Scud Running Adventure (long)

[sonex1284]

On June 1, 2014, while returning to Oregon from the Rio Linda fly-in, I had an interesting run-in with the weather which, in the interest of safer flying, I thought I would share with the Sonex group. First, just a little background; Like any coastal state, Oregon gets its share of advection fog. This usually happens in the morning, and dissipates when the sun rises. The fog typically clears by 10-11 am at the latest.
Of course Tracy, CA was CAVU when I checked the route forecast that morning at 8 am. Parts of the Oregon coast were MVFR for fog, but forecast to clear by 11 am. That shouldn't have been any problem for me because many of the airports along my path were VFR. I would overfly just a few that were MVFR and were forecasting VFR by the time I got there.
After saying good bye to my wonderful host, Jeffry Larson, I departed Tracy ~ 10 am. As some of you know, I've added a 7 gallon auxiliary fuel tank which gives me about a 4 hour range if I’m throttled back just a little (20 gal @ 5 gal/hr with 3 gal reserve). I headed north averaging about 145 mph and just under 5 gph burn.

About 2.5 hours into the flight, I switched to the aux and transferred the 6+ gallons into my main. I was nearly 30 minutes North of the last, best, fuel stop and I started crossing over some “fingers” of fog that had not cleared from the valleys. The farther North I progressed, the worse the fog was getting. Knowing that I had more than an hour of fuel left, there shouldn't be any issue getting to my next waypoint which was an airport previously forecasting VFR. However, the fog continued to get worse, rather than better. As I watched my fuel level slowing decreasing, I had to make a choice. 1) Turn back :45 minutes to the last airfield I passed that had fuel, 2) Keep going and trust the 4 hour-old forecast. 3) Find a way to put the plane down pre-emptively.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Southern Oregon terrain, it’s not mountainous…but it is hilly and rough. I was still at 5500 ft and was watching the terrain on my Enigma. It did not look good to drop down (More on the Enigma later). My initial thought was to fly to Eugene, an airport farther west with radar, admit my situation (VFR on top), and be talked down through the clouds. About the time I was getting ready to turn west, I saw at the end of a valley a small gap between the bottom of the clouds and the ground. I thought that if I could just get under the layer, I’d probably be OK. Well…that thought was “partially” OK.

I circled around losing altitude and tucked into that gap. The good news is that was MVFR. The bad news was that it was down a valley that both sides were in the clouds. I don’t know what inspired me to do this, but I reached up and turned on the GoPro that was right over my shoulder, and I began looking for the nearest airfield! I had to scud run for nearly 20 minutes through the valleys, over the hills, and under the clouds.

Video => http://youtu.be/9cyEDOFNSsY

Let me say a few good things about the MGL Enigma. 1) I knew exactly where I was at all times. 2) The color coded terrain-avoidance was a god-send! I could look ahead and determine whether a route was viable or not. 3) My fuel gauge, coupled with the EI (red cube) fuel flow meter give me great awareness of how much time I had left. 4) Being able to find the airport runways, lengths and frequencies without looking down is an immensely helpful safety feature.

Let me finish by saying that I landed, refueled, waited an hour, and departed safely into clear skies for a pleasant 45 minute trip home. Although I would not recommend any pilot getting themselves into this type of “pickle,” I never felt like I was in an unsafe situation. If I’d felt that way, my back-up plan was to immediately climb through the layer and go to Eugene. Of course I probably would have had to answer to “Big Brother FAA” at some point.
Lessons learned: 1) A lot of fuel can be a bad thing…If I had landed earlier, I would have checked the weather ahead. 2) In flight weather capability will be a future addition to my equipment! 3) Know your electronics and equipment. It would have been a bad time to learn how the EFIS works and what its capabilities are. 4) Practice slow flight and maneuvering. 5) Really, Really, Really, know and trust your fuel calculations/metering!
After the flight, I downloaded the flight data from the Enigma and loaded it into Google Earth. I also found a program that simulates flight along that path. As I replayed the data, I was amazed to find that at times I was only a couple hundred feet above the ground and was down to just over 100 mph. I had really throttled back and was just flying the plane. I added in the GPS replay along with the GoPro video. It’s interesting how close it tracks!

[radfordc]

I had a similar experience flying back from Oshkosh a few years ago. I found myself above the clouds with most of the holes filling in and nothing but white as far as I could see. I dropped through a hole and ended up scud running about 30 miles until the clouds broke. Not high on my list of "fun things to do at Oshkosh".

[andrewp]

Thanks for posting that... very interesting indeed. Of course, good to see it all worked out. Not sure I would have done as well as you in the same position - you handled it very nicely.

AP
#618

[snx590]

Great work, Mike!!...during and post-production. Thanks for taking time to put that together. Having the video really gave extra punch to the story.