Land and Hold Short

There is one really, really, REALLY important rule about winter flying near the Great Lakes:

Remember which way the wind’s blowing.

Even if there are blue skies everywhere else, a cold wind will often pull streamers of lake effect weather off the Great Lakes, so if you’re downwind from (say) Lake Ontario or Georgian Bay, expect long streams of clouds with significant icing, snow, and low IFR conditions underneath, topping out somewhere around 6,000-8,000 feet (unless they hit hills like the Adirondacks, in which case the tops can shoot way, way up). This evening, the new photo of the day at Wikipedia (originally from NASA) is a beautiful colour satellite photo of streamers coming off the lakes (click on it for a much larger version), caused by what I’d guess is a low-pressure system centered in northern Quebec a bit east of James Bay. Notice the long fingers reaching out into central Ontario (off Lake Huron and Georgian Bay), Michigan, Ohio, and upstate New York.

My normal flying route from Ottawa to Boston or New York takes me across the St. Lawrence River, and depending on the wind, I can usually expect to have to overfly lake effect weather somewhere along my route. If the wind is from the west, I can expect to find it over Watertown, NY and the relatively flat area of NY state, possibly as far as Lake Champlain; if the wind is from the southwest, it will blow straight up the St. Lawrence towards Montreal, possibly boxing in Ottawa as well; if the wind is from the northwest, it will head towards the Adirondacks, and may throw up cloud too high for me to fly over; it will also blow off Georgian Bay across my route from Ottawa to Toronto, so even if the TAFs are CAVU for Ottawa and Toronto, it might be unflyable in between.

The trick in every case is to make sure that I can stay above the cloud, because it’s pretty nasty underneath it (not to mention inside). For emergencies, as you can see in the photo, there are usually clear spots between the streams for an emergency descent. If the streamers are over your point of departure or destination, on the other hand, forget about it. People on the U.S. side have it a lot harder in the winter, since the cold winter winds usually come from the northwest and blow over them on the southeast sides of the lakes. Aside from central Ontario near Georgian Bay, the Canadian side is usually clearer.

(Source: NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day.)

It’s been four years, almost to the day, since I bought my 1979 Piper Warrior II, and it’s time for another annual inspection (I’ve moved it up from May to December to avoid missing good flying weather, so this is the second annual in 2006).

So far, everything looks good, but this is not going to be the stereotypical owner-pilot annual inspection progress posting. Instead, I wanted to mention that while people refer to the Cherokee as a relatively simple plane, this is the first year that it has actually seemed simple to me.

I was able to talk to my AME (mechanic) on his level instead of forcing him to stoop to mine, and I knew — not just academically, but from real experience and sense of touch — what nearly every exposed part was and how it was supposed to work. A couple of weeks ago, I prepared a short spreadsheet of the extra work I wanted done and my estimated hours for each item, and the AME agreed that my estimates were in the right ballpark. Today we walked through the inspection snag sheet quickly and efficiently. I approved a small amount of extra work based on the findings during the initial inspection, then drove my altimeter down to the instrument shop for its biennial recertification.

It really is a different experience when you understand what’s under the cowling and behind the interior panels. Early bush pilots had to take care of their own planes, but from what I understand, a modern commercial pilot flying (say) a Cessna 182 is not even allowed to change her own oil unless she also happens to be an AME. I’m not sure this is a good thing: maybe a month or two helping on a shop floor (fetching buckets of propwash or what-have-you) would be a good addition to the commercial pilot syllabus.

Update: I’ve just received a PDF of the new apron layout from the airport manager.

A few weeks ago, I had a coffee with Flyin Dutchman, a local professional pilot here in Ottawa (Dutchman flies a Pilatus PC-12 all over North America — check out his weblog for some excellent photos). He mentioned that there have been some significant changes at my favorite airport, Toronto City Centre. Starting from what he gave me, I’ve been following the news, exchanging e-mail with COPA and working the phones when I’ve had a chance, and here’s a summary of what I’ve been able to find: