I did not want to drive the long distance again. I had hoped to get someone to fly me up to Nashville from our airport, Jim Hamilton-LB Owens Airport (KCUB), but there were not too many people around. EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2011 was still going on and several of our folks were there. Others were traveling elsewhere, so flying commercial seemed like the only option available to take advantage of a good forecast on Tuesday, August 2, 2011.

As Pam and I planned and discussed my trip to retrieve Betsy, our daughter Mallory, ten, said she wanted to go. I asked her if she was up to a long day of travel and explained in detail what we would be getting in to. She was excited and so I booked two one-way tickets to Nashville. We packed our GPS, two headsets, a change of clothes and went to bed early.

Pam got us up early at 4:00 a.m. and drove us to Columbia Metropolitan Airport (KCAE) to catch our flight. We were on the 5:45 a.m. flight to a stop in Charlotte, then on to Nashville, departing Charlotte around 8:00 a.m. We tried to catch up on sleep during the flights, but it doesn’t always happen.

Out of Charlotte, we saw the mountains over Asheville, with low lying clouds hanging in the valleys, next up was Knoxville, then we saw Rockwood Airport (KRKW) way off to the north, then Crossville Airport (KCSV), then we landed in Nashville. I thought of how funny it was to see most all of I-40 from the mountains throught Knoxville to Nashville from the air that Pam and I had just driven only three days earlier.

After we landed in Nashville, Mallory and I quickly made our way to the where the taxis awaited. We boarded a taxi driven by a man wearing a red turban. He said it would cost around $45 dollars for the drive to John C Tune Airport (KJWN) on the other side of town. He was close – it was over $46. Enroute, I had called the FBO at John C Tune Airport to have them pull Betsy up to the flightline. When we arrived, we could see that she was there waiting for us. We did not waste time departing after a good preflight check.

My gats fuel drain cup after sitting in the baggage compartment for three days while tied down at John C Tune Airport (KJWN) during a hot Nashville summer.

We departed on runway 20 and climbed on up to 5500 feet after talking to Nashville Approach. The flight was very nice on to Chattanooga. Mallory was doing great as my co-pilot. With Chattanooga in view, it was on to Dalton, GA. We had planned to stop there for fuel but now that we were at 7500 feet and flying nice and smooth, we opted to fly on to Gainesville Aiport (KGVL). As we approached Gainesville, I listened to their ASOS. It was reporting 3400 density alitude. This would be the highest DA that I will have encountered so far in my flying days. The runway was plently long, so I was not worried.

"Praying for cooler weather" at the Gainesville Airport (KGVL) in Georgia on Tuesday, August 2, 2011.

7500 feet over north Georgia on Tuesday, August 2, 2011.

The clouds at altitude were getting more cumbersome to navigate so we descended to 5500 feet as we approached the Georgia/SC border. It was still smooth at 5500 feet and the outside temperature was still below 70 degrees. It was pleasant. We flew on into South Carolina and before long Lake Greenwood showed up on the horizon, and then Lake Murray. We began our descent and flew straight up the lake, over the dam into bumpy air at 1600 feet. We flew over Forest Acres over our house and then pointed towards Jim Hamilton-LB Owens Airport – home. Runway 31 greeted us with its customary burbles on short final, but otherwise an uneventful landing. Nashville trip done!

This Foreflight radar image showing the weather than blocked our path home. This was about 1.5 hours after we decided not to fly.

Pam and I had flown to Nashville on Wednesday, July 27, 2011, in a pretty much uneventful flight. We enjoyed a couple of days in Nashville and attended our business meetings. We were set to depart on Saturday, July 30th, but an early morning storm system stretching from Nashville to Chattanooga would delay our flight.

We arrived at John C. Tune Airport (KJWN) on the northwest side of Nashville at around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. It had been raining hard this morning and there were some gloomly looking low, misty clouds coming and going, so we waited for all of it to cook off, hopefully, later in the morning. They had pulled the Cessna to the flight line from the tie down area, so I loaded her up and preflighted. Eleven o’clock came and it looked like we might be able to depart soon. But that storm system was hanging around and blocked our path home.

Betsy on the flightline at John C Tune Aiport (KJWN) in Nashville, Saturday, July 30, 2011.

The FBO at John C Tune Airport (KJWN) in Nashville on Saturday, July 30, 2011.

