tommylewis
Well Known Member
After a great 12 day visit with our daughter and family in New Hampshire, which included a week at a beach house on the Maine coast, today we started the trip back to Texas. The weather was not quite as good as our VFR flights up to NE. We were flying the RV7a because we expected an IFR leg on the return trip, and our expectations were met today as we had two IFR legs so we each got to fly one.
We filed IFR out of Nashua, NH this morning, my turn to fly, and climbed to 8k to follow the victor airways down to Altoona, Pa. If someone knows how to get a direct IFR flight in that part of the country, I would like to hear about it. We were in and out of the clouds all the way and shot the GPS 21 approach into AOO breaking out well above minimums. The 530W, GRT, and TT autopilot all did their job well.
After refueling, checking the weather and realizing our original flight path plan went right through a LARGE area of thunder storms, we changed plans and filed for Greensboro, NC. Not exactly on our direct flight plan, but it did get us south of all the weather. We did get direct routing on this leg. At 10k feet, Bonnie is flying this leg, we were again in and out of the clouds but with buildups and turbulance from the weather moving in from the west. The XM weather was essential for this leg. But as we got to Greensboro, a storm was over the airport so we canceled IFR and proceeded VFR around to the south of the weather and proceeded west to Shelby, NC where we landed to refuel and access our options. After a look at the radar to the west, the decision to spend the night was easy, expecially when we were given use of a hangar for the night. There is also a car rental place in town that will deliver a car to the airport. There are several good motels and restaurants in town.
On every trip we make the decision as to wheather we run the plane in the economy mode or the speed mode. Today were operating the plane in the best speed mode with true airspeeds of 170 knots all day long because of the developing weather. These RVs are really amazing.
Tomorrow we will be flying west toward Texas in hopes of getting home. Check out our progress on the SPOT link in my signature block.
We filed IFR out of Nashua, NH this morning, my turn to fly, and climbed to 8k to follow the victor airways down to Altoona, Pa. If someone knows how to get a direct IFR flight in that part of the country, I would like to hear about it. We were in and out of the clouds all the way and shot the GPS 21 approach into AOO breaking out well above minimums. The 530W, GRT, and TT autopilot all did their job well.
After refueling, checking the weather and realizing our original flight path plan went right through a LARGE area of thunder storms, we changed plans and filed for Greensboro, NC. Not exactly on our direct flight plan, but it did get us south of all the weather. We did get direct routing on this leg. At 10k feet, Bonnie is flying this leg, we were again in and out of the clouds but with buildups and turbulance from the weather moving in from the west. The XM weather was essential for this leg. But as we got to Greensboro, a storm was over the airport so we canceled IFR and proceeded VFR around to the south of the weather and proceeded west to Shelby, NC where we landed to refuel and access our options. After a look at the radar to the west, the decision to spend the night was easy, expecially when we were given use of a hangar for the night. There is also a car rental place in town that will deliver a car to the airport. There are several good motels and restaurants in town.
On every trip we make the decision as to wheather we run the plane in the economy mode or the speed mode. Today were operating the plane in the best speed mode with true airspeeds of 170 knots all day long because of the developing weather. These RVs are really amazing.
Tomorrow we will be flying west toward Texas in hopes of getting home. Check out our progress on the SPOT link in my signature block.
