The Smallest Passenger I've Ever Flown

Reading a summer sky

A 90°F July afternoon in the Upper Midwest follows a familiar script: clear morning, cumulus by lunch, storms by dinner. With the family’s departure from Waukesha set for late afternoon, the question was never whether there’d be weather. It was whether there’d be a safe way through it.

Flying the legs on an IFR flight plan kept ATC in the loop and gave me approaches at both ends if the visibility dropped. I spent the ground time in Waukesha doing what most pilots do on a day like that: watching the sky and re-checking the forecast.

Cockpit view of a small aircraft with multiple navigation displays and instruments, showing clouds and sky in the background.

Radar vs. the window

On the leg to Osceola, the iPad radar and the view outside didn’t agree. That’s normal. Datalink weather can be several minutes old by the time it reaches the cockpit, and storms move. The screen shows where a cell was; the window shows where it is.

So I used all three tools: radar for the big picture, my eyes for the next ten miles, and ATC to coordinate in between. Two small deviations, 10° left and later a nudge right, kept us clear of the buildups without a long detour.

A digital aeronautical chart displaying various airports, airspaces, and topographical features, with highlighted areas in pink, yellow, green, and red indicating weather patterns or operational zones.

Fluffy white clouds against a blue sky, creating a serene and calm atmosphere.

Smoke changes the math

You can see a thunderstorm and steer around it. Wildfire smoke is different. It lowers visibility over a wide area with no clean edge to fly around. The planning question became simple: if Osceola goes to instruments, is there an approach and a plan B? The RNAV 10 was the answer, and it’s the approach we flew.

Aerial view of dense green forest with misty atmosphere and airplane wing in the foreground.

What a mission actually involves

Uphaven matches volunteer pilots with families who need to travel. For the pilot, most of a mission is positioning. Two of my three legs, the run out from Flying Cloud and the trip home, had nobody else on board. Add a few hours on the ramp waiting, and the family’s leg is the shortest part of your day.

The other part is people. You meet Kinsley, her mom and her grandmother on the ramp, load their bags, install a car seat for the first time, and earn their trust in about fifteen minutes.

A selfie of three people in a small aircraft, wearing headsets. The woman in the front has long blonde hair and sunglasses, smiling at the camera. A child is seated behind her, and a man with short hair and sunglasses is also in the frame, both smiling.

Watch it, then visit Uphaven

The full video shows the deviations and the approach into the smoke with the real ATC audio.

If you’re a pilot, visit Uphaven‘s site to see how volunteering works; you may not need your own airplane. If you’re not, it’s worth a look to see how they connect families with flights.

One question for you

Pilots: when datalink radar and the view out the window disagree, which do you trust first, and why? Tell me in the comments.