Flew a 650 mile hour cross country a few days ago and ran into a few walls of towering clouds.
Climbed over the first wall at 12,500 just barely made it over. No O2 onboard and climb rates at that altitude are rather anemic, definitely didn’t want to go much higher.
The next wall comes up looking even taller than the first (can’t see the ends in either direction to the side), so we decide to go under this time. Bases were about 5,500 so seemed ok at first. Then, just when we get to the mountains they drop to somewhere around 4,500-5,000. I can see the tops of the mountains below the clouds, but there’s no much space between and the viz is pretty bad. Then I break into a tailor made clearing a good 5 miles in diameter all the way up, so I decide, no way I’m going under those things, let’s circle up through this clearing and go over again.
I’m on flight following so I let them know I’m going to circle up and try to get over the clouds. The controller asks if I need anything. I say no, just trying to get over the clouds. We again just barely make it over the clouds at 12,500 by heading to the lowest spot. After that it was smooth sailing to destination.
But now, a couple days later and after reading this thread, I’m wondering if they could have helped in some way I’m not aware of. I didn’t need to divert because of the clearing and I could make it over. But was there something they could have assisted with had I asked? We’re they just concerned that I was trying to fly in the cloud and making up a story about a clearing?
Climbed over the first wall at 12,500 just barely made it over. No O2 onboard and climb rates at that altitude are rather anemic, definitely didn’t want to go much higher.
The next wall comes up looking even taller than the first (can’t see the ends in either direction to the side), so we decide to go under this time. Bases were about 5,500 so seemed ok at first. Then, just when we get to the mountains they drop to somewhere around 4,500-5,000. I can see the tops of the mountains below the clouds, but there’s no much space between and the viz is pretty bad. Then I break into a tailor made clearing a good 5 miles in diameter all the way up, so I decide, no way I’m going under those things, let’s circle up through this clearing and go over again.
I’m on flight following so I let them know I’m going to circle up and try to get over the clouds. The controller asks if I need anything. I say no, just trying to get over the clouds. We again just barely make it over the clouds at 12,500 by heading to the lowest spot. After that it was smooth sailing to destination.
But now, a couple days later and after reading this thread, I’m wondering if they could have helped in some way I’m not aware of. I didn’t need to divert because of the clearing and I could make it over. But was there something they could have assisted with had I asked? We’re they just concerned that I was trying to fly in the cloud and making up a story about a clearing?
