Winter's Here

Welcome to winter flying in the Northeast.

The forecast for today looked great and N94006 was open, so late last evening I jumped on the schedule. The snow didn't seem like it had amounted to much so I figured I'd get to the airport early, get the plane preheated while I cleared off the snow that had accumulated, and get some quick time in the air before heading home to attend to housework, school work, etc. Long story short, I never did get to fly.

The snowy/slushy mixture that we'd received last evening had frozen overnight. All of the planes that were outdoors (including 006) were encased in a solid layer of ice. And the runway, which hadn't been plowed overnight, was a gritty icy tundra.

Jake called me at 7:30 and offered to put 006 in the hangar for me. Even with this, the plane was still frozen at 9:30 and with a temp hovering at about 29 degrees, the runway condition hadn't changed much. I walked the runway several times while waiting for things to melt and found it to be sort of a frozen slush. Traction was definitely decreased but it wasn't quite slippery. There was also a moderate crosswind at about 6-8 kts. Made for tough ADM as there was nothing that immediately said not to launch, but having very limited experience on snow/ice there were enough variables to give me pause.

Long story short, after waiting almost two hours I finally scratched the flight. I've got a ton of stuff to do around the house and am in the final weeks of the semester and have hours of schoolwork ahead of me in the coming days. I may try to sneak back to the airport this afternoon, although that seems unlikely.

I just checked the webcam and it looks like the runway has thawed enough for the plow to have done its work. Unfortunately, I was just a few hours too early.

Like I said, welcome to winter flying in the Northeast.