Just a Day Trip
Five years ago, my wife and I flew into Camarillo (KCMA) for the airshow, which is easily the best way to and from an airshow. I was looking forward to going again this year and it looked like the weekend was free, right up until my son’s fiancée scheduled a bridal shower the same day. You might be asking what that has to do with me, and I understand your confusion. Guys don’t go to bridal showers.
She’s from Henderson which is either a 4-hour drive or about a 1 ½ hour flight in our Mooney. The options were for my wife to drive to Vegas for the bridal shower and I could fly to Camarillo for the airshow, or I miss the airshow and fly her to the shower and back. In the interest of maintaining my wife’s support of this amazing hobby, I chose option B.
My son lives in Idaho Falls and his fiancée is up the road in Rexburg, so I asked if she was flying down to Vegas for the shower or driving. He responded that she was driving. He had a similar decision to make, he could stay home for the weekend and do some rock climbing, or drive with her to Vegas.
I gave him a call and asked, “Are you driving down with her?”
“I’m thinking it would be a good idea,” he replied. Smart kid!
“Great, I’m going to fly Kathy up and we can find something to do while they’re busy. Me missing the airshow and him missing a weekend of climbing was going to turn into a win with time spent together, and I would still get to fly!
IFR Climb to VFR On Top
It is the middle of August which typically means clear skies by mid-morning, so I filed a VFR flight plan Friday, but looking at the TAF’s and online forecasts Friday evening I was leaning about 80% on making an IFR departure in the morning. We planned a 9:30am departure to land in Henderson (KHND) at 11am so I slept in until 6:30am before getting up to take care of the dogs, eat some breakfast, look at the weather and get a briefing.
The forecast from the night before was spot-on, so I filed an IFR plan and got my flight briefing. As we pulled through the gate at the airport at 9am off to the east the marine layer was breaking up and the sun was already starting to peak through at the airport. By the time I completed pre-flight and we were taxiing to the run-up area it was really breaking up. The ATIS was still reporting overcast at 1,800’ but that would need to be updated long before the typical 7-8 minutes before the hour.
Sitting in the run-up area looking to the east I knew I could depart VFR and within a few minutes be past the rapidly dissolving marine layer and begin my climb to altitude, but I had a different idea. The marine layer is typically thin, maybe a couple thousand feet thick, and once on top it is VFR forever and I have often heard other pilots picking up a clearance for an IFR climb to VFR conditions. I haven’t ever done that but saw this as a great time to try it out and copy down a clearance I’m not used to hearing.
Me: “Fullerton Ground, Mooney 1015Echo in the southeast runup with Tango. I have an IFR plan on file but would like to just pickup an IFR climb to VFR on top if I can.”
Ground: “Mooney 1015Echo, on request.”
A couple minutes went by and I mentioned to my wife I could have just taken my IFR clearance for the filed flight plan and cancelled once on top. I knew he was getting a new clearance which takes time. Right as I was finishing that sentence he came back on the radio.
Ground: “Mooney 15Echo, I have your clearance, advise when ready to copy.”
I had been sitting there with my pen in my hand just waiting. “Ready to copy,” I said.
Ground: “Mooney 1015Echo, you are cleared to the Seal Beach VOR via on departure left turn heading 120, radar vectors to Seal Beach, climb maintain 2,000, if not on top at 2,000 advise. Frequency 125.35, squawk 4744.”
Me: “Cleared to Seal Beach, on departure left turn heading 120, vectors to Seal Beach, climb maintain 2,000 and if not on top maintain 2,000 and advise, frequency 125.35, squawk 4744, 15Echo.”
Ground: “Mooney 15Echo, readback correct, taxi two-four via Alpha.”
I set the altitude bug in the G5 to 2,000, the heading bug to 120, punched in the squawk and started the taxi. As I was approaching the runway I called up Tower and was cleared to depart. I love video breaking out of the clouds and as we Rolled onto the runway I told my wife, “You’re going to need to record the video.”
Tower gave a quick handoff to Departure who told me to ident and climb/maintain 3,000 along with a tops request if I could give one. We went into the clouds, if you can call it that, at about 2,000 and were on top by 2,500. They were so thin and patchy I never really lost sight of ground or the sky, but there wasn’t enough cloud clearance to call it VFR.
Me: “Departure, Mooney 15Echo, tops are 2,500.”
