green

Today we made our way east toward Asheville. The weather generally looked good, so we headed toward our intended first stop of the day in Little Rock, AR. There was a solid layer of clouds at 3000 feet, but up on top it was clear, calm, and sunny skies.

On the ground

At 4,000 feet

In between, the moisture from the clouds and freezing temperature produced moderate clear ice, our first encounter in the skies with icing. It wasn’t enough to cause any real problems, and once we popped out above the clouds it quickly melted. Still, the speed at which it accumulated was alarming, and we don’t want to repeat that any time soon.

Ice. Eek.

We continued heading east with Ted checking the weather along the way. Unfortunately, the forecast of clouds clearing up in Little Rock never materialized, and our alternate destination took a turn for the worse, so Ted decided to make a u-turn and re-group.

We flew back to Greenville, TX. Things were looking grim when we found out the tower was closed for the holidays (air traffic control was equally perplexed: “I didn’t know you could do that!”), but happily the terminal was open and gas was plentiful.

Greenville Municipal Airport

High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Ted re-plotted our route while I caught part of an episode of Perry Mason in the lobby, and the nice folks at the airport re-fueled us and sold us some charts for our new route.

And because the tower was closed, Ted had to get his IFR clearance from the field. On his cell phone.

Adventure!