But the corollary of a cold front is gusty north winds the next day. And there was a strong jet loop that was in just the wrong place. That meant strong north west winds over the Appalachians, and strong headwinds along any route back to Texas. The only good news was good VFR the whole way.
So I flight planned a southern route for the trip home, modified to get away from the mountains and the turbulence they can generate. kfrr kbuy kdcm keet ktcl kier 88r
As soon as I left the ground in Front Royal, it started. I got tossed around for the entire time I was in the air. Just as soon as I was downwind of the mountains I earned a really good jolt, banging my head and rearranging a few loose items. Fortunately my tactic of fleeing the vicinity of the mountains paid off, and that was the worst of the jolts for while.
The #4 EGT probe has been a bit unreliable. I've proven that it's a connector issue since wiggling the wires makes the problem go away. It worked great on the trip out, but stopped working as soon as I departed Front Royal. But now there's another glitch, this one more problematic: The fuel flow pickup is dropping out. The bad news is this takes out my fuel totalizer that gives me range, time left on the remaining fuel, and lots of other useful numbers. Not critical, but useful. More problematic is the actual fuel flow number itself. This is used for leaning the engine, and the % power is derived from it. So I didn't have usable data for this. Again not critical, since I can effectively lean by ear and with the remaining 3 EGT values. But it does need to be fixed. Early research points to possible connector issues. I wonder if the rain on Friday night has anything to do with it...
Chester Catawba (KDCM) was a hotbed of jumping.
A fancy rest stop in Georgia.
On final to KTCL, Alabama stadium. Fortunately they were in Mississippi.
I took off from Shelby County, Alabama (KEET), and Birmingham Approach gave us all an Airmet update for Alabama. I'd been relentlessly hammered for 5 and a half hours, it was late and I was beginning to doubt I could beat sunset, so I called it quits. A nice Class Delta was off my right wing, so I informed Approach of my diversion and landed. It turned out to be Tuscaloosa, Alabama, home of the Crimson Tide. My hotel was across the street from the practice fields. If they had been in town, no way would I have gotten a hotel.
Cav got a room for the night too!
The Alabama game was on lots of TVs. It was on at Shelby County also.
What do ya know, the hotel van takes me right past the stadium.
Caption
Vicksburg, MS.
Hobbs total: 8.8 hrs, the same as outbound. Interesting.
