What would you have done? Inclement weather coming.

455 Bravo Uniform

455 Bravo Uniform

Final Approach
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455 Bravo Uniform
Twice in my 10 years of flying I have flown someplace where incoming weather was pretty nasty. This was yesterday. I was not flying transplant organs, just coming home from Good Guys car show in Columbus Ohio.

I had ADSB-in, a strike finder, eyeballs outside, talking with ATC, and an aircraft in front of me around 4,500; I was at 6,500, above thin scattered and could see towering cumulus in the distance.

I finally ducked below before a broken layer about 20 miles from my destination, so lost sight of the build-ups. VFR. It was not dark, and I had no precipitation on landing. AWOS (tower was not in operation for a few days) had 9-10 gusting 19-20, aligned with runway 0-10 degrees.

The reason I ask is that (1) we continue to see accidents where we discuss data age/delay being misused for tactical maneuvering, and (2) about 20 minutes after I landed, huge gusts and then downpour which got me to questioning my decision-making.

I always had my alternates and 180 degree turnaround planned, but can’t help thinking what if my “condition monitoring logic” was ill informed.

Again, I had radio comms with ATC and aircraft reporting ahead, strike finder, ADSB, and my eyeballs. Both times I have done this I was getting feedback from ATC on the velocity of the front and basing my decision on my remaining ETE.

What would you have done? The more experience I get, the more I worry that my experience will get me in trouble. I come from the school of causal analysis, so it’s only natural for me to think “paranoidly”.

Have at it…thick skin on this one, posted here for me and others to learn.

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My read is you cut it pretty close. I once took off in front of a line like that that was about 20 miles away. About 300' agl we got hit with a gust that rolled us 30 degrees and must've been moving down at 1000fpm, because we ceased climbing for what felt like an eternity over the tops of buildings, but was probably really 10s. If that had happened 15s sooner, I might not be here.

I'm not going to say I wouldn't have done the exact same thing you did, but just food for thought.

ETA: it took me longer than I care to admit to figure out that the weather was traveling in the normal easterly direction, you track-up weirdo :biggrin:
 
Gust fronts don't show up on ADS-B, or on board radar. Since it hit 20min from landing, you may have just avoided it. Had friend that did that, he made it down but didn't have time to put his plane in the hangar before baseball sized hail totaled it. It sure is tempting when you can see the runway and see the storm coming at you but still aways away. I can't say I would have done different thought- get-home-itis is real and will catch the best of us.
 
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