Tales from Braying Dock Manor | Part 7, The High Road

Line of Sight

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
17Jul 2021	N21481	OCF (Ocala, FL) - DKX (Knoxville, TN)	3.8	2299.1

"Cherokee Four Eight One, is your radio working?" I was stung by the criticism imbued in the Ocala Tower controller's question. Simultaneously, I was amused by the logic of it. If the radio were not working, the query would have been super moot.

Departing Ocala. 

After a week in Florida, it was time to return to our normal lives and that would require traversing a lot of ground. As is my standard practice, I contacted Ocala Ground from the ramp on my number two radio for IFR clearance to Knoxville and taxi instructions. We were told to taxi, but that our clearance was on request. At the departure end of the runway, I completed all preflight run-up activities and waited to receive a clearance from Ground. The radio was strangely silent and two other aircraft departed as we waited. Concerned, I switched to the number one radio already set for Tower just in time to hear, "Cherokee Four Eight One, Ocala Tower."

When I responded, the controller castigated me for not answering her earlier transmissions. Transmissions that I never heard. "Is your radio working?" Had my number two radio failed somewhere between the parking apron and the end of the runway? No, it worked fine after take-off. I can only assume that my distance from the tower combined with number two's belly-mounted antenna provided inadequate line of sight to Ocala's transmitter. From her tone, it was clear that the Tower controller attributed this to an error on my part, but I think the only failing was fundamental physics.

Thus chastened, we launched into a clear Florida sky for Knoxville, the first significant leg of our journey home. 

University of Florida in Gainesville, in case all the orange did not make that obvious.

The Weather Machine

It had been my hope to reach Knoxville via Tuskegee, AL so that we could visit the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site. Forecasts suggested that thunderstorms could erupt and block the path between Tuskegee and Knoxville. To avoid that risk, I decided to fly straight to Knoxville. The Bear was participating in an Eastman-run high school (high school!) wind ensemble starting Monday, making getting home on time a higher priority than visiting Tuskegee. With this clarity of thought, we flew direct to Knoxville and learned later in the day that the forecast storms never manifested. This was frustrating because I do not find myself within convenient flying distance of Tuskegee, AL very often and I vowed to look for the next opportunity.

The loneliest little cloud over Georgia.

The vast volume of air through which we moved was remarkably free from weather phenomena of any kind, though we passed a few examples of isolated clouds.

As we passed over Athens, GA, I paid a silent tribute to the birthplace of REM before turning my attention back to things aeronautical. A tiny cell of moderate precipitation stood directly in our path north of Athens, but completely dissipated before we reached it.

The Bear snoozed en route from Ocala to Knoxville. Photo by Kristy.

It is often true that mountains make their own weather. This is something at which the Great Smoky Mountains excel. As soon as the verdant tapestry below displayed wrinkles along the southern reaches of the Smokies, clouds began to pop. 

We passed through a few layers in the descent toward Knoxville Downtown Island Airport, eventually breaking out into the clear and being released from the binding contract of our IFR clearance.

Because it is partially obscured by a ridge, the Island is tough to spot when approaching from the south.

We entered the traffic pattern for our Tennessee "home away from home", landed tidily, refueled, and found ourselves back at Dad's house in short order.

ForeFlight ground track from Ocala, FL (KOCF) to Knoxville, TN (KDKX)

"You know, Dad," began The Bear, bestowing upon me her most hopeful look of appeal. "There is a Guardians of the Galaxy 2..." I was not entirely certain that Dad enjoyed the previous installment from a week earlier, but he seemed genuinely enthusiastic when The Bear pitched her plan. We settled in for another round of outer space antics featuring the lead singer of MouseRat, an acerbic trash panda, a dim bulb alien strong man, and -- of course -- Mary Poppins, y'all. Spaceships and sarcasm; it is as if those movies were made just for me.

Through the Weather

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
18Jul 2021	N21481	DKX (Knoxville, TN) - FWQ (Monongahela, PA) - SDC (Sodus, NY)	6.0	2305.1

"Cessna XYZ, departure frequency is one two three point niner," Knoxville Approach clarified.

"Sorry, one two three point niner" came the response. "I couldn't read my own handwriting." I could not help but chuckle at the other pilot's mistake because I made the same one for the same reason while reading back my clearance to Knoxville a week earlier.

It was early Sunday morning and we were off Knoxville Downtown Island Airport and climbing through the weather to a cruise altitude of seven thousand feet. Conditions were snotty and necessitated getting my instrument clearance on the ground again.

At times, we slipped through the clouds in zero visibility, light rain massaging the curved upper surfaces of our wings. Despite a smooth ride, it was obvious that Kristy was uncomfortable with the combination of poor visibility and rain. To help improve the atmosphere, I played Hamilton over the Warrior's intercom system. 

I tend to be very sensitive to passenger discomfort and, between bouts of radio chatter, found myself reflecting on the suitability of general aviation for this sort of travel. Was I heedlessly subjecting my family to something that I enjoyed, but made them unnecessarily anxious? I thought back to my childhood experiences with "forced family fun" and worried if I was pushing my family down a similar path.

Indianapolis Center provided vectors to zig zag around a pair of small cells lurking unseen in the murk. Happily, we continued to plane the air smoothly. Eventually, we broke into a space where we were encapsulated from above and below by cloud layers, but the airplane itself was in the clear. 

Sometimes the direct approach is best, so I asked Kristy for her thoughts about travelling through the weather in our airplane and if she would rather not travel this way.

Her response was immediate. She appreciated the capability that we had with our airplane and trusted my judgement. In short, she did not necessarily want to change anything or switch to using the airlines or our car for all travel.

