Bottoming Out

Dear Friends,

I remember taking a Piper Warrior out of Sacremento on a cross country flight when I was still stationed there. It was a beautiful day, and I headed north. On the way was Mount Shasta, an old volcanic mountain on the northern border of California.

It was so beautiful, I decided to have a closer look. So I descended and circled back to the south, overflying the summit of the mountain. Just after overflying the summit, the aircraft began descending-fast. I checked the aircraft systems, thinking I had lost thrust somehow--but I hadn't. The powerplant and prop and all other systems were working just fine. It became clear in a few seconds that I had encountered a significant downdraft. I applied full power and pitched the aircraft to best climb speed, yet it was still descending down the south slope of Mt Shasta.

Well, I thought, this might be it, as the trees got bigger near the base of the mountain where the terrain flattended out ahead of me.

It was a perfectly sunny day, not a cloud in the sky.

But then, at the base of the mountain, the downdraft stopped and the little single engine plane climbed back up nicely to cruising altitude.

It turned out that higher than forcast winds out of the north were flowing over the mountain, up the north side, and back down on the south side. But at the southern base of the mountain, there was no more downslope left for the downdraft, so it bottomed out and let me go.

I spent a lot more time visualizing wind patterns flowing over terrain after that, and I studied my mountain flying techniques even harder than I had before.

Sometimes you have to just fly the aircraft until it bottoms out. A former colleague used to say something like "You can overcome any challenge with attitude and airspeed." A good saying both for aviation and for life.

After Friday's falling blood count numbers, we were aware that any further fall would require a trip to the ER for some blood transfusions. But Saturday, the numbers imroved a bit, and today they improved a bit more. No ER this time. We bottomed out, and while we are still at low blood counts, they are beginning to slowly increase. The aircraft is on it's way back up.

Blessings,
-Mike