Cessna Skylane Incomplete Flight to Rockland, ME (KRKD) 05/16/10

The original plan this day was to fly up to Rockland, Maine with two friends for lunch. I had yet to fly to a destination over 200nm away and, looking at the chart, Rockland promised to have some nice scenery along the Maine coast.

The weather briefer told me all about the Airmet for continuous moderate turbulance along most of the route of flight, but I had heard the same thing before without having it materialize. Well this time the Airmet was on the money. The flight was never risky or dangerous, just very uncomfortable.....and for my back seat passenger it was slightly nauseating. We turned around about 150nm into the 260nm flight plan.

All in all it was a great skill building flight as it required constant work on my part maintaining Va through all the up and down drafts. Being slightly (and safely) out of your comfort zone is when you really have the opportunity to become more proficient and add to your overall skill level as a pilot. So along those lines, I am glad to have had the experience.

However, in the future I will reconsider a flight into a moderate turbulance Airmet unless I am fully prepared for the workload involved should the Airmet turn out to be accurate. Also, I would tend not to make the flight unless I am with passengers who have already experienced those conditions.

Hope you enjoy!!

http://www.SkylaneCaptain.com

Category:

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• Flying
• General
• Aviation
• Cessna
• Skylane
• Flight
• Takeoff
• Landing
• Airplane
• SkylaneCaptain
• C-182
• C182
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• C-182T
• Rockland
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• Knox
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• Bridgeport
• Connecticut
• KBDR
• Igor
• Sikorsky
• Memorial
• Moderate
• Turbulance

[airplanepilot22]

i usually love turbulence, but i don't think i would have liked to be in the back on that flight

[SkylaneCaptain]

@airplanepilot22 Well I certainly don't love turbulance. A healthy dose now and then is good for your skills but I *much* prefer a nice smooth ride!!  :)

[mikeb172sp]

At 2:20 I could just see the smooth air above you.. So close with an IFR rating. :-) Really nice bird by the way.

[SkylaneCaptain]

@mikeb172sp Yeah I know what you mean. I have flown above scattered/broken layers a few times and definitely know how different the air can be just above them. I had a chance to get above that day but I was going pretty far and didn't want to get stuck on top. Also further north, where there were no clouds, the turbulance was at its worst. So it may not have made a difference in making the destination that day. We still had a good time.....mostly!!! :)

[SkylaneCaptain]

@mikeb172sp And thanks for the compliment on my plane!! :) I'll have some pics of it, and my hangar, up on my website soon. I'm just a little behind in updating it.

[mikeb172sp]

I take it you are not IFR rated? If you were you could get above those clouds. As soon as you get above them I have found that things smooth out quite a bit. Check out my video with my son Morristown to York . When we were at 4000 below the clouds we were getting our buts kicked but at about 5000 things smoothed out. I find flying IFR much easier in these weather conditions. Well worth the time and money to get the rating.

[SkylaneCaptain]

@mikeb172sp You would be correct.....well not YET anyway!! :) I am currently working on it, with the goal of having it by the end of this year. It would have been a welcomed thing to have that day.