I’ve had it pretty good here in Minnesota, weather-wise, over the past 3 months I’ve been here. Well, this week that all ended. If anybody has seen the weather system over the last week going across the country, well, that’s what I’ve been flying in for the last 4 days.
Every day before flying, you check the weather. It’s a ritual shared by all pilots, and sets the mood for the flight. Well, as I looked at the weather system, I realized it was going to be a long night, with approaches at the various airports I visit.
Let me start by saying, Chicago approach and Midway tower are some of the best controllers, dealing with numerous flights in a very short time, with airplanes of different speeds, and airports that leave something to be desired on their approach and runway configurations. I have nothing but mad respect for everything they deal with. Having said that, here’s what normally happens.
My first stop is Chicago’s Midway airport, and normally, if the weather has sprinkles in it, or clouds below 3000 feet, you can expect delays. My first night, it was solid IFR (Instrument Flight Rules), requiring approaches at the destinations. Great. Midway’s going to suck!!! Well, Chicago was firing on all cylinders, and there were no delays. Everybody was vectored in for the apporaches and I never heard anybody slowed down. Keep this paragraph in mind…
Going into Des Moines, IA, I had my world rocked. Normally, this is a 1:45-1:55 flight. This night, it was almost 2:10 due to winds, and lovely weather. Coming in to DSM, the winds were coming from the South at all altitudes at about 50 Kts, causing the airport to be using the runway farthest from me, basically making me do a turn-around to approach the airport (for those with some directional abilities, I was approaching from the East, and landing on runway 13).
Descending for the approach, I was getting what I would consider Moderate turbulence (as a freighter, if you hear us report Moderate, you might want to sinch down your seatbelt). I go by the strict definitions of turbulence reports. I was coming in and actually spilled some of my coffee…hence the Moderate turbulence report. Lets just say it was not a very comfortable flight, and I was glad it was over. Of course, flying the big kite, or Caravan for those who like to use the correct name, I had to fly the airplane all the way to the ramp. I was indicating 60Kts airspeed as I was taxiing down the runway, and only doing 20 Kts over the ground. The stalling speed of the airplane is 50Kts, so basically I was flying until I stopped the airplane.
The best part of the night was going home…it’s a northbound leg, with a 50 Kt tailwind, so I got back to base extra quickly and early. There’s nothing like going from doing 120 kts all night, taking 2:30 minutes to get to Chicago, and 2:10 to get to Des Moines, and having your last let of the night fly by, showing 220 kts over the ground. I finally had my best ground speed in a Caravan of 250 Kts all the way through the descent.
I’ll write more about this week later tonight, but it’s time to get ready for another night of lovely weather…another cold front coming through.