Interesting inversion today

[IO540]

Ground +6C
4500ft +11C

Base 2500ft, tops 3200ft... Visibility above the clouds was unlimited - at least 50nm - but 5000m below. Fantastic being up there doing 60deg turns etc in the sunshine.

It's on days like this that one wishes one could fly off somewhere nice. The trouble is that any place within the one-leg range (say 1000nm) of anything with a prop on the front of it is still going to be freezing at this time of the year...

[Oxeagle]

Nice to hear someone got airbourne today IO540, there was absolutely nothing happening at EGTK today! I experienced a similar inversion on Tuesday afternoon - +06 in the circuit at 1000ft AAL, +04 on the ground (airfield elevation 150ft).

I don't think that this fog is going to dissipate for tommorow morning, so I can kiss goodbye to my first solo navigation flight :(

[MikeJ]

Ah, yes, IO. Wondrous flying in silky smooth air, see forever, but almost never see another aircraft. These days I dont fly more than about 50NM except in the lower flight levels (FL40 - 75), where so often there is no cloud.
Perfect peace - as compared with the unfortunates scud running, bumping about, below, in grotty vis.
Whilst my IMC rating isn't valid abroad, continentals have VFR levels in the lower airways, so one can continue flying to sunnier climes in the same way.
If you've got 1000NM range, why not Minorca?
I've twice flown from my London area field direct non-stop to Barcelona (Sabadell), in less than 4 hours, and carrying 6hrs fuel . Direct Minorca would add maybe 40mins, still plenty of fuel reserve.

See you there?
Happy Xmas,
MikeJ

[IO540]

I have problems with time, Mike; getting somebody to run the office etc. Otherwise, I would fly 300+ hrs a year.

The TB will go 1200nm to zero fuel which gives me a ~ 800nm range.

Then there is the slight problem of getting back home. My home field has an 800ft MDH which makes it unusable quite a lot of the time.

Was going to do Luxor (probably ... - Dubrovnik - Iraklion - Luxor) but then I started looking at avgas availability down there and its clear it would take some serious research. Luxor itself does list avgas in the Jepp data.

[Barshifter]

Not much flying up here in The Lakes today.Whole area covered in Fog.


http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f84/Barshifter/th_various049.jpg

Barshifter

[HR200]

Looks like nobody has been doing any flying in the UK. I haven't flown since 8 December.

Been trying to get the girlfriend up, but, you gotta h8 the british weather, hope the 2nd Jan is good.

[IO540]

Could be worse. Luxor is CAVOK but your alternate is 200nm, has a 14 day PPR (or something silly like that) and it hasn't got avgas :) UK pilots don't know how good they have it (most of the time).