Leg #4 - Kansas City to Dayton

Really wanted to depart yesterday for Dayton, but there were icing airmets across all of Missouri and northwest Illinois (though most of pireps were from aircraft above 12000 feet) and turbulence and IFR sigmets too - the best decision was, "NO GO".

This afternoon the weather was much better and winds aloft forecasts indicated some wonderful tailwinds. After refueling at Flipside's FBO, I departed Kansas City at 2:15 P.M, and turned on a direct heading for Dayton, 486 NM distant. At 3:48 I had basically been scud running for the previous hour and sometimes was losing sight of the ground as I dodged between a broken layer at 5500 MSL. So it was not unexpected that I would experience a bit spatial disorientation and truly I felt a bit lost and felt that something was not quite right. For one thing, I expected to see the Mississippi River, and it's a pretty good landmark, and not seeing it in that time made me question whether I had already corssed it when I was weaving through a variable brokwn layer and supposedly blistering-strong tailwinds.

I tuned in some NDB's that were along my planned route - nada. Either my ADF receiver is bad, or I'm off course, is what I was thinking. At 3:51 I discovered that I was far south of course and just north of St. Louis. Fortunately I had charts and tuned STL VOR and then re-calculated heading and ETA - estimated one hour additional of flying and it seems the winds were blowing much more out of the north than were forecast. Flight service said the forecast hadn't changed and I could expect strong tailwinds from the west from St. Louis to to almost Dayton, and there it would be a right quartering tailwind.

At 4:44 I was 11 NM south of Vandalla VOR, again it appears the winds are out of the north more than expected, so I over-correct and tune Dayton VOR and wait. I was still dodging a broken layer, but as I got closer to Dayton things started to clear up a little. At 6:21 I received the VOR and at 6:52 PM I set down at KDAY, and almost out of gas. Next time I'll try to keep closer tabs on winds and see what I can do to make a more accurate heading estimates along the rhumbline. I know that over the Atlantic I won't have the pleasure of radio beacons on which to fall back.

Next leg is to PA - Harrisburg. I wonder how the winter climate will affect these legs across the United States and into Canada. I'm also happy to report that "pbot" has joined me in the second Piper Super Cruiser and will fly Truman's NX3671M with me around the world. I am very happy to have him along and I'm sure we'll both have much to report on as we fly two Pipers, solo!