We decided to venture out and see if we could get home. As we sat on the flightline with engine running, the XM weather signal finally showing on the Garmin GPS 496, I took one more look at the Nexrad images on the GPS, looked over at Pam, and said that I didn’t think we should depart. So, Pam agreed, and we shut down, rented a car and drove the 455 miles back home to Columbia. It wasn’t an unpleasant drive, but almost eight hours. We had planned from the beginning to rent a car and drive home if the weather was iffy, so plan B it was.

This Foreflight radar image showing the weather than blocked our path home. This was about 1.5 hours after we decided not to fly.

The trip over at 5500 feet took us right at two hours. It was a perfect day for flying. Blues skies and smooth. We flew almost directly over the airport by the Atlanta Motor Speedway. What a sight. The airport is only a short walk to the speedway. About 15 to 20 minutes later we arrived at Falcon Field, entering into downwind from the east for right traffic runway 13.

There were many RV’s in attendance. I wish I had taken more photos, but I was too distracted by just looking at them. They had an array of great food to eat, which we really enjoyed.

There were several of us RV-minded folks from KCUB there. We all got golf carted to the very nearby Aircraft Spruce, adjacent to the airport. How convenient for the folks at Falcon Field. We shopped for about an hour. I pulled out my CC and burned it up good there. Yikes!

Great to meet the folks at Falcon Field. They really put on a great fly-in event. I look forward to going back soon!

The weekday tour stop was not ideal as the kids are in school, folks are working, and the state fair was in town that week. A weekend tour date is preferable, but EAA saves those for the highly lucrative stops in bigger cities. So, we made the best of it.

Tom Roberts and I volunteered to head up the volunteer crew and manage the event in hopes that we might get to fly onboard the B-17. When the B-17 relocates to its next stop and they have seats available, the B-17 crew will offer them to EAA chapter volunteers. So, we put together a great volunteer crew including Tom, myself, Harold Moxley, Gerry Biehl, Xen Motsinger, Ron Shelton, David Graff and Paul Carter. We had never done anything like this before so our lack of experience didn’t help, but we managed to host an enjoyable and profitable event.

Tom and I met with Paul Bass, Eagle Aviation’s manager, to request to have the event at their FBO. Paul was gracious and helped us tremendously in planning the event. Thanks to Paul and Eagle Aviation for all your help! The even offered the B-17 crew a 66 cent per gallon discount on fuel, which saved them a lot of money.

EAA National hired a media company to call on all the local media including TV, radio and newspapers. Ron made a called and lined up an old veteran pilot so that the media would have someone to interview and develop a story around. Only one local TV station showed up on Monday – media day – as the B-17, Aluminum Overcast, arrived. That was WACH Fox 57. Thanks Fox for coming out and covering the event! I missed being there Monday because I had to work. The chapter volunteers that were there Monday were treated to a free ride on the B-17. Because of the low media turnout, they had plenty of extra seats for volunteers on the media flight. It seems that the local media must have preferred covering the State Fair everyday instead of something like a B-17 warbirds giving them free media rides. Oh well!

WACH Fox 57 aired their story on the 6:30 PM and 10:00 PM reports Monday night. That was enough to get the attention of many local folks as they turned out to see and ride the B-17 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The EAA B-17 Aluminum Overcast arriving at Eagle Aviation at Columbia Metropolitan Airport (KCAE):

We volunteers arrived Tuesday morning to set up. We met Bo Bowman, the local pilot and representative of Angel Flight, a non-profit charitable organization that provides free transportation flights for patients in need of medical-related transportation. It was a joy meeting Bo. We had emailed a few times before the B-17 visit. He flew in to CAE and set up his booth at the tour sight Tuesday morning. On Wednesday morning, Bob, another Angel Flight volunteer, arrived to man their booth. Bob was great to talk to. I wore shorts the whole event. It was chilly in the mornings but in the upper 80′s by afternoon. About the first words Bob spoke to me were, “Are those your legs or are you riding a chicken?” LOL, I was not sure how to take that at first, but every time I think about it I crack up laughing. Thanks to Bo and Bob for bringing such good cheer to the event.

On Tuesday, there were only two flights of the B-17. The rest of the day was dedicated to walk-through tours that folks could buy for $5.00. There was also merchandise for sale and we served sodas and potato chips. On Wednesday, there was only one flight, but we had plently of folks turning out to see Aluminum Overcast. Overall, and considering our minimal media exposure, we had a great event and event made some money for the chapter.

The EAA B-17 Aluminum Overcast crew were a joy to work with. The seemed to enjoy their time here and expressed their thanks for the rental vehicle we helped provide them. They got upgraded from a mini-van to a Suburan! They also liked eating at Lizard’s Thicket.

