet, a distinct layer in the distance to the south around 4500 feet, high cirrus clouds up higher and these. Right in the direct line of my flight path. In fact I would be flying just under them maybe 100 or 200 feet below. Here are some closer pictures as I flew just a few hundred feet below and maybe less than 1/2 mile in front of the leading cloud.
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Well that was not going to due for me. All you soaring junkies can call me a wimp if you want but my mission for the day was requiring some stable air and uneventful flying so I can get some good readings from my instruments. The idea of turbulence and rising air did not play into the equation. So, I aborted my westerly heading. I turned NE, to avoid what would have most likely been a very interesting flight, and skeedaddled (
for the uninitiated, that is a southern term for "hurry up and get your butt out of there")!
Like I said, all you soaring aficionados can say what you want about my decisions but for this phase of my flying I want no part of these things. Especially if I end up 100 feet directly below them.
Well, there is my weekend story. Just thought I would relay this story as I found it very interesting to come face to face with something that really doesn't happen that often in our part of the woods.
Have you ever run into these before?
Linear Mode
