Attempted Flight

 

It has been far too long since the weather really allowed for a good flight but the opportunity presented itself on Sunday.  Nice clear skies, no real wind to speak of, temperature around 0 degrees.  

Had a quick look down the runway and it seemed plowed out so got to work warming up the engine, digging out the hangar door, getting the tractor started, removing as much snow as possible off to the side, dragging the aircraft into the sun, removing condensation ice off the wings, and so on and so forth.

Got her running, did the runup, and started to taxi down the the far end.

Only to see, once we cleared the little hump in the runway, that it wasn't plowed out all the way to the end.  Upon getting to the bit that was plowed out, turning around, and having a look it just didn't look like enough runway.  Probably due to the hump but might as well be sure.

So I taxied back, shut it all down, got in the car, and used the odometer to see how much runway was actually plowed out.  Worked out to 0.6 of a kilometer, or about 2000 feet.  So it was reassuring to know that my judgement of distance from the cockpit was pretty close.

We were sitting at about 2400 lbs, the pressure altitude was 2,000 feet, the temperature was 0 degrees C, and there was perhaps 5 knots headwind.  So that works out to 1,300 feet required.  Add 10% for snow on the ground and 10% for uphill a bit and you get 1,600 feet.  So we could have gone, really.  But being surprised by the situation meant it was good decision to stop and re-evaluate.

By then it was getting a bit late, we were cold and tired, and figured well, lets go tomorrow.

Sadly, tomorrow came with freezing rain and a 700 foot ceiling.  Should have gone flying.