Departure: “Thanks, is your destination Henderson?”
Me: “Affirmative.”
Departure: “What is your requested cruising altitude?”
Me: “Niner-thousand five-hundred.”
Departure: “And you are VFR, did you want to cancel IFR now?”
Me: “Yes we are, we can cancel IFR.”
Departure: “Mooney 1015Echo, IFR cancellation received, maintain your code for VFR flight following, resume own navigation altitude your discretion.”
Me: “We’ll keep the code, resuming own nav and altitude, 15Echo.”
Just like that we went from IFR to VFR and were turned loose to fly on our own, no heading or altitude restrictions, for now. A little later we were handed off, I checked in with my altitude and that we were climbing to 9,500. He came back with the altimeter setting and to stop at 9,000 for crossing traffic. A few minutes passed and then he cleared us up to 9,500.
"You're Going to Seal Beach?"
North of the San Bernardino Mountains heading out over the high desert we were handed off to LA Center. Earlier as we passed Lake Arrowhead I saw a plane with the callsign TALON51 crossing our path from right to left at 5,100’ and 325kts. As he got closer, I could see he was a fighter but a little over 3,000’ below us it was too hard to see exactly what he was. He had proceeded northwest before turning east and was again flying past us about 5,000’ feet below us and over 400kts.
Center: “November 1015Echo, I show traffic below you moving from your 9 o’clock to 3’o’clock, looks like it might be a fighter.”
Me: “We’re looking, it’s a fighter, I saw him earlier.” (Same call sign on the tablet and I had been tracking him. In all fairness it might have been a T-38 with the call sign Talon which isn’t technically a fighter in the USAF but it is a fighter trainer.)
Center: “Could you see what it was?”
Me: “Negative, he was about 3,000’ below us.”
I never did get another visual on him, but at one point he was climbing 2,300fpm at 400+kts, I was maybe just a little jealous of the fun he was having.
Every now and then you get a question from ATC that has you wondering why they are asking. Earlier with SoCal Departure she had confirmed my destination and cancelled my IFR but apparently that hadn’t made it through the system to Center. A few minutes after the interaction about the fighter Center was calling me up again.
Center: “November 1015Echo, are you VFR-on-Top?”
Me: “Affirmative, 15Echo.”
Center: “And what is your intended route of flight?”
Me: “We’re going Hector then direct.”
After a pause…
Center: “And you’re going to Seal Beach?”
Me: “No, we’re going to Henderson, Hotel-November-Delta.”
Center: “Ok, and you’re VFR? I show you IFR. We’re you just IFR to get above the layer?”
He was no doubt trying to piece together why I was at a VFR altitude and heading directly away from the destination he had one file.
Me: “Uh, yes. But we already cancelled with SoCal.”
Center: “That’s why I had asked if you were VFR-on-Top.”
Me: “Oh, you can cancel that IFR.”
Center: “November 1015Echo, IFR cancellation received.”
Me: “Thanks, 15Echo.”
A Little Turbulence
We cruised along our merry way with a nice quartering tailwind boosting groundspeeds into the upper 180mph and lower 190mph range for most of the flight. My plane trues out at 170-172mph so anytime I’m hovering around 190mph groundspeed it’s a good day! With that 30mph quartering tailwind I was looking at Clark Mountain over 70 miles away, and it was at about the 10 o’clock position but our track showed us going to the left of it, the drift was real.
We began our descent and although I usually leave the power in to make up time lost in the climb, I pulled it back to stay in the green arc. I was anticipating some bumps from the winds rolling over Clark Mountain and the surrounding hills. There were a few bumps on the way down and I was starting to think we were in the clear when there was a big “whump” and both our heads hit the top of the cabin. We had both tightened up the lap belts but apparently not enough. It seems every time I don’t have my camera on something happens or is said on the radio that I wish I captured. It wasn’t glamorous, but would have been entertaining to see us both bounce our heads off the top of the cabin.
Vegas approach called out a couple planes opposite direction that were climbing out of Henderson which we spotted and then we were handed off to tower. They must not have a radar there because I was still on my squawk code but he told me to make right traffic runway 17R and report when midfield on downwind. With gusting winds coming over the hills a few miles south of the airport I was busy on the controls but set the plane down for a respectable landing before taxiing to transient parking.
