Grand Forks, Grand Marais, Hancock/Houghton
Flying the Edge of America
Wednesday, July 23, 2008: Grand Forks, North Dakota
A busy morning at Rapid City Airport.
Boy this was a tough flight today. We lifted off early morning with
reasonably clear skies and a weather forecast that seemed favorable. Then
just as we crossed over into North Dakota the weather closed in on us.
Fortunately we did not have to contend with high ground as well because the
weather sure made me work.
Lots of rain.
We found ourselves in instrument meteorological
conditions, which in plain English means complete whiteout. To make things
even more interesting the air traffic controller warned me that there were
three thunderstorm cells directly in our path. As I could not see anything
outside the aircraft I guessed a new heading to avoid the storms based on
what I had seen earlier. Not too long after the course correction the cloud
opened up which let me see the cells ahead; I had guessed correctly and so we
passed by the storms unhindered.
The landing at Grand Forks, North Dakota was interesting too as I had to
contend with a 15 knot crosswind gusting to 25. We found out after touchdown
that it is always very windy in Grand Forks even in the winter when it is
30 degrees Fahrenheit below zero!
Grand Forks Video
Thursday, July 24, 2008: Grand Marais, Minnesota
Julia is getting better
with flying and her concern makes her a good copilot as she keeps a close
scan on all of 51-Juliet's controls and instruments letting me know if I
miss anything.
We returned to the
US/Canadian border today after flying out of Grand Forks, heading north to
Baudette before turning eastward to Grand Marais. Alas, because of cloud
below us we could not see the terrain. The good news, it was a sunny day
(where we were) above the clouds; at least for the moment.
The fluffy whites.
I am writing you this while
we are in flight between my piloting duties. It is hard to describe my
feelings as we transit this world of blues skies above oceans of fluffy
white clouds below us. But just when you get romantic about it all, the
clouds reach up and touch the airplane, jostling us about as if to remind us of
their true nature. Almost without warning we find ourselves completely
surrounded by clouds; everywhere you look it is white.
Then beads of water
begin racing up the windshield just like little racing cars. The sound of
rain pounding against the aircraft gets louder and louder. The clouds go
from white to a dark grey and then almost black. Then, one, two, no three
bolts of lightning illuminate the darkness engulfing us.
I realize we are in a thunderstorm. Not just close to one but right in the
middle of it. I am surprised that the controller did not warn us; then I am
just scared. I start thinking about what to do, should we turn around, what
is the closest airport to land at, how far have we got to go before reaching
our destination? I find a nearby airport which we could make. I turn to ask
Julia what she thinks we should do and find her face buried in her hands.
Now I am really frightened. The aircraft is pushed up and down and left and
right but it keeps going back to its programmed course oblivious of the
danger all around us. Julia asks me if we should contact the controller to
see if there are more cells ahead of us. I think to myself, "Why didn"t I
think of that". I press the transmit button of the radio and ask the
question. The answer, "all the weather is behind you now nothing but light
rain and clear skies ahead of you". I continue my scan of the instruments
which have been my only reference for the last 30 minutes to which way was
up. Then Julia says, "Look at that"! I look up and the sky is clear once
more and the ground is visible again.
Lakes or Islands?
The terrain here in
northern Minnesota is the most interesting we had seen so far.
There are so
many lakes and islands that it is hard to know if the terrain is defined by lakes
or by islands. But it is extremely beautiful. Every island is green with trees
and pastures; and not a road or building in sight. It is not long before we
are back on the ground at Grand Marais airport. I cannot tell you how glad I
am to be on solid ground once more. I will never romanticize about
clouds again.
Churning clouds
From Julia:
I felt relaxed before this morning's flight. The guy at the service area
joked with me while David did pre-flight checks, and I remember thinking
about how calm I felt before getting into the plane. We took off and the sky
was clear. David started working on his computer and I listened to American
Short stories and watched the clouds appear. I noticed a big block like a
giant apartment building in front of us and to the right. I wondered if this
was something I should mention, but as I was relaxed my mind wandered off to
follow Rip Van Winkle into his night of pleasure in the mountains. Quite
quickly we were in much thicker cloud, rain started, it became very black. I
tried not to pay attention. I started to feel scared. It's difficult to
describe the fear. In the plane It's imagining what falling several
thousand feet to the ground would feel like. My concern gets manifested as
an obsessive worry about the gas levels.
I am always glancing over and
thinking that it looks as if we don"t have enough to get there and wondering
why David hasn"t noticed that we are about to run dry. Some other symptoms
were dry mouth, nausea, inability to think straight. It seemed we were
going straight down or I imagined giant hailstones would appear. Thankfully,
the plane soldiered through it all. I noticed that it wasn"t so dark any
more. David saw a patch of land below through the clouds. And I looked up
from my lap and saw the clouds open and land appear below. It was covered in
thick forest with no roads or farms or buildings just trees and lakes. I
thought that if we had to crash land here, those trees that look so small
and soft, like fur on the ground, would, on close up, be very big and cause
lots of damage to us in our aluminum box. This thought was soon replaced
with immense relief as light suddenly appeared and the clouds shifted apart
and became small white fluffy things again. Soon after I noticed that David
had started to descend. It felt fantastic to be coming down.
Grand Marais Video
Friday, July 25, 2008: Hancock/Houghton, Michigan
Early morning start at 51-Juliet.
More bad weather today as we flew from Grand Marais, Minnesota to Hancock
-Houghton, Michigan around the edges of Lake Superior. No thunderstorms this
time but lots of clouds that wanted to be thunderstorms. We had to make a
full instrument approach into Hancock airport but the thrills were
nothing compared to our encounter with the thunderstorm yesterday.
We are so looking forward to the air show at
Oshkosh
tomorrow, and it looks like we have good weather finally!
Hancock Video
Trip stats
Obama:13
McCain: 2
Miles Hiked: 93
Miles Flown: 3,309
States Visited: 9