Better Weather

Friday, the 23rd of October. I rearranged my schedule so that I could be off an extra day. It's overcast outside, but the weather briefing shows no significant weather to the west. So, I filed IFR to Gainsville, Texas. This is about half way to out destination of Carlsbad, New Mexico.

We loaded up Romeo Victor and got our clearance on the phone at the end of the runway. After a brief pause at 2,000 feet, the controller cleared us to 5,000 feet and then out final altitude of 8,000 feet. This put us in bright sunshine on top of a white undercast. Unfortunately, the wind is not in our favor today, and we crept along at around 130 knots most of the way.

We arrived at Gainsville about 2 hours and 45 minutes after departure. The winds were strong and gusty, but they were only about ten degrees off the runway heading, so it was a pretty easy landing.

After refueling and stretching out legs, we continued on westbound, arriving at Carlsbad in mid afternoon. The weather was perfect with light winds and a temperature around 75 degrees. The nice lady from Enterprise brought us our car, and we were ready to go.