Wind gusts and glass cockpits
Shane Arnwine is a good friend and coworker of mine. As a member of the Commemorative Air Force, there is no doubt that aviation courses through his veins! Shane is also a student pilot who hopes to start his flight training in the not-so-distant future.
In the meantime, I love the opportunity to take him flying since I know how much he enjoys the experience. This would be my fourth flight with Shane. Our destination, Sonora Municipal Airport (Shane’s parents live there).
Or so we thought.
When I awoke Saturday morning I was dealing with two bits of bad news. An Airmet for “Moderate Turbulence below 8,000 feet” and a forecast of gusty winds. The forecast for San Angelo, north of Sonora, called for wind gusts to 30 knots. Not my cup of tea. I wasn’t too keen on a long cross-country flight involving the potential of being beat silly for most of the journey. Sonora was out.
The local weather was painting a MVFR (Marginal VFR) picture with an overcast layer of clouds at 1,800 AGL (Above Ground Level). We decided to do a local flight down to Stinson for some lunch and to the practice area to do some flying afterwards.
With glass cockpit fired up, we departed in N23758 - our 2006 Cessna Skyhawk with a whopping 40 hours on the Hobbs. Skyhawk 758 soared us into the sky and we leveled off at 3,000 feet just skipping the ragged top of the overcast layer. We were in and out of IMC and for the few brief moments of cruise flight….it was almost magical. We were in the playground of the clouds. They zoomed past us….we zoomed through them…and in most cases…they only gently greeted us with a bump here or there.
The MFD on the Garmin G1000 painted a beautiful picture of the Stinson GPS Runway 32 approach and we descended into the holding pattern playing “follow the nice magenta lines.” The enhanced situational awareness of flying instrument approaches on the G1000 is something that has to be experienced to be fully appreciated.
Unfortunately, the Stinson Patio Cafe was closed for the Easter Weekend. We made the most of the situation by hanging out at Stinson: watching some other pilots land with the gusty winds, grabbing a soda and doing some airplane appreciation in the Check Six hangar where we found a pristine Cessna 150, a Cessna 180, Cessna 170 and a brand new Diamond Star.
After launching off again from Stinson, we went to the South Practice Area where I let Shane do some flying. He did a superb job. I think when he starts his flight training, he’ll impress his flight instructor! Any part I’ve played in that has been time well spent!
Coming back to San Antonio International the ATIS was reporting Wind from 230 degrees at 13 knots. Amazingly, the Tower vectored us for a left base to land on Runway 21. I think this may have been my first landing on that runway!
Over the numbers, I was flaring for landing and waiting for that nice little chirp when a big wind gust caught our left wing. This caused a little weather vaning since we were just a few inches off the deck. So…it wasn’t a greaser and there was a bit of a side load on the landing. Nothing a tricycle landing gear couldn’t handle…but I’m never pleased when my last landing of the day is nothing short of squeakville.
Ah well!
Shane had a blast as did I. Another fun adventure in the heavens above!
