Tag Archives: weather
Icing and sublimation
On Friday, when I was flying back from Fredericton to Ottawa, I picked up a splash of clear ice in a cloud top over Maine. I use my Outside Air Temperature (OAT) probe as an early ice detector, since thinner … Continue reading
The summer flying dilemma
On a typical VFR summer day in southern Canada or the northern US — the kind that the weather(wo)men call “a mixture of sun and cloud” with a decent amount of humidity — swirling columns of heated air, called thermals, … Continue reading
Thor doesn’t want you to fly today
So where would you fly in this? There are thunderstorms right across the country and well north of the Arctic Circle, and then snow. (Source: Environment Canada, Canadian Weather at a Glance.)
Partial panel
I had my first experience flying partial panel in IMC on Monday, coming home from Boston. It wasn’t the classic partial panel — a vacuum failure — but a failure of the attitude indicator instrument itself, followed by the airspeed … Continue reading
Dead airspeed indicator
The incident I flew through some light snow showers on my way to Kingston with my daughter this morning, so I turned on the pitot heat just before joining the circuit to make sure the pitot blade was clear. At … Continue reading
Tagged aviating, maintenance, tips, weather
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Wednesday afternoon, 1:36 pm, Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier Airport
On the way home from Teterboro Airport after a March break family trip to New York City, after 2.6 flying hours mostly in IMC with light to moderate turbulence. My older daughter in the copilot seat whipped out her camera … Continue reading
Tagged aviating, places, system, weather
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Winter flying around the Great Lakes
There is one really, really, REALLY important rule about winter flying near the Great Lakes: Remember which way the wind’s blowing. Even if there are blue skies everywhere else, a cold wind will often pull streamers of lake effect weather … Continue reading
Serious upper winds
Check out the low-level upper wind forecast (FD) for Ottawa tomorrow — it looks like the gales of November are coming calling a couple of days early: STN YOW – for use 3000 6000 9000 12000 18000 FDCN03 CWAO FCST … Continue reading
Great flying weather, and a bit of boneheaded flying
Warm front pushing in, ceilings at 800 ft AGL with occasional 400 ft, light rain, freezing levels above 10,000: it looked like great flying weather to get in some IFR approaches in actual IMC. Recency Pilots have to do a … Continue reading
Land and Hold Short 