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Flying when you can

A couple of days ago, the forecast for today was for very cloudy weather and probably some rain. This morning, the weather was considerably better than that. It was overcast, but at four or five thousand feet, and the METAR and TAF at Paine Field were VFR. So I decided to head out and take Ariel up for at least a quick flight.

This is the first time I've gone up since the runway resurfacing project was finished last week. The new runway is very nice. There's nothing like fresh, smooth tarmac under your wheels. The runway is also six feet wider than it was, which doesn't sound like a lot but it makes a difference.

Runway 33 was in use at the time, so after I took off I did the normal noise abatement procedure and turned to a heading of 290 when safe to do so. I continued to climb, then turned northward to continue my departure. I quickly realized that I was headed straight into a layer of clouds that were at about 900 feet. I turned away, headed south for a bit while continuing to climb, then turned around again and flew north again above that layer. It didn't cover a large enough area to be a ceiling so I continued north while climbing to 3000 feet.

I flew northward and then east out the valley toward Darrington. Once I got to Darrington I turned around and headed back. As I looked south toward Harvey Field it appears that more low clouds were coming into the area, so I decided to head back and land. The total flight would be a bit more than an hour when I got back. As my Stratux ADS-B receiver also received realtime weather updates, I added the radar weather layer to the map in FlyQ on my iPad Mini. It showed a region of precipitation moving toward Harvey Field, which further motivated me to return.

I came in from the northeast, and overflew the field at about 1500 feet. On the west side of the airport a low cloud layer was at about 1200 feet, matching up with what FlyQ was showing me. I descended to pattern altitude after crossing the field, then turned right to make a teardrop entry to the left-hand pattern for runway 33. I flew a decent pattern, and made what I think was a rather good landing. It really makes a difference if you can nail the approach speed which I did today.

All in all, the flight was 1.1 hours. After I landed, there were still aircraft taking off and landing, but I decided to put it away and not press my luck with the weather by doing another takeoff and landing. The engine ran great and the plane flew well. Everything worked and even the intercom was behaving itself. All-in-all a nice little flight.

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