I appreciated this answer, but silently vowed to watch this over time. There is utility to piston powered private aviation, but much of its value comes from enjoyment of the experience. If it is no longer enjoyable or becomes outright unpleasant, then a different plan is needed.

It was somewhere over West Virginia that we heard a single "meow" on the emergency frequency, the only one of the entire trip. Clearly, we were aloft with a more mature cross section of pilots on this vacation than usual. Kudos to them.

West Virginia weather machine?

Not So Silent Running

South of Pittsburgh, we let down toward Rostaver Airport (airport #228) for fuel and lunch at the Eagles Landing II diner. Pittsburgh Approach halted our descent at one point due to a non-participating aircraft obliviously maneuvering back and forth in our descent path. 

On approach into Rostraver, an aerobatic Pitts biplane announced its departure. A few minutes later, we saw an object rocketing skyward vertically; the Pitts. We made our radio calls and worked around a couple of other aircraft coming and going from the airport.

ForeFlight ground track from Knoxville, TN (KDKX) to Monongahela, PA (KFWQ)

A Life Flight helicopter inbound from the north put himself on a right base for the runway while we were on a left base, which meant that we were pointed directly at each other while travelling perpendicularly to the final approach course. This annoyed me because he seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Rostaver Traffic, Life Flight is on final for runway 26. There's another aircraft in the pattern not talking to anyone." Presumably, he meant me. I am not one to call anyone out on frequency, but my irritation level went from from zero to sixty in an instant. Particularly because the accusation came from a helicopter that had popped into the pattern with little warning while I had been making all the appropriate traffic pattern announcements and even had a two way interaction with a departing aircraft. One of us was clearly not paying attention.

"Rostraver Traffic, Cherokee Four Eight One is on left base, 26, and has been making patterns calls all along. Life Flight in sight. Rostraver."

To my surprise, I actually received a broadcast apology. Well...alrighty then.

I enjoyed Eagles Landing II. The food was good and the staff friendly. The greenhouse-style eating area reminded me of the lounge area in the original Air Zoo building and provided a nice view of the runway and parking apron. Because it was a Sunday morning, many of the tables were filled with families in their church attire, the kids excitedly ogling the airplanes.

"There's another one!" exclaimed a child at the next table when the same Archer that had been doing touch-and-goes for the past twenty minutes landed again.

"Whoa!" shouted another kid. "There's a dog getting into that airplane! How can he do that?" Outside on the ramp, a family was boarding a Bonanza with their pet.

"I imagine it's just like putting our dog in the car," responded an adult at the table. The child accepted this answer, but nonetheless remained very impressed with the entire flying dog concept.

A Stiff Breeze

Though I had filed for seven thousand feet, we received approval from Pittsburgh Approach to climb to nine thousand to get above most of the clouds. We spent a turbulent thirty minutes climbing to 9,000 among the building cumulus. In a word, it was exhausting. After leveling at the new cruise altitude, I was happy to surrender aircraft control to HAL for a while. 

Though our chosen altitude made for a smoother ride, it was cold up there: 47°F. I turned on the heater to make The Bear more comfortable in the back seat. The high road was also a slow one. We had 40 knots of wind on our nose and ground speeds were limited to the mid-80 knot range. A terrible storm had gone through Rochester the day before and we were pushing against cyclonic flow from the instigating low pressure system that had meandered east of our destination. The high road is not always the fastest.

A recurrent theme on big trips lately has been turbulent air at lower altitudes surrounding Rochester. This time was no exception. I disengaged the autopilot and hand flew through the bumps as we inched closer to home in the descent. A rough ride in the last thirty minutes makes for an unpleasant coda to six hours of flying.

ForeFlight ground track from Monongahela, PA (KFWQ) to Sodus, NY (KSDC)

Wrap Up

Timer-selfie after arrival home from our third Florida trip

We returned home to a jungle-like lawn. I tried to tame it, but before I completed a full perimeter of the yard, the lawn mower's handle unexpectedly broke off in my hands due to metal fatigue. So...that ended that.

Ground tracks for the entire trip

Overall, we travelled 2,454 nautical miles (2,822 conventional miles) and logged 24.4 total hours with 3.7 hours in IMC (low visibility). We spent time in six states (FL, GA, NY, OH, PA, TN) and landed at eight airports, seven of them new to us (Portsmouth, OH; Mc Rae, GA; Winter Haven, FL; Ocala, FL; Cedar Key, FL; DeLand, FL; Monongahela, PA). Our primary goal was to reunite with family after the lock-downs of 2020 and we certainly met this goal, both in terms of time spent with Dad and Carol as well as Kristy's entire immediate family. But there were some additional noteworthy things along the way, too. An aircraft carrier landing and shark drop-offs at Cedar Key, an anachronistic payphone and a caged Skyhawk, two instrument departures from the same island airport in Knoxville, reconnection with Darrell and sharing the immediate sky with Four One Hotel again, visiting with Pierre and finally seeing his airplane, hanging out with newly minted CFII and Williamson Flying Club member Zach, sampling four new airport diners, flying one very "simulated" space shuttle recovery mission, seeing a wonder dog who dares to aviate, returning Warrior 481 to the scene of her 1982 landing debacle, and only hearing a single "meow" on Guard the entire time. 

That latter point must be some kind of a record.

As a pilot, perhaps the most eye-opening aspect of the trip was the use of automation during instrument flight to both minimize fatigue and allow for strategic planning to occur without focusing on keeping the airplane right side up at the same time. This capability pleases me.