Flying IMC to the Start: Taking 51-Charlie Thru the Plane Wash...

Charlie Cardinal flying IMC

WEDNESDAY - What a flight to the Start! Jeneanne checked weather the night before and suggested that we beat it out of Lancaster before 8am, as rain was forecast to move in.  So we were up and awake by 5:30 am...maybe a bit bleary-eyed. Packed. Grabbed some breakfast. In the crew car, which had little speed, suspect (nonexistent) brakes, and odd sounds for every function that it performed. But hey, it's a crew car and did its job - free transportation for pilots to/from the airport.

We arrived at Fairfield County Airport, took our weather briefing, and planned to make our move for the Start. Freezing AIRMET - what?!?! Oh no worries - 14,000 feet and above - we were planning for 7,000. We'd be in the clouds (IMC - instrument meteorological conditions; aka IFR - instrument flight rules) after climbing above 3,000 feet, but I figured that we'd then fly into a nice VFR (visual flight rules - free of clouds, can see the ground) pattern. Hah!!! We were "in the soup" all the way to Stafford Regional except for about the last 20 miles. It was a "thick soup," a smooth ride and a wet one. Jeneanne was getting dripped on with a spritz of rainwater hitting her eye - sopping it up with a towel - she came prepared. She also got some nice "real time" instrument flying in - no "Foggles" (sight-limiting training tool for learning to fly on instruments only) required.

Charlie Cardinal watching our bags...

So with it being so warm and humid, we dreaded debugging the plane after we landed. "Debugging" is every pilots least favorite job - cleaning the splattered bug guts off the leading edges of the plane - wings, tail, windshield, front end, etc.). But hey, no worries! In addition to the clouds, which carry moisture, we flew through about 1.5 hrs of rain on our 2 hr flight. It was quite the plane wash - soft rainwater flown through at about 130-140 knots (150-160 mph) with our nice little tail wind pushing us along. So we had few bug guts on the plane after landing, and the humidity kept them "soft" and easy to clean off. [We hope you enjoyed this little glamorous side of aviation.]

Once on the ground in Stafford, we were greeted by a volunteer who helped us push back the plane into the grass, tie down 51-Charlie, load up our gear on his golf cart, and give us a ride to the terminal. We got an ice cold water and were welcomed by a few folks - sister racers - who had also recently arrived. We are HERE! The REAL fun begins...