Mother Nature's Not Happy

This has been the strangest week I have seen in the 20 years that I have lived in Arizona. Last Sunday, it was our first day over 100 (there are usually about 120 of those every year). Last Monday was our first day over 110. Today it was raining and windy and cold - 70 degrees (yeah, it's all relative).

Word for the day: AIRMET


Icing

• Turbulence


• Mountain Obscuration


• IFR

Throw in a Convective SIGMET for good measure and it simply isn't a good day for the cross country flight I had planned... A friend of mine, who is also a pilot, and I decided to go up and see if NOAA and the National Weather Service were accurate in their reporting.

ATIS information at the airport reports winds at 15kts gusting to 20kts and a ceiling at 8,000 feet. We went up and flew in the local practice areas. We were in the southeast practice area and there was no turbulence and it was decent flying - at least 7 miles visibility. We went up to the northeast practice area near Fountain Hills and the ceiling was dropping like a rock. At 3,000 feet (about 1,500 feet AGL) visibility was quickly dropping too.

Time to head back. Wind check on final for 22L had sustained winds 150 at 17kts (which is the maximum crosswind component for the Archer). Other than drifting a little to the right of the center line, it was a great landing.

Too bad we couldn't fly more - we learn to treasure days when the temperature (and density altitude) is so low!

Flight time: 0.7

Total time: 87.9