WebRuss
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On Friday 28 July Wife and I flew from 2R2 Hendricks County to Pigeon Forge KGKT. The weather started getting cloudy and progressively stormy once we got south of Indianapolis.
I was on VFR flight following and I carefully watched the storms on the on-board NEXRAD and determined there was good spacing and plenty of room to go around the cells as we headed south. Around Campbellsville KY I encountered several storms all lined up with no apparent gap. I turned the plane around and headed for the nearest VFR airport.
I told ATC of my intentions and began to descend in a spiral down to the airport. ATC asked me to let them know when I had the field in sight. I acknowledged and then continued to descend. When I got the field in sight, I keyed the mic and announced "in sight" to ATC. No response. I tried twice more and got not response.
I squawked 1200 and set up to land. On final, I got a good look at the windsock and it was straight out and cross-wind. I tried to compensate with rudder but the crosswind was too strong to land. I aborted the landing and climbed back up. I had 1500 foot ceilings, 8-10 mile visibility, and good clearance of the hills so I decided to continue underneath to my destination. I got close to Pigeon Forge and the skies cleared so I climbed up to 4500 to make sure we had good clearance of the mountains around the field. I got about 20 miles north only to discover the broken ceiling reported on AWOS was now solid overcast.
Okay I contacted Knoxville approach and did a pop-up ifr plan and requested the RNAV 10 approach at Pigeon Forge. Got a few vectors and then cleared for the approach. I lined it up and did the LPV with my GPS and broke out about 1800 feet above the field all good.
I parked the plane and we unloaded all the luggage. When I got inside the FBO the attendant told me that the FAA was on the phone. Well, that was unexpected and I was unsure what I might have done to earn the call. I took the call and first off it was not the FAA it was the ATC controller from Indianapolis center with whom I had lost contact. He was deeply concerned that we had lost contact and he explained that his supervisor had issued a "lost aircraft" alert and then activated the search and rescue. I guess every agency in the area had been alerted when I dropped off. They were one step from sending out the search dogs.
I explained the situation, about multiple attempts to contact him, the crosswind aborted landing and the decision to continue VFR under the clouds to our destination. He explained that he found me because I popped up when I activated the IFR approach into the airport. I guess they put an alert out for my tail number and kept checking flight aware to see if I popped up. That was pretty smart. I thanked him profusely for his diligence and professionalism and let him know how much I appreciated the follow-up. That seemed to settle the problem. He asked for my phone number and that seemed to be the end of it. The airport guys said this was pretty common around here as the weather and mountains often cause loss of contact. Most work out just fine.
After reflection I felt bad for the controller. He probably got pulled because he lost me and had to wait around until I was found. I imagine that was probably very tough for him to wait not knowing our fate.
regards
Russ
I was on VFR flight following and I carefully watched the storms on the on-board NEXRAD and determined there was good spacing and plenty of room to go around the cells as we headed south. Around Campbellsville KY I encountered several storms all lined up with no apparent gap. I turned the plane around and headed for the nearest VFR airport.
I told ATC of my intentions and began to descend in a spiral down to the airport. ATC asked me to let them know when I had the field in sight. I acknowledged and then continued to descend. When I got the field in sight, I keyed the mic and announced "in sight" to ATC. No response. I tried twice more and got not response.
I squawked 1200 and set up to land. On final, I got a good look at the windsock and it was straight out and cross-wind. I tried to compensate with rudder but the crosswind was too strong to land. I aborted the landing and climbed back up. I had 1500 foot ceilings, 8-10 mile visibility, and good clearance of the hills so I decided to continue underneath to my destination. I got close to Pigeon Forge and the skies cleared so I climbed up to 4500 to make sure we had good clearance of the mountains around the field. I got about 20 miles north only to discover the broken ceiling reported on AWOS was now solid overcast.
Okay I contacted Knoxville approach and did a pop-up ifr plan and requested the RNAV 10 approach at Pigeon Forge. Got a few vectors and then cleared for the approach. I lined it up and did the LPV with my GPS and broke out about 1800 feet above the field all good.
I parked the plane and we unloaded all the luggage. When I got inside the FBO the attendant told me that the FAA was on the phone. Well, that was unexpected and I was unsure what I might have done to earn the call. I took the call and first off it was not the FAA it was the ATC controller from Indianapolis center with whom I had lost contact. He was deeply concerned that we had lost contact and he explained that his supervisor had issued a "lost aircraft" alert and then activated the search and rescue. I guess every agency in the area had been alerted when I dropped off. They were one step from sending out the search dogs.
I explained the situation, about multiple attempts to contact him, the crosswind aborted landing and the decision to continue VFR under the clouds to our destination. He explained that he found me because I popped up when I activated the IFR approach into the airport. I guess they put an alert out for my tail number and kept checking flight aware to see if I popped up. That was pretty smart. I thanked him profusely for his diligence and professionalism and let him know how much I appreciated the follow-up. That seemed to settle the problem. He asked for my phone number and that seemed to be the end of it. The airport guys said this was pretty common around here as the weather and mountains often cause loss of contact. Most work out just fine.
After reflection I felt bad for the controller. He probably got pulled because he lost me and had to wait around until I was found. I imagine that was probably very tough for him to wait not knowing our fate.
regards
Russ
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