Would you make this flight in a C172...

ZapBrannigan said:
Thanks for making the trip. Hope your flight home was safe and uneventful.

PS - A message board may not be the best place to ask for advice on a go/no-go decision. After reading this thread even I'M undecided on whether you should go! lol. The fact of the matter is that it's your butt in the seat and NOBODY is going to question the conservative decision to stay at home if you are concerned about icing. (and if a certain high-school Prom King wants to tease you about it... tell him where to stick it!) ;)
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Tell who? Vashko?

Haha tonight was great man!
 
Aw, phooey, he's diverting:

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Good job though!
 

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i feel bad that he diverted to an airport thats closed tho.
hell, it was quiet even during the day!
 
Hopefully he diverted for weather he wants to wait out and not something else. The place he set down reported good VFR below a broken layer at 042.
 
I made it home in 1 piece. I just walked into my house a few minutes ago, it was almost a night from hell.

Leg 1: DPA-SQI
Uneventful, briefer didn't mention a word about light-mod percip along the flight, said ceilings were to stay 5-7,000. No problem, I filed for 4 hoping I would be ok...NOPE! 15min prior to diverting I encountered moderate percip, temps at +2C. I happened to look out at the wing and all I saw was the reflection from the strobes, that was freaky. I turn on the taxi light and YUP here's some nice rain/snow (not sure). I heard ice can form up to +5C so that sucks! I remember the briefer telling me I would be at the southern end of the storm so I pull out the low enroute and plot a southern course, about 10min after a course change I encounter moderate turbulence and light-mod percip at 4,000. I look to some city at my right and a cloud is at my altitude, extending lower. Up ahead I see the city lights disappearing. The briefer said I might encounter percip almost all the way to destination, NOT good. I go down to 3,000 and still, temp is at +3 now. Screw this, after about 5 min of being tossed around I divert to SQI.

1) I was certain I would of picked up ice because the temp was close to freezing and I was told the percip extends almost the length of my route, about 2 hours.
2) It was getting very bumpy
3) at 3,000 I was still in LGT-MOD percip and turb, that was the lowest Chicago center could give me.
I decided to land and look at the big picture again and wait out the wx.

Sit at SQI:
It's closed, thankfully they kept their entry way area lit and unlocked so I crash there. Jam out to the ipod and plot courses for an hour, plot an alternate VFR route in case I have to go to about 2,000. Start reading the AIM :) Try to sleep but sleeping on the floor sucks!. DPA sends me a text saying I should be good around 1. I call briefer around 1:30 and he says still some percip and to call back in 1 hour for update, I file my flight plan for 3AM. at 2:30 I call him back and he tells me percip has passed. I'm getting cold now so I'm ready to get out of this place. Turns out there was an AIRMET for mod icing below 8,000. I'm so glad I didn't stay in that percip. While I'm waiting here I see it is snowing, wet snow but steady for an hour or so.

SQI-HOME
Preflight at 2:45...call up clearance at 2:55 but guess what? No FP on file...nice. The flight back was continuous light turbulence for the first 45min but got better later on. DSM was supposed to be OVC050 then SCT040 but when I got here it was CLR, temp at 4,000 was +8C so I didn't really care anyway.

Good flight though, 5.4 flight time and home 7 hours after leaving Chicago.

FYI- the beacon at SQI rotates at 6RPM's :)
 
Add that to your situational awareness bag of tricks. Good learning, and getting to see how every plan needs a backup plan, how conditions can change rapidly..better or worse, and how forecasts are just that....best guesses.

Good work.

6 RPMs huh?......man you must've been bored! :D

Have been to small, uncontrolled GA airports with long waits for cargo or WX, where I've been able to take the time to walk the runway edge counting how many lights there were the length of it, or even walk up to and look into the Tri-Color VASI box to see if I can see the color changes.
 
PGT said:
I made it home in 1 piece. I just walked into my house a few minutes ago, it was almost a night from hell.

Leg 1: DPA-SQI
Uneventful, briefer didn't mention a word about light-mod percip along the flight, said ceilings were to stay 5-7,000. No problem, I filed for 4 hoping I would be ok...NOPE! 15min prior to diverting I encountered moderate percip, temps at +2C. I happened to look out at the wing and all I saw was the reflection from the strobes, that was freaky. I turn on the taxi light and YUP here's some nice rain/snow (not sure). I heard ice can form up to +5C so that sucks! I remember the briefer telling me I would be at the southern end of the storm so I pull out the low enroute and plot a southern course, about 10min after a course change I encounter moderate turbulence and light-mod percip at 4,000. I look to some city at my right and a cloud is at my altitude, extending lower. Up ahead I see the city lights disappearing. The briefer said I might encounter percip almost all the way to destination, NOT good. I go down to 3,000 and still, temp is at +3 now. Screw this, after about 5 min of being tossed around I divert to SQI.

1) I was certain I would of picked up ice because the temp was close to freezing and I was told the percip extends almost the length of my route, about 2 hours.
2) It was getting very bumpy
3) at 3,000 I was still in LGT-MOD percip and turb, that was the lowest Chicago center could give me.
I decided to land and look at the big picture again and wait out the wx.

Sit at SQI:
It's closed, thankfully they kept their entry way area lit and unlocked so I crash there. Jam out to the ipod and plot courses for an hour, plot an alternate VFR route in case I have to go to about 2,000. Start reading the AIM :) Try to sleep but sleeping on the floor sucks!. DPA sends me a text saying I should be good around 1. I call briefer around 1:30 and he says still some percip and to call back in 1 hour for update, I file my flight plan for 3AM. at 2:30 I call him back and he tells me percip has passed. I'm getting cold now so I'm ready to get out of this place. Turns out there was an AIRMET for mod icing below 8,000. I'm so glad I didn't stay in that percip. While I'm waiting here I see it is snowing, wet snow but steady for an hour or so.

SQI-HOME
Preflight at 2:45...call up clearance at 2:55 but guess what? No FP on file...nice. The flight back was continuous light turbulence for the first 45min but got better later on. DSM was supposed to be OVC050 then SCT040 but when I got here it was CLR, temp at 4,000 was +8C so I didn't really care anyway.

Good flight though, 5.4 flight time each way and home 7 hours after leaving Chicago.

FYI- the beacon at SQI rotates at 6RPM's :)
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Fixed it for ya!
 
PGT said:
Good flight though, 5.4 flight time and home 7 hours after leaving Chicago.
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You fly too slow. I flew the exact airplane IKV-MDW-IKV a couple years ago in 5.1. ;)

Glad you made it. I probably would have stuck it out until I noticed a decrease in performance and/or a trace of airframe icing, but it is no fun to get tossed around in turbulence.
 
The only person who can make the appropriate determination is YOU.

I am amazed that people have even interjected their yes or no into this question.
 
Well, if you don't think it's safe, don't go fly. If you feel it's safe, and you want to go fly, go fly.
 
meritflyer said:
The only person who can make the appropriate determination is YOU.

I am amazed that people have even interjected their yes or no into this question.
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Why are you amazed? The original question is "Would you make this flight...", not "Should I make this flight...". Looks to me like folks are answering the question as asked.
 
SteveC said:
Why are you amazed? The original question is "Would you make this flight...", not "Should I make this flight...". Looks to me like folks are answering the question as asked.
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I wasnt going to say anything... but :yeahthat:

Glad to hear that you are home and ok after a "fun" flight.
 
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