Our adventure continued after LOE on the trip home.
We're learning new things every time we fly! Many thanks to the 4 ship behind Alex for the pireps of VFR between Pecos and Wink. We were and are very appreciative of those reports. I've never been one for getting trapped above the clouds in clear air so we started the run below. After passing the convective stuff on radar, we dropped down through a hole and started the hard work. Two pilots calculating heading and distance to the best OUT as we pressed forward each couple of minutes. Our trip quickly went from "this sucks", to "Uhhh....", just northeast of Fort Stockton. The solid ceiling got lower and lower with some very light precip. We did a little bit of recon around each side of the rabbit hole but found no good path. Tanya gets full credit for being the first to voice that she was ready to turn around. It was a very wise call. We executed our latest OUT just east of Rankin (49F) and turned back to Upton (E48). The weather still sucked there, but this was an immediate "Time Out, wheels on the ground".
There is absolutely nothing in Upton, no fuel, no phone number, no people, no shelter... Not the place to be stuck, but the runway was paved. After visiting the nearest bush, we (and I do mean WE) began our strategy session. I can't tell you how many times we told each other "There aren't any problems here, the OUTs are working, and the wheels are on the ground."
I called the nearest ASOS at Fort Stockton which was our next stop along our retreat path and that exit was still available with over 2k' scattered, and winds gusting over 30kts. Of course, all this burns fuel so that became an important component. We fired up and launched for Fort Stockton (FST) which was only about 20 minutes away. After landing back at FST, it was like coming off of the moon, back to civilization with a few blue skies, people, and the golden juice. We fueled up, tied the plane down, and went in to the weather computer for more analysis. After agreeing that we would be happy to stay here at FST at the nearest INN if need be, the weather picture made the answer quickly clear. We're going on top! Duh!
Remember, I predicated that I'm not a big fan of getting stuck on top, but we had a clear way up, and now had great weather data in front of us that we would absolutely be able to get down on the other side after about 160mi.. Way safer than the previous plan. So we launched from FST with full fuel (can't stress that part enough), plenty of data, and a new plan. Blue skies above allowed us an immediate elevator ride to over the top of a solid layer for the next 1.3hrs. We almost doubled our ground speed in the smooth air above. Super easy the whole way home. We're learning.
It has been talked about a number of times how important it is to have good viable OUTs when traveling by RV but I don't remember anybody with so few hours as us showing just how useful that concept is and how it can not only salvage a trip, but also preserve your bacon. Hopefully this is a helpful example of a set of pilots learning as we go.
fyi, if you look at our APRS track from this flight, it does NOT tell the story correctly at all as we were too low for the exciting parts. It doesn't show any of the shenanigans we went through looking for better weather and back tracking. The time stamps are correct though
.
We're learning new things every time we fly! Many thanks to the 4 ship behind Alex for the pireps of VFR between Pecos and Wink. We were and are very appreciative of those reports. I've never been one for getting trapped above the clouds in clear air so we started the run below. After passing the convective stuff on radar, we dropped down through a hole and started the hard work. Two pilots calculating heading and distance to the best OUT as we pressed forward each couple of minutes. Our trip quickly went from "this sucks", to "Uhhh....", just northeast of Fort Stockton. The solid ceiling got lower and lower with some very light precip. We did a little bit of recon around each side of the rabbit hole but found no good path. Tanya gets full credit for being the first to voice that she was ready to turn around. It was a very wise call. We executed our latest OUT just east of Rankin (49F) and turned back to Upton (E48). The weather still sucked there, but this was an immediate "Time Out, wheels on the ground".
There is absolutely nothing in Upton, no fuel, no phone number, no people, no shelter... Not the place to be stuck, but the runway was paved. After visiting the nearest bush, we (and I do mean WE) began our strategy session. I can't tell you how many times we told each other "There aren't any problems here, the OUTs are working, and the wheels are on the ground."
I called the nearest ASOS at Fort Stockton which was our next stop along our retreat path and that exit was still available with over 2k' scattered, and winds gusting over 30kts. Of course, all this burns fuel so that became an important component. We fired up and launched for Fort Stockton (FST) which was only about 20 minutes away. After landing back at FST, it was like coming off of the moon, back to civilization with a few blue skies, people, and the golden juice. We fueled up, tied the plane down, and went in to the weather computer for more analysis. After agreeing that we would be happy to stay here at FST at the nearest INN if need be, the weather picture made the answer quickly clear. We're going on top! Duh!
Remember, I predicated that I'm not a big fan of getting stuck on top, but we had a clear way up, and now had great weather data in front of us that we would absolutely be able to get down on the other side after about 160mi.. Way safer than the previous plan. So we launched from FST with full fuel (can't stress that part enough), plenty of data, and a new plan. Blue skies above allowed us an immediate elevator ride to over the top of a solid layer for the next 1.3hrs. We almost doubled our ground speed in the smooth air above. Super easy the whole way home. We're learning.
It has been talked about a number of times how important it is to have good viable OUTs when traveling by RV but I don't remember anybody with so few hours as us showing just how useful that concept is and how it can not only salvage a trip, but also preserve your bacon. Hopefully this is a helpful example of a set of pilots learning as we go.
fyi, if you look at our APRS track from this flight, it does NOT tell the story correctly at all as we were too low for the exciting parts. It doesn't show any of the shenanigans we went through looking for better weather and back tracking. The time stamps are correct though
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