Friday, February 18, 2005

Flight to Denton, TX

We took the 182 (fixed-gear) up to Denton (DTO) last weekend, with a little side trip to Lufkin (LFK) for the fajita flyin. On the way to Denton I got my longest actual IFR flight to date. We hit the clouds at 5000 feet about 20 minutes out of Lufkin and never got another clear view of the ground until we broke out on the ILS at about 1400 MSL. It was a very windy day, but it was still smooth in the clouds with steady rain. Air Traffic Control (ATC) brought us down over Dallas and routed us directly over Love Field and DFW at 4000 feet but we were in solid Instrument Meterological Conditions (IMC) and didn't get to see anything except for solid white clouds!
I mentioned the winds earlier. Between about 3000 and 5000 feet as they were vectoring us over the big airports, the GPS was showing the winds to be out of the southwest at 60-65 knots. At one point our heading (the direction the nose of the airplane is pointing) and the track (the path over the grounds) differed by 30 degrees. When we finally turned north to go vector around for the ILS at Denton, the GPS was registering a steady 174 knots groundspeed! This is in an airplane that maxes out at about 135 knots airspeed. We were moving!
Overall it was an uneventful flight. One that I enjoyed but my wife and kids didn't as much since there wasn't anything to see but clouds. Oh well. I'd rather have them bored in the clouds instead of bumping along below them.