The days came and went and all of a sudden it was Thursday morning. The B-17 crew had told us on Wednesday that they had six extra seats for the relocation flight to their next tour stop in Concord Regional Airport (KJQF) in Concord, NC, just northeast of Charlotte a few miles from Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

So six of our chapter members that were able to make the flight showed up Thursday morning and hopped aboard Aluminum Overcast with great enthusiasm. We were: myself, Tom Roberts, Harold Moxley, David Graff, Cantzon Foster and Bob Stearns.

Here we are waiting to taxi for departure:

Now we are taxiing to runway 5 for departure:

Here we go, departing KCAE:

A view from the nose, where the bombarier was stationed:

A tour of the bomb bay:

Back in the aft section – views from the machine gun ports:

Scenes on the flight deck:

Flying northeast of Charlotte, straight into downwind at Concord Regional Airport (KJQF):

Landing at Concord Regional Airport (KJQF):

This was my first time flying about a B-17, a lifelong dream of mine since I was a kid. The B-17 was my all time favorite warbird and now I was able to fly on one. When I stepped on board the first and wandered about the airplane, I pondered what it must have been like to be a crew member during World War II. I cannot express enough gratitude to those airmen who served during that time in our history. And when I stepped off after our flight, I felt Aluminum Overcast become a part of me, and I, perhaps, a part of it.

When I arrived at my doctor’s office, the desk lady gave me a clip board and the usual paper work and a copy of my last third class application form from two years ago to go by. I worked my way down the form to the “are you taking any medications?” Ah, there is the one thing different than last time. I am now taking Levothyroxine, a generic of Synthroid for my newly acquired thyroid condition. My family doctor has been working with me over for almost two years, at first working to get the prescription amount correct and then six-month check ups to monitor my condition.

Once my doctor zeroed in on my prescription everything went back to normal for me health wise. The thyroid condition had been causing fatique, slight hair loss, chaffing eyebrows to name a few things. The daily medication has fixed all that. The unfortunate part is that I will be taking this medication everyday for the rest of my life. My doctor finds that I am doing perfectly well now – my follow up checks and blood work reports all indicate such. For me, yep, I feel better and the physical things like hair loss and chaffing eyebrows have ceased – expect some hair loss due to getting older and having for daughters in the house.

Many months ago when I started taking Levothyroxine, the thyroid hormone generic equivalent to Synthroid, to treat my hypothyroidism, I was instantly concerned about how this would effect my ability to keep flying. Hypothyroidism is a condition where the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone. Hence the daily supplement. I asked my doctor if this would keep me from flying and he assured me that I need not worry about it. I left his office feeling comfortable that my flying days were not nearly over. Thank goodness!

When I got back home, I immediately visited the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assoiciation (AOAP) website and searched for “thyroid and synthroid.” The one search result that came up was link to FAA accepted medications. This is a database of medications that are acceptable to the FAA. The table shows a list of acceptable (or not acceptable) medications according to the FAA. The table also tells the class of medication, what it treats, and what acceptable conditions are based on. There is also links for some medications for more information.

I checked for Synthroid and Levothyroxine and, great for me, they were listed as exceptable. I do not remember the conditions listed way back then, but I seem to remember that I was completely in the clear. So I did not think about my thyroid condition or the medication further with regards to flying.

So, at the doctor this time around, filling out the third class medical form, I wrote in “Synthroid for thyroid condition” and what other pertinent information the form asked of me – and past doctor appointment dates to the best of my knowledge.

The assistant called me back and put me through the usually rigors: pee in a cup for the urine test, check my height and weight, check my vision – an now I have reading glasses, so I brought them along. After a good wait in the cool room, the doctor came in and we had a pleasant conversation while he checked me over. He noted the Synthroid use on my form and this is where my world started to unravel a bit. We discussed the condition and he explained to me how the FAA is handling thyroid patients differently that before. Now it is on a case-by-case basis. They just do not shove you through any longer. My eyebrows raised and perhaps my blood pressure too as we talked this thing through.

He was looking out for my best interest when we told me to obtain a copy of my last blood work and an indepth note from my doctor as to my status – a status report. I said, “No problem, I will get that too you asap.” As we walked out of the room to the front desk, he told me that he would just hold my medical certificate until I got him those two documents. I was caught off guard as I fully expected to walk out of his office with my third class medical in hand. Not the case. I was floored. I perhaps showed it, but I reached over to shake my doctor’s hand once again and thanked him for all his help.

