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Sunday I checked the weather for the following week and it looked like Monday would be the ideal day to launch. A high-pressure system had settled itself over the northern portion of Michigan and was keeping all of the “bad” weather in Canada. It also provided us with a tailwind going westbound. If there was ever a time to go, it was then.
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I should mention that I am one of those pilots who feel compelled to completely prepare (over prepare?) for a trip. I check the weather, get the NOTAMS, examine the forecasts, check for TFR’s and then call flight service on every flight. Seeing as how there were a number of new things I planned to do on this trip, Over fly Canada, Over fly Lake Michigan, Land at KOSH during Airventure to name a few, I wanted to make sure that I was armed with all of the information I could get hold of beforehand.
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I, of course, read the Airventure NOTAM from cover to cover and had it readily available in the plane. I also found on the AOPA site, regulations for flying into Canada as well as for over-flight. According to them, if you are over-flying Canada, you need to be on a VFR flight plan with “Over flight only, not landing” in the remarks section. Seems easy enough
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I had planned on talking to Canadian ATC even though I was told that I would be receiving a bill for the User Fees I would be incurring. I figured that the extra security of radar coverage was worth the price. Subsequently I was told by a pilot who over flies Canada all the time, that if you don’t land, you will not receive a bill. As of this writing, I have not received one yet. I’ll keep you posted.
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Flying over lake Michigan was a calculated risk. I planned on climbing to 10,500 feet to make the crossing (no small feat in a 152!). I figured that there was a span of about 15 minutes (depending on winds) that, if the engine quit, we would get wet. I went and purchased some good life vests to wear as we crossed. I got the kind that Sea-Doo riders wear that zip up in the front because they are easy to put on. Liz and I actually practiced putting them on in the plane!
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Monday morning Liz and I launched at 6:00AM. Liz took the first leg to our fuel stop at Clare Municipal (48D) in Michigan. I found this airport on Airnav.com. I choose it because of the low fuel price (20 cents cheaper than Lancaster!).
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Departing runway 26 on that clear, relatively cool Monday morning, the plane climbed quickly. Liz leveled off at 6500 feet and headed directly west. Contacting Buffalo Approach has become the routine for almost every flight we make and since we were transitioning C airspace, the fact that it was required wasn’t even a concern. That’s one of the nice things about always talking to ATC. When it’s required, it’s no different that when it’s not. In no time we were handed off to Toronto Approach and we were on our way. I can’t tell you how excited I was. Flying to Oshkosh was one of those life list things for me and now I was actually doing it. Ok, Liz was doing it, but I was in the plane!
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Clear skies, great visibility and smooth flying were the rule of the day. To top it all off, according to the GPS we were also enjoying a 6 to 7 knot tail wind. Things couldn’t be better. Toronto handed us off to Cleveland center and then Saginaw Approach. It seemed like no time and we were descending into Clare. Just under 3 hours of flying and Liz touched down at 48D as smoothly as she had departed from BQR.
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For anyone flying to Wisconsin, I can’t recommend a better place to stop than Clare Municipal. The self-service fuel stop is very clean, there is a pair of gloved clipped to a post under the covered fuel pumps for those who don’t want to get that 100LL smell on their hands. There is also a refrigerator filled with complimentary bottled water for those who are thirsty. I had heard that you also get free ice cream when you land but when we got there the place seemed deserted. As I was fueling the plane, a guy came over in a golf cart and told me that the owner was at Airventure, which is why no one was there to greet me (and I assume, give me ice cream). No matter, the place was very nice and the fuel was cheap. The FBO was well appointed with broadband access so a quick weather update was obtained. Liz wanted to get a bite to eat before departing so we got the Courtesy Van and drove into town.
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I took over on the leg to KOSH. It was starting to warm up so I knew that climbing to 10,500 was going to take some time. Boy, what an understatement. My vertical speed indicator must’ve had a heavy needle or something. Climbing through 9000 feet, I was getting no better than 150-200 feet per minute. When I got to 10,000, my vertical speed was more in the 25-50 FPM range. Some of the time I was descending! That last 500 feet took some doing but eventually I got there.
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This was actually the highest I’ve ever been in my 152. The view was spectacular with about 20 miles visibility. I could see the eastern shore of Lake Michigan coming up so Liz and I donned our life vests. I was told that life vests helped very little since the lake temperature was so cold. However, according to the Michigan Sea Grant Coastwatch web site (www.coastwatch.msu.edu) the temperatures where we would be crossing averaged 70 degrees at the surface. This site is updated a few times per day so I knew the temps were current. I researched Hypothermia and the expected survival time in water of that temperature was more than 7 hours.
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As I was crossing, there comes a point when the eastern shore goes out of site and the western shore is still not visible. Everywhere I looked, there was water! If anything went wrong, I envisioned ditching near one of the tanker in hopes of a quick rescue by the crew. Later I was told that if you do that, make sure you ditch 2 miles in front because that’s how long it takes to stop a tanker! I didn’t consider that at the time.
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Fortunately, none of that was needed as the western shore was coming into sight. Time to start descending. There were a few clouds below and it was starting to get a bit bumpy but it was still a glorious day. According to the NOTAM, I was to head toward Ripon and then follow the tracks up to Fisk at 1800 feet. Since Ripon is the entry point for all of the arriving Oshkosh traffic, extreme diligence is required. The NOTAM says to find someone and follow them maintaining ½ mile spacing. I told Liz that things were going to start getting busy now and to advise me of any traffic she sees.
