2/28/10 For Future Reference

For future reference:

1000 fpm descents may not be kid friendly.

Flying above a solid cloud layer, and below another, is kind of surreal.

Problems in the back seat are not easily resolved by pulling over.

Sunday we decided to fly to TMK (Tillamook) to have an early lunch, then fly up the coast a bit.

The forecast was for partly cloudy and patchy fog before 10am, then afternoon clearing. With a forecast and weather briefing that looked promising, we pulled out the plane, completed the pre-flight, and prepared for departure.

As we climbed out I found a cruising altitude of 6500ft would keep us about 2000ft above the solid cloud cover below, and many thousands of feet below the high cirrus clouds above. We were also able to see that it was clear below the high cirrus west of the Coast Range, and the TMK AWOS was reporting overcast at 3000agl.

Flying over a solid cloud layer to a destination on the far side was a new experience. Clouds have a much different look from 2000ft above, than from 2000ft below.

Once out over Tillamook Bay, we were able to descend to an altitude that would allow us to turn towards the airport under the cloud cover.

Looking forward to some lunch, I pulled back the throttle, and trimmed for a nice 1000 foot per minute descent. I found this to be a poor choice at about 2000ft agl when Audrey began crying in the back because her ears hurt. I felt terrible that I had not considered that she would have problems clearing her ears. Fortunately, leveling out for a few minutes helped alleviate some of the pressure.

After a nice lunch, and a short time to walk around, we we're off again.

On climb out, Audrey began having some feedback issues with the ANR headset we had barrowed for her. In trying to resolve the problem, she inadvertently unplugged from the battery box. Now she had difficulty hearing us, causing us to yell for her to hear, and in response, she would yell back. We could hear her with no problem, other than that she was now yelling into her mike. This in turn caused us to yell back to her that we could hear her quite well, and to not yell.

At the point I was about to return to the airport to straighten out this headset issue, she found the battery box, and was able to plug back in.

Fortunately from there it was an uneventful flight back over the cloud covered Coast Range, to scattered clouds in the valley.  As normal, Audrey slept the entire return trip.