Yesterday I got the plane back from annual. It was 2 and half weeks and I was already feeling withdrawals. I was hoping to get an early start today for a trip down to Florida for the long weekend. Upon review of the weather it looks like everything east of the Mississippi is covered in a convective SIGMET for the entire weekend, and with the frontal situation and outlook, it would be a good possibility that a VFR only pilot such as myself could end up spending lots of time dodging storms and searching for holes. As a first flight with Eesa, I didn’t think that the possibility of spending 10+ hours on a one way flight because of deviations was going to be a good plan so I scrubbed it. Instead, we opted to do a local flight with Chuck up to Janesville (KJVL) to get a late breakfast at Bessie’s Diner.

We loaded up and where wheels up around 10:30a for our short 30 minute flight up to Janesville, WI. The temperature outside was a balmy 89 with a 4 degree dew point spread. Given that we were going to be only going about 60 miles, we couldn’t get up to any real altitude. Couple this with the temperature inversion we had down low almost all day, and we were flying at 3,000 feet in 90+ degree heat with lots of humidity the whole way. The vents felt like someone breathing on us. It was not enjoyable in the least bit. When we landed, it looked like we had gone for a swim we were so sweaty.

Bessie’s was awesome as usual. Eesa even commented that it was the best hash browns she has had in a long time. I had an omelet and she had the Monte Cristo, and we were both dreading the flight back home. It was only getting hotter outside and the winds have been calm. No movement and the temperature inversion continued to persist. I knew we were in for a terrible, yet smooth, ride home.

We finished up, paid our bill, and I headed out to do my preflight and open everything up to let as much air through the cabin as possible. The inside of the plane was like an oven from sitting out on the ramp in the sun. We loaded up and took off and I climbed as aggressively as I could to try and get above the inversion and haze layer where there was cooler air. We had about 10 minutes of “less hot” air coming through the vents before I had to descend back into the humid oven below through a hole in the cloud layer we had gotten above. I kept it moving pretty fast all the way up to downwind and we had an uneventful landing back home at Aurora. We cleaned the bugs off and went home to take a nap. Exhausted from the heat.