Steve and I got ready to take to the sky with no destination in mind. As I walked out to the plane to meet Steve who had beaten my by a few minutes, a fellow plane owner flagged me down. Barrett owns a Cessna 182 (he actually asked me to buy a partnership interest in his plane before I bought Aggie). He told me that he and a friend were heading to Monks Corner, SC to attend the SC breakfast club. I asked him about the forecast weather - he told me it was expected to be VFR all morning. After speaking with Steve, we decided to make the trip. After a quick pre-flight, we started Aggie up and taxiied to Runway 02. Barrett in his 182 taxied about 2 minutes behind us. We took off and made the right turn to the East and immediately noticed a cloud layer at around 3 thousand feet which started 6 miles East of Concord. There is a 2,300 foot antenna 6 miles East of the mid-point of the runway at concord and right above the antenna this layer started. By the time we got 6 miles east, we were climbing through 4,000 feet, well above the layer. Barrett and his 182 were 2 miles behind us. We set up for a cruise at 5,500 feet and headed off to breakfast, or so we thought.
We signaled to Barrett to monitor frequency 123.45, the 'unofficial' air-to-air frequency. We talked throughout the flight. Barrett had tucked in about a mile behind us. While we were burning around 11 gallons per hour, he was burning through 15-16 gallons per hour to match our speed. We talked about the forecast weather at Monks Corner and what Steve and I were thinking about our options. The forecast was for VFR, but as we looked down and saw no holes in the clouds, it was clear that our VFR on top situation was unlikely to change. Nevertheless, we decided to give it a shot. Our go-no go decsision was agreed to be 30 miles. As we approached 30 miles, we tuned in the AWOS at Monks Corner and heard what we already knew - a ceiling of 700 feet with no holes. We decided then it was time to turn around.
Barrett asked that we make our turn to the North (left) so Steve put us in a left bank and started a standard rate 180. Barrett wished us well as we headed back to Concord. Interestingly, though he was only 1/2 mile away as we turned, we NEVER saw him!
Fayetteville approach allowed us to stay at the 5,500 ft altitude. Typically, you cruise at an odd altitude plus 500 feet when going East and an even plus 500 when going west. However, we had a layer below us and another layer above us, so we had little choice. The return trip was uneventful. Steve planted us on the runway about 45 minutes after our decision to turn around. Taxi back and we were done for the weekend (2.3 hours total time).
Interestingly, before we got back to Concord, we heard Barrett file a 'pop up' instrument flight plan with a GPS approach to Monks Corner. Clearly our decision to turn around when we did was the prudent choice. Steve and I have a pretty good track record regarding our decision making while flying together.
Anyway, by the time we were done, we had nothing more than a 2 hour flight in the pattern - just the one landing. 2.3 hours total flight time. Even though we didn't make it to our destination, the flight was beautiful and fun. All-in-all, a good morning.
