"IFR" to Orange County

As I've mentioned before Orange County NY (KMGJ) has a great new restaurant on the field. Yesterday Dean and I decided to take the ladies out for dinner and shoot for some IFR practice at the same time. BDL's forcast was for 3,000 OVC and POU's forecast was for 2,000 OVC. Both of the TAFs expected it to be a broken layer by the time we were supposed to be departing. Either way, it appeared like it was a nice IFR day. I filed the simplest route I could imagine which was HFD.IGN at 6,000ft. I ran home, went through all of the weather, NOTAMs and other information regarding the trip and headed down for the preflight.

When I got to the airport, the weather was quite nice. Clouds seemed to be scattered not overcast. There was one big dark region in the sky but the radar barely had any echos so I was not worried. The preflight was finished, the ladies showed up and we all got in for departure. I called BDL clearance before we started up just to make sure we weren't going to have to hold for 30 minutes waiting for a release with the engine running. I guess ZNY's computer didn't like my simple route so they cleared me for VEERS.V205.TRESA at 6,000.

As we got in the air, we realized that there were no clouds in the area. They were all well abov 7,000. We flew our assigned route and encountered no clouds until we hit the Hudson River.e There was one big dark cloud loaded with moisture there that we flew through for only a matter of minutes....but it was IFR! The trip was not a total bust anyway. I shot the ILS 03 into MGJ just for the practice and currency.

Dinner was of course great. I had a Chicken Club wrap which was very good. Lisa's hamburger looked like a more than adequate portion for any adult.

We finished eating and then departed VFR this time as the weather was now almost completely clear. I shot the VOR 36 approach back into MMK again just for the currency and practice.

It's funny how often we hope for perfect weather and get a crummy day and then when we want a crummy day, we end up with perfect weather. I guess that's just how nature is...