Brunswick

Tuesday, my friend Dan flew me down to Brunswick in his Mooney. What a difference in speed a good stiff wind behind a fast powerful airplane makes. We made the trip in under an hour. You just can't beat horsepower and a clean design.
We were delayed for an hour while the engine block heater was given a chance to change the viscosity of the oil from Heath's Toffee to Karo syrup. So it was lunchtime on arrival. The receptionist at the FBO recommended "Willy's Wee Nee Wagon". So we borrowed the courtesy car (a red, Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer) and had a great meal!
Dan is looking to buy a cruising sailboat and run away to the Islands. We went to the Brunswick City Marina to crawl a 2000 Island Packet 420 cutter. Cleanest 10 year-old boat I've ever seen! The only upgrades to the boat is a recent 20-inch HD TV/Monitor on a swing-away mount in place of the original tube-type TV. Boat has had very little actual sailing/cruising use. Great engine access. And most of the toys. Needs an installed generator and wind or solar charging. Canvas needs TLC. ETC. But a really sweet cruiser!
Got back out to the airport around 3 o'clock and checked weather and wind for the return. The winds were still near the 15-knot crosswind limit, but doable. But the winds aloft were howling. from 3-6000 feet the winds were around 40 knots and nearly perfectly head-on for a boy trying to get home. The quick math went this way. No wind the trip was 138 nautical miles at 105 miles an hour for 1+20 and home at 4:50 or so. If the forecast wind is right, my ground speed woulkd only be around 65 knots with an arrival in Augusta at around 5:40.
Thr problem is that's solidly AFTER sunset. For a Day VFR pilot, that wouldn't work.
Got Dan on his way back home. Arranged to get a shuttle to the Embassy Suites. They came to get me, but were sold out! They got me room at a Hampton near I-95 and shuttled me there.
Had supper at the Waffle House, settled in and called Dan.
The winds aloft weren't as advertised. He only saw 10 knots on the nose which would have only added 8 minutes to the trip. Que sera!
Watched TV and snoozed the night away. The overnight low was 19F. After breakfast, a quick cab ride got me out on the flight line. While untying the tail I noticed an unusual amount of fresh engine oil on the bottom of the airplane.
Pulled off the cowlings and saw oil on the engine. Not just the usual wayward drop or two. Cowled the engine. Checked oil quantity. Started and warmed the engine up while paying close attention to the oil pressure and temperature. All seemed normal. Took the cowlings back off, but unable to isolate the leak. Decided to monitor oil consumption and engine parameters carefully, but go home.
Once off Brunswick and climbing, JAX CENTER wanted to know if I was routing to Savannah to avoid the Military areas. I confirmed that. I was also having a continuation of the headset problems that have plagued me. I reached over, took the unused copilot's set and used it the rest of the trip.
JAX got me north of Fort Stewart and cleared me direct to Augusta. That course took me right up the northeast boundary of the restricted areas. I could tell that we'd soon be over what appeared to be tank or artillery ranges. I deviated away from that. You gotta love the Garmin with moving map!
Almost immediately I could see the steam plume from Plant Vogtle 70 miles away. Turned up the XM radio and enjoyed the ride. Warm, fast and smooth. Cleared in to Augusta I pulled the throttle back and started a slow descent. That's when the warm part stopped. Tamping down the fires means less heat in the muffler which means cold feet! Next time I'll wait for the VNAV to kick in.
Greeted at the gate by my lovely wife, we secured the bird in the hangar. Way too cold to lay on the concrete and clean up oil.