Back in my truck heading home, I felt almost devastated. I kept telling myself that my doctor is only looking out for me. See, he explained that if he sent my medical in to the FAA without the proper medical documents from my family doctor, that the FAA would request them with time-dated letters and this could snowball into a really unfortunate series of transactions with the FAA that could prevent me from flying until the case was solved. So, disappointed as I might have been that my doctor held my medical, I assured myself that he was looking out for my best interests – this was the case. He has no reason to do otherwise.

I called my familty doctor and explained to the nurse what documents I needed and she passed the information on to my physician. A few long days went by and I called again on Monday, July 26th – we’re getting awfully close to the end of the month! The nurse told me that my doctor was out of town traveling until the next Monday. Oh my! That pushes this thing past my July 31st deadline. I pleaded with the nurse to try and get in touch with him before then as time is of the essence. No luck, but I did send an email to my doctor that week hoping he would be able to handle this from out of town. I emailed him a link to AOPA’s Introduction To The Airman Medical Certification Process – What Is A Status Report? This contained some information that I thought my doctor might find helpful in preparing my status report.

So, the week dragged on. I thought Monday would never come. But on the Friday prior, my doctor replied to my email that he was sorry that this coincided with him being out of town and promised to have the required documents for me no later than Monday afternoon. And, indeed, when Monday came, my doctor’s assistant called to tell me that the documents were ready for me to pick up. I drove to my doctor’s office, picked them up and raced over to my AME’s office to drop them off. The assistant took my documents, and my AME doctor happened to be standing by and said he would handle this right away, so I stayed put. After about a ten or fifteen minute wait, the assistant came out and handed me my third class medical certificate. When I got back in my truck I kissed the medical certificate and put it safely away in my wallet.

This all turned out okay, but next time I will set my appointment with my AME a good bit earlier in case something like this comes up again. From what I understand, the FAA now looks at thyroid conditions on a case-by-case basis. If they have any concerns, a yearly update may be required. Time will tell whether the FAA will contact me regarding my thyroid condition and medication use, but for now, I’ll just enjoy flying as usual but with the thought always in the back of my mind that things may not be as easy as they once were with regards to obtaining my third class medical certificate.

He had a question about Bluetooth technology and his new headset. I said, “Well, Pam will know all about that!” So there we stood at the back of Joe’s SUV and he shows us this new headset he bought recently. It is the Zulu Active Noise Reduction (ANR), Bluetooth-enabled headset by Lightspeed. Pam looked through the user’s manual and had the Bluetooth operating in no time. This allows you to receive and make calls on your cellphone without being connected to the headset with wires – it’s Bluetooth! Both Pam and I loved seeing this feature.  

Joe explained that you can also hook up a hardwire to your favorite music player and listen to music – and with the Front Row Center (FRC) technology in the headset, the quality of music simulates sitting “front and center” in an ampitheater. The leather foam ear cushions and top cushion made for a very comfortable and snug fit and they weight just under 14 ounces – a little heavier that Bose X’s 12 ounces.

Joe said he has yet to feel uncomfortable in them and they hold snuggly without shifting. They are even priced below the Bose X’s $999 price at $850, and with the added features, will certainly give Bose a run for their money. I have the Bose and love them, and am getting pressured to get a set for Pam.This has me rethinking Bose in favor of the Zulu – it has the immediately justifiable Bluetooth feature that we would find great value in so Pam can make and receive calls without the cockpit noise.

So thanks to running into Joe at the airport the other day, we might be ordering the Zulu sometime soon. Joe, please don’t buy a Garmin 696. If you do, please don’t tell me about it! 

Of all the weather information available on the internet today, there are a few sources that I rely upon regularly: AOPA, NOAA, and Weathermeister.com. AOPA has all the “official” and highly dependable aviation weather and airport information, and NOAA gives local forecasts in simple laymen’s terms. Weathermeister.com however provides pilots with a collection of weather and airport information from various sources and displays that information on a single webpage.

Weathermeister.com is a result of ten years of development by Dan Checkoway, a pilot, airplane builder, and computer software engineer located in Chino Hills, California. His initial intent was to have quick and concise weather information for his personal flying. Over the years, tweaking the website led to Dan’s offering it to other pilots.

