Joy of Flying (hazardous conditions)

[GeneW]

Around lunch time today the weather was a "wintry mix", a combination of freezing rain, sleet and snow. The temperatures fell close to freezing and it started to sleet, transitioning into snow.

By late evening the road crews had given up, leaving the roads to their fate, except for applications of salt. The slush was building up and made the roads kind of tricky.

I left work a bit after midnight, tired but looking forward to the challenge. I knew if I got scared the trip would be a horror show so I decided to have some fun instead. Slightly raised the risk in one sense, drastically lowered it in another. Being scared in bad weather is not a good idea.

Ambient was about 32 Fahrenheit, or 0 Celsius. Standard Yaris with AT and M&S tires, probably at seventy percent tread.

Prepared for the trip home by donning the helmet and then playing in the parking lot. The lot had a cover of heavy "wet" snow about three inches thick. Did some bootlegs, controlled skids and so on. Took the car across the street to another business and sailed up their drive, which is about a thirty degree slope. No problems were encountered going up or down, which on the downhill run included controlled skids. The car responded very well to usual countermeasures.

I cannot over emphasize how this preliminary "play" helped me understand the limits of the car in the current conditions. Practicing skids going downhill, normally the worst kind of experience one can obtain, gives one a sense of stopping distance, which gives you an idea of how fast you can go.

The roads were dicey, covered in about two to three inches of thick wet snow. The road crews surrendered and didn't bother to plow, they just applied salt. Might as well have screamed at the stuff for all the good that it did.

Shut off the music, got in tune with the process and paid strict attention to the road and intuition. Felt edge of "instability" and stayed under it. Maintained visual focus for the most part on where I wanted to go since under stress one will tend to steer where they look. Only took glances from side to side and in mirrors as habit and no more.

Butt and back sensations are critical to maintaining stability. Seat of the pants is not just an expression, it is critical to keep the car on the road.

Average speed on the way home was 36 miles an hour per Scangage. Peaked at about fifty miles an hour on the high speed limited access roads but never really dropped below 25 miles an hour except in town on flat roads.

It wasn't as dangerous as it sounded.... the Yaris needs to breathe and move in bad snow. It does not like to "grind" and does not really "Dig in" too well, but it will manage nicely in heavy snow if you respect its limits.

Passed the following....

Pickup doing 27 miles an hour. He pulled out on front of me and then proceeded to drive slowly.

Official Salt truck doing ten miles an hour. I waved to him in appreciation for his efforts though plowing the roads would have been a better bet.

Two pickups going along like baby elephants at about twenty miles an hour.

When I made it onto a Toll road the conditions were not much better but I did not need to account for people coming from the side. I picked it up to fifty miles an hour, the limit of perturbation.

Passed a RAV4 which was barely holding its own, including using "hazards". Since it was a fellow Toyota pilot I tooted the horn at them.

Passed a high performance Nissan which was driving in the shoulder, an Alero driving on the other side of the road on the shoulder and a pickup truck which I guess was shepherding them home. There was ample room between them so I passed down the middle. Total foolishness to take both shoulders when they could have gone in a row together.

Made it home in an hour. Normally the run takes me about forty minutes if I take it easy. I'm still a bit giddy about it, since I know that it is dangerous out there, but I handled surprises and hazards better making a game of it than if I had been afraid, tense and expected disaster around every corner.

Debrief

1. Car ground a bit going up hills at slower speeds. Did quite well when kept above about twenty miles an hour.

2. Rear end got flaky around fifty miles an hour in deep wet snow. This agrees with previous experience. I usually would cut it back if things grew bad but in time I'd pick it up again - sort of a pulse and glide in the other direction.

3. Focus is absolutely essential under these conditions. Especially when ruts in the road try to toss the car off of the road. I did not brake but let the drag of the snow slow me down. Worked like a charm.

4. Snow? Get Snow tires. I have Kelly Springfield M&S tires, thirty years of experience on the road and a lot of theory about Perturbation and Stability. Math isn't a waste of time and snow tires are not a waste of money.

The Yaris can tackle bad weather, if you put the right shoes on it, respect its limits and give it room to breathe and move.

gene