Vegas and Top Golf
All the spots in front of the FBO are reserved for jets and turbines, and there were plenty to fill up the spaces. They stick the little piston guys south of the fuel island, about 1,100’ from the front door. At 100+°F it’s a decent stroll. My son and his fiancée came out to the plane and he helped me tie it down before we went inside to check in and grab some cold water bottles.
After some lunch my son and I headed to Top Golf.
“Did you bring your golf shoes?” He asked.
“No, pretty sure we’ll see people dressed in just about everything, I’m just going to wear my tennis shoes,” I replied.
As we pulled into the parking lot there were three couples walking out of the building, the guys were in shorts and tank tops while the girls were in bikinis with mesh coverups. “See, all kinds of clothes,” I said with a laugh.
If you have never been, the best way I can describe Top Golf is that it is like bowling with golf. If you golf, you’ll notice the clubs aren’t great and the balls feel like you’re hitting rocks, but it is a blast! There are different size targets at different distances and various games that incorporate distance, accuracy, or nothing at all. You can go play with someone who has never swung a club before, and they can compete against someone who plays all the time. An attentive wait staff is there to bring food or drinks from the menus on the table and before you know it two hours have flown by. Even there in Vegas where the temperature was creeping into the triple-digits we were comfortable with the fans and overhead misters.
The Flight Back
Heading back to the airport we stopped at a gas station so I could pickup three 7lb bags of ice to dump in the AC hoping it would take the edge off the 106°F temp. Their shuttle driver gave me a ride across the ramp while my wife waited behind in the FBO. No sense in her standing there in the heat while I loaded the plane and went through pre-flight. As I was finishing up the shuttle pulled up and joined me on the tarmac which was masquerading as a hot plate.
As soon as the engine was running, I closed the door and vents keeping the cool air inside. It isn’t like a blast of cold air from the AC in your car, but it does a decent job dropping the temperature of the air coming out that is blowing on your neck and the back of your head.
The ATIS at some airports will tell you to advise direction of flight when calling up Ground, Henderson doesn’t have that message. The winds were 200 at 18 gusting 28 with runway 17R and 17L in use. I called up Ground with my taxi request, intending to advise tower of my direction of flight when getting ready to depart.
Me: “Henderson Ground, Mooney 1015Echo at transient just south of the fuel island, taxi 17R with Golf.” (Ironic after playing Top Golf a few hours before.)
Ground: “Mooney 1015Echo, what is your direction of flight?”
Me: “Southwest.”
Ground: “Taxi 17R via Hotel.”
Me: “17R via Hotel, 15Echo.”
I looked at the diagram and saw that we would be taxiing almost the entire way in the non-movement area before picking up Hotel right at the end. There was no need to wait for temps to come up when we got to the end for the run-up. The engine and oil were all over 100°F before starting up.
The density altitude was 6,200’ so I knew in addition to leaning to EGT on the roll it was also going to take longer than normal to get up to speed and off the ground. We did have those 18 gusting 28 winds to help us off the ground. I made sure to level off just after lifting off to make sure we built a little speed to keep flying, just in case it was one of those gusts that had popped us up.
It was a slow climb up to 10,500’ in the hot air but we did average 400fpm over the entire climb. I felt pretty good about it considering at 10,500’ the density altitude was over 12,500’. Passing through 7,000’ we turned on the Inogen One G5 Oxygen Generator and put on the cannulas. I am impressed by how well it works even split off to both of us, and how fresh I feel after flying. Despite the triple digits on the ground, it was a nice 56°F at altitude so I reached over and pulled the breaker to turn off the AC and save it for our descent back into Fullerton.
The aviation gods were smiling down on us as the tailwind we rode on the way up had died off about halfway through the flight leaving us with a manageable quartering headwind. We even had a couple of stints in some rising air, and I had to pull power with about 3° nose down to stop the auto-pilot from yelling “airspeed, airspeed” at me as the indicated airspeed hit 178mph.
Descending through smooth air back into the LA Basin I reached over and pushed the breaker back in and was instantly rewarded by a cool blast of air that lasted all the way to the ground. Even after landing when I was pumping it out the ice was gone but the water was cold.
I love our Mooney Time Machine. Just under 3 hours of flying and just over 6 hours of time with family in Vegas, if we drove it would have been a long day with 7 ½ hours of driving (assuming no traffic). What an amazing way of travel and life!