Weathermeister.com charges a monthly fee for all but its limited-use service. For upgraded functionality, there are three fee tiers: Basic, Premium, and Corporate. The Basic tier offers a saved aircraft profile and a few custom routes and area reports. The Premium tier offers additional aircraft profiles, more custom routes and area reports for pilots that fly routes regularly, TFR notifications, email and internet instant weather messaging. The Corporate tier offers yet more aircraft profiles and custom routes and area reports. All three paid tiers have METARs, TAFs, PIREPs, NOTAMs, National Weather Service forecasting, and Flight Optimizer.

All of the weather reports on Weathermeister.com roll out on one webpage, so there is no need to click on several links to get the complete weather picture covering your intended route. And, there are mouseover functions and items to click on to find even more information such as airport information, maps, sectional charts, runway crosswind information, etc.

We planned to depart early enough Sunday so we would have smooth air for the trip over, but as Sunday drew closer, weather forecasts were looking like IFR or marginal in the morning, but possibly lifting by afternoon. Additionally, our proposed return flight either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning was still in question due to iffy weather moving into the area around that time.

Monitoring the weather for several days in advance of the trip provided great insight as to how the weather reports change from day to day. Good weather on Sunday, bad on Wednesday a week in advance. Marginal on Sunday and good on Wednesday as Sunday approached.

Finally Sunday morning arrived. Up early, coffee and laptop in hand, a look at Weathermeister.com revealed that a morning flight was not possible due to low overcast. The METARs and TAFs along the route all indicated IFR in the morning, but showed the clouds lifting by noon. So I was checking the weather reports often, hoping the weather would lift before late afternoon. If not, we’d have to drive and who wants to do that when you can fly!

This is where Weathermeister.com really shines. I chose my route (already saved from earlier), in our case it was Columbia Downtown Owens Field, Saluda, McCormick, Athens, and finally Gwinnett County/Briscoe in Lawrenceville. Weathermeister.com then displays the weather and airport information for this route on a single webpage and updates every five minutes automatically. You only need to scroll down through the page to review all of the necessary data to make a highly-informed go or no-go decision.
First you see a flight recap: distance, magnetic course (wind accounted for), your departure time, best altitude and economy, which is based on aircraft performance and wind conditions.

Next is a small Google map of the flight route showing your waypoints. Then you see the Flight Optimizer which shows ETE, fuel, ETA, climb, cruise, and descent data at various altitudes – even thousands plus 500 for westerly routes or odd thousands plus 500 for easterly routes. It displays several altitude options: 4500, 6500, 8500, etc, and gives all the time, speed and economy data and highlights the altitude that is best for economy and speed. Many times they are the same altitude but sometimes speed and economy are at different altitudes – you decide which is important.

If any TFRs are reported along the route, they will be displayed. METARs are displayed for every reporting point along the route. The route’s corridor width is selectable in the route menu, as are departure time, aircraft profile, etc.

Next are pilot and air reports, AIRMETs, and SIGMETs, if any are reported.

Several graphics are displayed, including: current surface, flight rules, radar mosaic, satellite views of departure and arrival areas, infrared satellite, AIRMET and SIGMET chart, freezing levels, winds at various altitudes – all these overlaid on maps of the US.

Next is the winds aloft table, displaying winds aloft for all waypoints, with wind direction and speed, and calculated headwind/tailwind data. Freezing temperatures are color coded blue for easy visual reference.

Sunrise and sunset data for all waypoints is next, then TAFs are diplayed and interpreted into plain language for really easy reviewing. All available TAFs along the route are displayed.

Then there are the very handy National Weather Services forecasts for the route, showing predicted weather information for various times of the day. Area Forecasts are next and then an array of front/precipitation images are displayed for various future time periods such as: 12-hour, 24-hour… 3-day, etc.
The all-important NOTAMs report is next. A table of all NOTAMs along the route are given.

This default report ends with a display of a portion of the sectional chart for the departure and arrival airports and a button to click to find fuel prices along the route. The display of all of this information is customizable, depending upon user preference.

All of the textual information provided by Weathermeister.com is given in plain language where possible, such as METARs, TAFs, PIREPs, and are color coded according to whether the data indicates LIFR, IFR, MVFR, or VFR. This, with the plain language interpretation, provides a very visually intuitive report, making go or no-go decisions easy to decide, with all the data from various reporting sources combined into a complete picture of conditions for your flight.

So Weathermeister.com was telling us that our Sunday departure might be possible in the afternoon. So we waited at the SAC for a few hours while the ceiling lifted as reported by Weathermeister.com. We finally departed Columbia at 2:10 p.m. with 1800 feet overcast reported, hoping the weather would indeed open up by the time we reached Lawrenceville. When we got to Saluda, the conditions were as predicted there, and the lower ceiling along the SC/GA border was lifting up nicely. By the time we got beyond McCormick, the blue sky opened up as we ventured on towards Athens, and finally Gwinnett County/Briscoe.