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As I approached Ripon I was monitoring Oshkosh ATC. In this busy environment, you listen and don’t talk. About 1 mile from Ripon and we still hadn’t seen any traffic. “That’s going to change,” I thought, and I asked Liz if she saw anything. We reached Ripon and I turned northeast over the tracks. I knew I was in the right place since they had painted huge orange arrows on the railroad tracks pointing the way. I could scarcely believe that there was no other traffic but I still hadn’t seen even one other airplane. Liz said that there was someone behind me but that’s all. As I got to Fisk, the controller said, “White and Blue Cessna over Fisk, rock your wings”. I complied with the request and was told to expect runway 27, switch to tower.
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When I got to the airport, the tower controller told me “Right traffic, runway 27, land on the orange dot”. I touched down slightly short of the mark, taxied off of the runway and that was it! As it turned out, we must’ve timed it just right. There was very little traffic arriving when we came in. Preparing to fly to Oshkosh turned out a whole lot harder than actually flying to Oshkosh. I’m not complaining, I wouldn’t want it any other way.
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We got to spend about a day and a half in Oshkosh. Wednesday’s weather report was showing that conditions would be deteriorating and Thursday would not be flyable (at least not by me!). Therefore we decided to depart on Wednesday at noon and beat the weather back.
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A lot of people had the same idea and departing was not the walk-in-the-park that the arrival was. We made our way into the line of taxiing aircraft waiting for departure. Visibility was only about 3-5 miles and there was a 3500-foot broken layer, certainly not the ideal weather conditions that we had encountered a few days earlier. After departing KOSH and once I was clear of class D airspace I turn eastbound over Lake Winnebago. I climbed to 3000 and leveled off. The ceiling was forecast to be 6500 on the other side of the lake so I decided to cross. I tried to contact the Lake Reporting Service but I was probably too low to raise them.
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As I was crossing Lake Michigan, I could see water below me but there was absolutely no horizontal reference out the window. My plan was to try and get as high as I could and get in touch with Minneapolis Center since Chicago Approach doesn’t give advisories to Airventure traffic. I was about half way across and at 5000 feet when I finally got in touch with them. They gave me my squawk and I was finally in the system. In retrospect I don’t think it was the best decision I’d ever made to cross the lake without anyone knowing that I was there. When you are flying it is easy to rationalize and say that the cloud layer seems to be rising, maybe just one more mile and I’ll be able to reach them, things like that. As I sit here and write abut it, it seems a little bit crazy.
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We landed back at Clare for fuel. The price was still good and I topped off the tanks for the 3-hour trip back. My plane can fly at 6500 feet for 4 hours and 15 minutes if properly leaned. I don’t plan legs over 3 hours in length since that gives me a little more than an hour in reserve. The winds aloft indicated a 5-knot headwind component meant that I would need every gallon I could get into the tanks. When I took off, I calculated that I was instead facing about a 10-knot headwind so I recalculated my fuel consumption. I would still get back to Lancaster with about an hour reserve so I pressed on.
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I didn’t want to land in Canada because that would mean clearing customs. I wanted to make sure that I could get back without stopping (or running out of gas) before I crossed the border. I was flying at 3500 feet to stay under a broken layer of clouds that seem to be at around 5000. The GPS is telling me that I have a groundspeed of about 85 knots and as long as I could maintain that speed, I would be back with one-hour reserve. As I approached Detroit my groundspeed picked up to 90 knots so I was feeling much better.
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About 25 minutes past the Canadian border, Toronto Center advised me to turn north to avoid a level 2 cell at my 12 o’clock, 4 miles. I complied. I could see the rain coming down to my east and just north of me I could see the edge of it clearly. Once I got around that I would turn back on course. The trouble with flying north, however, is that you are not flying east. I recalculated my fuel and since I had been getting about 90 knots during my eastward travel, I figured that a little northbound flying would be OK.
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Back on course again after about 15 minutes now I’m watch my groundspeed intently. I need to keep making about 90 knots. After passing that cell, the wind seemed to be coming stronger from the east however and my groundspeed had fallen to about 75 knots. I was approaching the London VOR at this point so I was getting close. After recalculating my fuel I figured that I would still be back with about 50 minutes reserve. That was less than I would have liked but still not too bad. There were dark skies ahead of me again and I knew I wasn’t done flying north.
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This time I advised Center that I needed to divert around a cell. “Maintain VFR” was their response. Again, the demarcation of the northern edge of the cell was clearly visible and I flew around it with no trouble. My groundspeed was working its way back and was staying right around 82 knots. My newly calculated reserve was about 45 minutes and I started thinking about what the difference in fuel burn would be at 3500 feet as opposed to 6500 feet. I had a real good idea of what my fuel flow was at 6500 because all of my long distance traveling was done at around that altitude, until today.
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Three hours into the flight I was just past Welland. My groundspeed was about 80 knots and I was looking at all of the airports that I could land at in case I needed to. The numbers that I was writing down all said that I would make it with 45 minutes reserve so on paper I would be OK. Somehow that was no too comforting.
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The US border was a welcome sight and I was handed off to Buffalo Approach. I was told to maintain 3000 or above as I transitioned and look for a CRJ on downwind for 23. Once I spotted the regional jet I was allowed to descend. One touchdown later and I was home. I told Liz that there was 4 gallons left in the tanks. I got out the fuel hawk dipstick and sure enough, 2 gallons in each side.
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What struck me about that was that my personal minimums dictate that I must have more than 1-hour reserve before I take off instead of the required 30 minutes. I left with about 1 hour 15 minutes of reserve and I got here with 45 minutes left in the tank. If I had elected to leave with the required 30 minutes reserve instead, my tank would be empty.
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I guess the message is, fly with at least a 1-hour reserve, know your plane’s fuel consumption and always plan your fuel when you plan your flight. If something changes during your flight like sudden increase in headwind or a diversion, recalculate your fuel.
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All of that was behind us now. Liz and I had flown into the greatest aircraft celebration that there is and I had checked off one of my life list items.
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I can’t wait until next year!
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