(CYHF) Hearst ON

Flying time 2:25. Total flying time for today is 7:15. Stayed overnight at Companion Hotel. The airport manager drove me to the hotel.

The good news was that winds aloft had shifted so they had more of a corsswind component. The bad news was that the winds themselves had grown stronger so that the headwin component was worse.

The crab required to stay on course was substantial. By following a powerline near Hearst and cpmparing the GPS track angle over the round with the compass heading of the aircraft I cpnformed a 30 degree crab angle. It was was easier to look out the side window to se where I was going than out the windshield. My instruments were showing a wind value of 60 knots. I thought it was a bogus value until I confirmed that the true airspeed value of 120 knots at a crab of 30 degrees confirmsthe 0 knot ground speed showing. It is also a way to conform the accuracy of the airspeed indicator.

To make things more annoying I ran into some rain on this leg. This has two effects. I hafd noticed before that rain drops my airspeed from 5 to 10 knots.Normally i would increase engine power and rpm to counteract a weather induced speed reduction. Thatis what I did on the leg to La Tuque. But I don't like to run the propeller at high rpms in the rain. So I was stuck with a ground speed around 86 knots over sections of this leg.

The Sunday plan is Pickle Lake ON, Pine Dock MN and Tisdale SK. The weather will tell whether.

Weather in Hearst forced a late start. Pickle Lake was still bad so elected to go Sioux Lookout instead.Read more