Flying around TS

WannFly

WannFly

Final Approach
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Priyo
Or not. Sitting in my porch and watching the clouds build. It’s convective every darn evening here for past few days. A part of me wants to just go up and skirt around them, the other part says don’t go the piper wing might depart. I think I will grab my single malt bottle now ....
 
Better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air or something like that... :)
 
You'd never fly in Florida from May to October. If there's a front with convective stuff, I'll be on the ground. If it's pop-up stuff, pretty easy to get around it. Get below base, look for the rain and don't go there. P.S. I did that last week in my Cherokee :). There's a huge difference between a squall line and an isolated cell. BTW, with your fancy new 750, you can get a pretty good idea of what's going on with ADSB. Not perfect, but enough to know where to look.
 
Indeed, afternoon pop up stuff? Eyeballs and ADSB radar, stay at least 20mi away, Bob’s your uncle!
 
I need a better understanding of this weather stuff. This is what I see on the prog chart

IMG_2322.png
 
I trained in Central Florida...if you didn't dodge thunderstorms you didn't fly in the summer!

Now that is isolated little pop ups here and there, not a major system.

On a coast to coast flight somewhere middle of nowhere Arizona we put down due to buildups up ahead. After a bit of assessments we decided to make a run for the next airport which had basic services and a hotel anticipating bing stuck there overnight as convective on Forefligfht was looking pretty nasty. Once back in the air and we got a visual one them it was "oh, that is all it is?" and we were able to weave our way through all the way to Vegas always making sure we had an out based on where the buildups were developing.

Long story short...all thunderstorms are not created equal but as soon as you don't have an absolute out it is time to abort!
 
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Well I went up, no didn’t drink. Had keep the flight short since the visibility went to crap right at sunset even though field was reporting 10. Think it’s mostly haze and smoke, thanks to whoever was burning the field. Well, a short flight is better than no flight, the build ups that were looking close was actually fairly away, some scattered stuff around 3500, very anti climatic
 
here is what i learned today:

  • Weather looks more dramatic on the charts and from the ground looking up. i was monitoring weather all day today. there was a convective outlook all over ND and SD with a sigmet bordering fargo and a cold front passing over
  • as the day progressed , they issues a airmet for IFR - low ceiling
  • at 1900 they issued a sigmet covering fargo area and i could see pop up TS all over the place
  • finally a positive outlook in the TAF issued right after the sigmet was issued
  • drove to the airport, did a thorough preflight, took my time with zero expectations of flying
  • sat on the right seat for a while, taxi-ed from the right seat - there was a cell passing over the airport
  • finally there was no more no-go items so i flew for a bit, had to cut it short due to viz and didnt wanted to take a chance in the dark

Need that IR thang.

things worked out in my favor, but i am fairly certain next time it might not...lol
oh, by the way.. both wings are still there
 
Oh, you meant thunderstorms...

I thought this thread was about being Totally Shirtfaced...
 
During the day, like others have said, I wouldn't get much flying in during the summer in FL without dodging storms. But I’d be a lot less inclined to go for a pleasure flight in your situation near nightfall. I like to have lots of time to let a cell move off or find another place to land. Wouldn’t want to do that after dark. I’m not at all comfortable predicting storms at night.
 
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Stay visual, don't fly through rain cells you can't see to the other side of, have plenty of reserve fuel for diversions/deviations, be quick to deviate (and don't be afraid to TELL ATC you're deviating if circumstances dictate; don't fly into a thunderstorm because you can't get a word in or because ATC told you to standby), and don't paint yourself in to a corner with no outs (don't fly into stuff that may close around you). The first few times can be pretty unsettling, but once you've done it a few times (and learn what to really look for), it becomes fairly comfortable.
 
bradg33 said:
be quick to deviate (and don't be afraid to TELL ATC you're deviating if circumstances dictate
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Recent short flight, destination was under that TS, told ATC I was diverting to RZR. They asked why, but was fine when I told them about the destination weather.

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In Florida it's nice to be close to the coast. Often if your origin and destination are near the coast you can count on just going out over the water for safe conditions. However, those over land flights can catch you without a way back home pretty quickly during the day/afternoon!
 
bradg33 said:
Stay visual, don't fly through rain cells you can't see to the other side of, have plenty of reserve fuel for diversions/deviations, be quick to deviate (and don't be afraid to TELL ATC you're deviating if circumstances dictate; don't fly into a thunderstorm because you can't get a word in or because ATC told you to standby), and don't paint yourself in to a corner with no outs (don't fly into stuff that may close around you). The first few times can be pretty unsettling, but once you've done it a few times (and learn what to really look for), it becomes fairly comfortable.
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yeah i need to fly more often around these. next year i am moving to SE, georgia to be specific and looking at the WX out there, afternoon TS are plentiful
 
ADS-B and XM are great, but I like it when I can get above enough of the junk to see the big bad stuff that towers up way too high for me to fly over. Then I can more safely get around it.

ATC is great to work with. They are very helpful. They've helped me get around things well on many occasions.
 
wayne said:
ADS-B and XM are great, but I like it when I can get above enough of the junk to see the big bad stuff that towers up way too high for me to fly over. Then I can more safely get around it.
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Yeah, there seems to be two schools of thought. One is to be VFR below the deck, and look for shafts of rain, the other is to be high and looking for towering CU. I think I prefer to be at 9000-10000msl, and looking for the really tall stuff in conjunction with ADSB and XM.
 
Bill Jennings said:
Yeah, there seems to be two schools of thought. One is to be VFR below the deck, and look for shafts of rain, the other is to be high and looking for towering CU. I think I prefer to be at 9000-10000msl, and looking for the really tall stuff in conjunction with ADSB and XM.
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Agree - though sometimes it stacks up too high to get above it. Sometimes that stacking happens while you are on top. Spiralling down through a hole can be not a lot of fun. Hot and bumpy under cloudbase. Smooth and cool above. Those would be times it would be nice to have a turbo and O2.
 
Hang 4 said:
Agree - though sometimes it stacks up too high to get above it. Sometimes that stacking happens while you are on top. Spiralling down through a hole can be not a lot of fun. Hot and bumpy under cloudbase. Smooth and cool above. Those would be times it would be nice to have a turbo and O2.
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Agree. I've done the above-the-top dodging (in fact, I did some memorial day weekend), but it's not my first choice. Unless you've got forced induction and oxygen, you can run out of oomph before you can clear the tops.
 
bradg33 said:
Agree. I've done the above-the-top dodging (in fact, I did some memorial day weekend), but it's not my first choice. Unless you've got forced induction and oxygen, you can run out of oomph before you can clear the tops.
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Last time I did this the tops were climbing faster than my plane could.
 
The storm had actually moved on quite a bit further by the time we turned east to land.
Screenshot_20200612-103727_Firefox.jpg
 
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