Jan 23 2008
Back in the Air
I’ve settled into college life once again, and have started flying. This semester I have decided to fly the glass cockpit Piper warrior instead of the 6 pack. I have mixed feelings about this. Since I am not returning to UND after this semester I wanted to experience an aircraft that is more technologically advanced than the 6 pack I will be flying wherever I decide to go. I had my first flight in the glass last week, and I did enjoy it. The glass cockpit is so intuitive and easy to use. It’s amazing what we can do with it. I think flight simulator was quite helpful in the transition to glass. My instructor said that a lot of students coming from the 6 pack tend to stare at the standby gauges. I guess the hours I have played flight simulator really paid off during that flight, as I had no issues reading the information on the screen.
I have only flown once, but have been scheduled to fly two additional times. The first flight I canceled because I was sick. The last flight I canceled due to weather. I planned out a really nice route from Grand Forks to Fergus Falls then to Fargo and back to Grand Forks. I arrived at the airport an hour and a half early for the night flight with my navlogs filled out and ready to go. The weather in Fergus had been nice all day however there was a Low pressure system just below the airport. The METARs 40 miles away had been indicating lower ceilings and reduced visibilities , though Fergus Falls was relatively low as well, reporting Broken at 5000. My thoughts on this were that since the low pressure system was moving south, away from Fergus Falls, we would be okay and the airport would stay VFR. About an hour before departure, the new TAFs came out. Both Alexandria and Fargo were forecasting low visibilities (5sm) and low ceilings (overcast at 4000.) I pulled out my Personal Minimums checklist and after seeing that the flight would be conducted below my personal minimums I decided to weather it. The decision didn’t come easy. There have been so many times that I have been flying and the TAFs couldn’t have been more wrong. I still couldn’t discredit them as if they were right, I would have to return to Grand Forks. Looking at a bunch of charts I concluded that the TAFs would be wrong and that there was no way the bad weather would move (or develop) north of AXN. With the low pressure system and the weather moving around it, it just couldn’t happen. It turns out that the TAFs were very wrong. The METAR at KFFM for my time of arrival: KFFM 220055Z AUTO 32004KT 10SM CLR M19/M22 A3032 RMK A02. I guess as pilots we can’t expect the forecasts to be right, but we must trust them nonetheless. This wasn’t a difficult flight to cancel. My personal minimums checklist did its job and made the decision easy for me.