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The
takeoff
out of ETB was non-eventful, but was done in rain. The
shots above show the Nexrad picture that was on our screens as we
departed. Today I'd
opt to throw those engine gauges over on the co-pilot screen (I usually
take off with them in the center), to keep my eyes on the course and
the weather. You can see by the course line that we were heading
in directions that would work with the approaching weather. Had
it not been for the in-flight WSI, I would have been much less
comfortable with the unknowns of where the weather was. See and
avoid, that's the way to do it. It didn't take long in the -10 to
climb to our assigned cruising level of 6000'. I didn't file too
high to avoid any real turbulent cloud tops, so for this trip we
decided to run ROP (Rich of Peak) and just pay the piper for some fuel
at 13gph+. I try to only run LOP (Lean of Peak) if I can cruise
at 7500' or higher. At 6000', we had a smooth ride, above a
widely scattered undercast, with a looming grey mass off to our West. |
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As
we
approached our turn fix over OSH, I shot a few photos of the weather
we were skirting, and some other shots of the screens for performance data.
On this trip, I saw speeds as high as 172kts in cruise, but
average was around 163kts. I'd rather have 155 with 10gph, but oh
well...another day. |
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Looking
below,
the airspace of a restricted area is visible. The nicest
thing about this whole arrangement is the spatial orientation you get
when you get weather,
airspace, and navigation info all on the same screen. The
controllers were very busy, and I actually got a couple of extra
"thanks" out of two of them for being able to get by with minimal work
from them. I made it a point to clearly state my intentions, and
they then knew exactly how to fit me in. For instance: "We're
heading direct OJYAB for the
GPS-27 at KLUM"...controller: "We'll need to hold you for inbound
traffic, can we hold you on your inbound radial?"...me: "Sure, I'll
hold as published, East of OJYAB and get an EFC anytime you can.".
They love it when they know someone is prepared. Having the
entire approach drawn for you on-screen really helps a lot too.
It drew the fixes, it drew the hold, I flew to the fix and flew
the hold. Paper charts are ok, and great to have on hand (more on
that later) but having it all on the screen next to me was great.
Not only that, but having remaining time and remaining
endurance time of fuel handy is great too. (also more on that
later) |
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So
you
can see from the photos above, after we were north of the weather,
we ended up on top for the rest of the trip. The kids played
Uno, oblivious to the whole situation Luckily?, we got to
do our hold and approach in the clouds (I was really looking forward to
that), and had an easy final as we broke out at about 1600' agl.
I was hoping for more like 800', but it was a great safety margin
for my first approach in the -10. The last photo shows the
datalink page where I put graphical METARS on the screen so you could
see which airports are VFR (Blue), MVFR (Green), IFR (Yellow), or LIFR
(Red) Great stuff to see trends in ceilings at a glance. |