The weather for our departure from Gwinnett County/Briscoe on Wednesday morning was looking good, but as we trudged through our business seminars Monday and Tuesday, a weather system was moving in from the southwest, bringing a wintry mix of rain, ice, and snow. I told Pam that if it looked bad for Wednesday, we would break away from seminars early Tuesday afternoon head for home. I was checking Weathermeister.com every time we got a break on Monday and Tuesday.
By early Tuesday afternoon, conditions looked better for a Wednesday morning departure, so we opted for that, hoping the weather reports were accurate for a late Wednesday afternoon arrival of that nasty system.

Wednesday morning arrived and Pam and I got out to the airport at around 8:00 a.m. The temperature was 29° F and Betsy’s poor battery didn’t make it. The kind lineman tried to jump start us with a generator, but the battery was so far gone it wouldn’t take a charge. Now this, with our weather window closing in on us! We had already decided that if reported weather conditions were not favorable for the flight, we would rent a car and drive home – what a nightmare!

So back in the warm, comfortable lobby at Aircraft Specialists Jet Center, waiting to see if maintenance could locate a battery, I continued to monitor the weather on Weathermeister.com. It was now close to 9:00 a.m. and Weathermeister.com was still indicating a window until around 5:00 p.m.

The maintenance hangar called my cell phone and the mechanic said he had located a battery and that it would be a couple of hours before he would have it installed. A bit pricey, but I gave the go ahead, hoping that they could install it and get us airborne before our weather window closed on us; I wanted to be in Columbia by 3:00 p.m. at the latest.

Sure enough, as promised, the maintenance hangar had our battery installed and the lineman pulled Betsy up in front of the lobby. At around 11:00 a.m., the lineman and I put our luggage into the airplane once again. The engine cranked up better than ever with the new battery. Ironically, I had paid to have the battery checked and serviced only six days earlier.

In our earlier attempt to jump start, I had left the master switch in the off position when the lineman hooked up the generator. An after-the-fact review of my POH told me I should have had the master switch on to avoid surges to the buses. With the switch on, the battery would absorb any surge that might happen. Well, it seems I must learn the hard way at times, and so a surge did indeed happen. It happened, as I would later find out, to take out my turn and bank indicator, and my GPS that was plugged into the cigar lighter. The cigar lighter fuse didn’t break but looked “used” and the fuse in the GPS power cord looked brand new, but the GPS was not turning on. With engine running, I unplugged the GPS and replaced the batteries to see if that would help, figuring that the cigar lighter fuse must have blown. The GPS wouldn’t work. Yikes!
I thought to myself, we have an airspeed indicator, an altimeter and a whiskey compass. I looked at Pam and said, “Hand me the chart.” How we do get so spoiled using the GPS!

So we had a chart and a compass and that’s good enough. We did some radio work with Tower and taxied to runway seven. They asked what type aircraft and what letter. I was thinking, A or U? Or F! I am not so sure after this mornings panel losses. I told them we had mode C. We departed Gwinnett County/Briscoe at 11:25 a.m. – still well within our weather window by a “safe” margin. Off to the east over Winder I realized that I had my little Garmin Geko 201 “hikers” GPS in my flight bag. Pam got it out and I put in on the dashboard by the whiskey compass. I hadn’t learned how to enter waypoints, so the only functionality I could squeeze out of it and still fly the airplane, was to have it display a compass to verify what the whiskey compass was telling us in its rather shaky way.

The air was smooth at 3500 feet and the flight rather effortless, although very chilly in the cockpit. Over the GA/SC border we were several miles north of where we wanted to be but soon we picked up Abbeville and Greenwood several miles to the north of us and finally Lake Murray. A call to Columbia Approach gave us a bee line for KCUB and home.

As it turned out, the wintry mix did arrive just about exactly as Weathermeister.com’s forecasts had reported, in the later afternoon and evening, hitting the Atlanta area first and then Columbia shortly there after. Weathermeister.com had displayed this information to us in a manner that made frequent reviews easy and tireless. Its plain language text and visual queues, along with the mass of the weather and airport information compiled into a single review makes it a reliable one-stop-shop for aviation weather – a weather compendium of sorts. Check it out at http://www.weathermeister.com/.