Waiting out weather-at home

Couldn't get out of Brunswick, Georgia Saturday. The TAF (Terminal Area Forecast) gave us some hope of flying back to Augusta. If we could get off Brunswick and head west to Waycross we could go to Macon and then east to Augusta.
My personal minimum ceiling for flying under an overcast is at least 2500 feet. I have to stay 500 feet below the clouds and 2500 feet means flying at 2000 feet above the ground. I also need 3 miles visibility to be legal, but my personal requirement is 6 miles or better.
All this talk of "Personal Minimums" makes it sound like I could fly in less, but am just chicken to do so. And there is some of that in those decisions. But it is also a calculation of what I need to see and avoid other traffic and worsening weather.
Every VFR pilot has similar basic "legal" criteria. Clear of cloud and 3 miles visibility. Some private pilots can cut the visibility to 1 mile. The result is all the VFR traffic gets forced lower into a very narrow band. In addition to airplane traffic, there are all the TV towers sticking all the way into the clouds, and migratory birds. Last time I flew the coast in September we saw a formation of 8-10 wood storks (giant 5-foot tall birds with 6-foot wingspans). So just when the conditions are at their worst, the opposition is at its worst.
So even though it is legal to fly at 1000 feet above populated areas with 3 mile visibility in the rain, it ain't smart!
So after checking the weather and seeing 7-900 ceilings for the 50-mile radius at 2 PM , Micky and I decided to rent a car and drive home. Even Jekyll Island is no fun in cold rain!
We'll try to get down to Brunswick Tuesday or Wednesday and fly the baby home.
Can't go Monday because of two back-to-back cold fronts with extreme winds. When your airplane starts flying at around 37 knots, ground movement is very hazardous in 25 knot winds. The forecast is 25 with gusts to 45 today, so I'm not taking any tie downs off.

Weather, small planes, good decisions

We wanted to fly the Remos to the Bahamas. If you need to keep a schedule, don't take a light plane or a sailboat!
I apologize for some of the pilot-jargon. MYGF is the airport in Freeport. SAV and BQK are the ones in Savannah and Brunswick. When I put "L" behind a military time it means "local time". My type of license prohibits flight at night, or if the visibily is less than 3 miles or through or over clouds.

We didn't make it to MYGF this trip. I cancelled the Thursday plan for weather enroute and excessive delays starting. The doc wanted me to get some lab work which slowed me down and resulted in a 2+30 delay from my planned 0900L departure. WX in the FLL area was looking bad and the headwinds were gonna eat up my reserves. But the real problem was daylight. I was looking at arriving in less than optimal wx, with less fuel and only 30 minutes of useable daylight. Rejected that idea.
Friday we had a shot at an early (0800L) launch. I spent about 15 minutes talking to a briefer about the wx in central FL and got airborne at 0807 for SAV, Brunswick (Glynco) and then fuel in St. Augustine. Nice ride to SAV, then forced down to 3500 by clouds. A little light rain, then, near BQK down to my "no lower" of 2500. As we got to the prohibited area around the Kings Bay Sub base, it could see 20-30 miles into FL. And it wasn't good! A solid shield below me in the distance. The controller was calling the destination IFR at 900, the way west blocked, and no smart way to pick through it. Left 180 kept me outta the restricted area and we went back up to BQK intendfing to have lunch and try again. There's a low-pressure trough hugging the FL east coast that means more east-west wet flow into this unusually cold airmass. FLL and MYGF will be fine, the 80 miles between will not.
So we're going to enjoy Jekyll this weekend and try to go somewhere Sunday or Monday. Except that the WX is looking bad again.
The bad part about Sport pilot is no IFR. The good part about Sport pilot is no IFR. Ditto night flying.
I had fun using all the Garmin and XMWX toys to help the decision along, but the turnaround was a good choice. It's hard to crash when you're tied down!

My friend ( and pilot-mentor) Robert had given me a strategy for dealing with weather. See if you can make it to the next airport 20-30 miles away. If that works try the next one. Then land an wait out the weather. If I had done that Thursday, I'd probably be in Freeport tonight rather than not at all. Thursday we had the time to get to Daytona for the night, leave before Daytona got bad and try the Freeport crossing in the early afternoon Friday. Now I'm stuck with more bad weather south and the north looking bad for Sunday.
Worst-case is we rent a car for the trip to Augusta and drive down to get the plane next week.