Preflight

East Coast engenders appreciation for visibility

Anyone who knows my 4-year-old son can tell that The Weather Channel logs at least a few minutes on our television each day; one of his favorite recent activities has been "playing Weather Channel." In this game--after I use an imaginary remote control to turn on the "TV" and adjust the volume--he gestures before a pretend weather map and always seems to conclude, "Lots of rain is coming. And now, 'Storm Stories' is coming up next." (It does seem like "Storm Stories" is always coming up next, doesn't it? It's on whenever I want a forecast most.)

Here in Maryland today we enjoyed a brief respite from the hot, humid, and hazy weather that's been blanketing much of the country for several weeks. With a little more foresight, I would have reserved an airplane for the afternoon. Frankly, I'd become a little skeptical, as the promised relief had been reluctant to show up when forecast.

Driving home from work I saw a towering thunderhead peeking above the horizon and wondered how far away it was. "Storm Stories" wasn't on when I got home, but the kids were watching a video. So I called up the nearest Nexrad weather radar on the computer and saw that the cell was in the vicinity of Charlottesville, Virginia, more than 90 nautical miles away. Now, pilots in some parts of the country take that kind of visibility for granted--I once heard an automated terminal information service broadcast in Prescott, Arizona, report the visibility as 70 miles--but for an August afternoon on the East Coast, it is exceptional. (I also realize that if the storm's 36,000-foot-high tops hadn't stretched above the diminished haze layer, I probably would not have been able to see the distinctive anvil head.)

The distant thunderstorm--a bit farther away than I'd expected it to be--caused me to recall a solo cross-country flight to Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport that I made as a student pilot years ago. The route I planned brought me in on an almost-perfect alignment for a straight-in approach to Runway 21, and that was what the tower instructed me to do. But a hill to the north of airport obstructed my view of the runway. The scenario offers similarities to the approach that Ralph Butcher writes about this month in "Insights: The Trap" (p. 60).

Even though my instructor had cautioned me about this, I was surprised to be as close to the airport as I thought I was--I am where I'm supposed to be, am I not?--without being able to see the runway. A few moments later, however, the terrain fell away, and there was the airport. Even better, I was at the right altitude and only a little west of course. It doesn't get much better than that on a first solo cross-country, does it?

There shouldn't be very many thunderstorms near Tampa, Florida, during AOPA Expo 2005, which will be held November 3 through 5--although it is Florida, so there's always a chance.

Are you a flight instructor who is planning to attend Expo? If so, please join us for the annual AOPA Flight Training CFI Roundtable. This informal session allows flight instructors to tell us what's on your minds, and how we can make AOPA Flight Training more useful to you and your students. Each year we've used ideas generated during this meeting to enhance the magazine. The roundtable is Saturday, November 5, from 11 a.m. to noon in Meeting Room 2 at the Marriott Tampa Waterside, adjacent to the Tampa Convention Center.

Expo has a lot to offer student pilots as well. Expo offers 75 hours of educational seminars grouped by subject into tracks, including all pilots, safety, proficiency, technology, medical issues, and aircraft ownership. The tracks are really there just to help you navigate the myriad offerings; attending pilots can choose any seminars they wish. More than 530 exhibitors will fill the main exhibit hall, displaying all types of pilot gear, charts, avionics, insurance--you name it. A short shuttle ride away, more than 70 new aircraft will be available for your inspection at Peter O. Knight Airport.

For more information on AOPA Expo, see the Web site. If you've never attended, you don't know what you're missing.

E-mail Mike Collins, editor of AOPA Flight Training.