Haunted!

I thought I’d start 2009 off right, aviationally speaking anyway, and had scheduled my night cross country (to SBY – Salisbury, MD) for tonight.  That was my plan.  That’s not how the cards were dealt, however.  This morning I received an e-mail from the club scheduling system – the plane I’d reserved was out for maintenance…excessive nosewheel shimmy.  I immediately canceled that reservation and scheduled another aircraft.  A couple of hours later I get another e-mail from the club scheduling system.  Aircraft #2 is out with smoke in the cockpit on takeoff – electrical problem (I had a flight scrubbed a couple of days ago because of electrical problems with this same aircraft.  I was supposedly fixed…) 

Third time’s a charm, right?

 Not only was tonight the perfect night for flying - clear sky, calm winds at the surface with light winds aloft – but I had all kinds of cool piloty stuff my wife gave me for Christmas.  I was wearing my new A-2 leather jacket from U.S. Wings, I had my new 4-color LED flashlight hanging from a cord around my neck, and in my flight bag was my Bendix/King AV8OR GPS.  I was set!

I’d preflighted the aircraft and after filing the requisite 3 flight plans (ADIZ exit /entry and VFR search and rescue) we were at the aircraft running the preheater since the temperature was below freezing.   CFI Mike’s no dummy – he ran the preheater, thus keeping warm, while I unpacked my gear in the cockpit.  I’m no dummy either – I kept my headset in the club building until we came out to fly.  I’ve put on a cold headset before and it’s not fun at all…nothing like having frozen hard ear seals pressed up against your head.

As Mike rolled the preheater away from the aircraft he noticed something: frost on the wings.  That’s a bad thing.  The dewpoint wasn’t near the temperature so this frost was a bit of a surprise.  Mike tuned in the automated weather station on his portable radio and sure enough, the dewpoint was 6°C below the temperature.  That’s a good spread…enough where I wouldn’t expect frost to form.  Mike hadn’t seen anything like this either.  “We may be screwed yet…” was his comment.

The only thing I could think of was that since we were at the low end of the field, cooler air was pooling around the aircraft.  I suggested we drive to the other end of the ramp and see if there was frost on those aircraft.  If there wasn’t we were probably ok to fly.

There was frost.  Not as much but it was there nonetheless.

So we didn’t fly.  I wasn’t bothered by this…unhappy, yes, but not bothered.  When I started learning to fly I decided that if there was any doubt about a flight then I wouldn’t go.  I certainly wasn’t  going to argue with my instructor about his doubts.  He’s got almost 100x more hours than me and has lived in this area his entire life.   If he’s not comfortable then I’m not comfortable.

Two planes break and the third one frosts up on a dry night.  Franz Reichelt, I know that’s you!  I’m sorry you’re upset about my last post but you’ll have to get over it.  You knew that overcoat wasn’t going to float you gently to the ground; I could tell from your hesitations that you were unsure.  That’s just what I was saying…if there’s any doubt, back out.  Now go on and haunt the family of that fat guy who goaded you into jumping.

The evening wasn’t a total bust (take that, Franz!).  We stopped by the hangar shared by the club and Mike gave me a tour of an aircraft engine (thus far I’d only seen them through the air vents and in pictures).  I also received a lesson in etiquette – Mike set me straight when I started to open an aircraft to look inside.  It was such a sweet little light sport aircraft too, but no touchy other people’s planes!

Back in the clubhouse (after buttoning up the even more frost-encrusted plane) we discussed my future training path, cross-country flights, and why class E airspace is considered “controlled” if you can hop in a plane and fly to another airport without talking to anyone.  Seems pretty uncontrolled to me.

As for the frost, it appears the culprit was the calm winds.  Temperature measurements are made about 6 feet off the ground.  It’s possible that cooling below that caused the frost to form.  A little bit of wind would have kept the air mixed up and warmer, thus inhibiting the frost.  I guess it wasn’t a perfect night to fly after all.

I knew before tonight that one shouldn’t attempt to fly with frost on the wings – the FAA says don’t so that settles it right there.  Really, though, how much difference can a thin layer of frost make?  Read this guy’s story for your answer. 

It turns out that I learned more about flying by not flying at all.  Who would have thunk it?  I guess ol’ Franz was trying to help me out after all…