SCUD RUNNING IN SOUTH FLORIDA
Set out this morning from KLNA Lantana to go check out the dirt strip I’ve been working on in the SDK. ATIS reported visibility 10, clouds 1800 feet, with only a strong wind to worry about. Looking out the canopy told a little different story going on.
Since “its only a sim” (I’m only VFR licensed) I set the autopilot for 1000 feet and let it fly straight into the soup hoping for a hole near my destination. Sure enough a hole appeared and I dumped the AP and decided to set up for the nearby FD38 Wellington Aero Club airport in the hole (long asphalt instead of short dirt).
After a nasty crosswind landing that I somehow managed to keep on the runway, I back taxied and programmed the GTN 510 direct to go back home to Lantana.
The hole persisted for me to take off but looking in the direction of the route looked dark as night with frequent blinding flashes. Off to the south I could see another hole with blue sky, so south I went a “scud running”
From inside that hole, I could see Lantana under the cloud layer, so I turned toward the airport and checked ATIS for the winds. Even though there are six runway headings to choose, another strong crosswind landing was the best I could set up. I had good visibility under the clouds for a long straight in to rwy 4 and again managed to keep the ground roll on the runway with the wings level.
The #indiafoxtecho LongEZ is a bit of a challenge to land because (of the limitations of MSFS) the canard stalls just below 80kts causing a loss of elevator authority. I should be able to cut the power, and hold the nose off down to around 35-40 kts, but anything less than 80 kts will not allow lifting the nose in the descent. Luckily Lantana has long runways so I maintain the 80 kts, fly it all the way down and let it roll out the inertia, except MSFS turns crosswind ground rolls into blood pressure events.
This is the hole I came in through:
and the fireworks display I was avoiding:
