Time to spare? Go by air.

DesertNomad

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DesertNomad
We had planned a trip from Reno to Seattle this week in the Dakota to see the Tigers (my wife is from Detroit) play the Mariners.

Two years ago we did the same trip and, without an IFR rating, had to fly into Yakima and drive over the Cascades because of IFR conditions in the Seattle area. I had hoped that this year, with my now year-old IFR rating, we'd be able to fly directly into the actual destination.

Unfortunately, we've had very unusual weather here in Nevada with lingering rain and lots of embedded thunderstorms. With an MEA of 11,000, we would be well into the freezing level. Tomorrow is more of the same. Given the weather today as seen from my house, I would never even open my hangar door - hail is no fun.

So tomorrow, instead of a 3:50 flight, we are setting out for a 12-14 hour drive.

Sigh.
 
Sounds like good decision making. Nice piloting :thumbsup:

And good luck with the drive. I don't envy you.
 
This spring has been a wreck for weather. I've been trying to plan a trip halfway across the country in a VFR only airplane and between poor weather and horrible forecasting I just haven't been able to find time to get it done yet. Of course, the weather looks halfway decent right now across my route of flight while I'm sitting at work in the middle of the week.

I feel your pain.
 
Time to spare,go by air, the weather never cooperates when you need to be there.
 
Friday actually looks flyable, but if it isn't I won't have enough time to drive... it's a two day drive for me since I can't do 14 hours in a day unless zombies are chasing me.

And next week looks like more of the same so I don't want to get stuck waiting days to come home. The trouble is that if Reno is IFR or even MVFR, it is often not flyable in a light aircraft because of wind/ice/snow/thunderstorms.
 
Friday actually looks flyable, but if it isn't I won't have enough time to drive... it's a two day drive for me since I can't do 14 hours in a day unless zombies are chasing me.

And next week looks like more of the same so I don't want to get stuck waiting days to come home. The trouble is that if Reno is IFR or even MVFR, it is often not flyable in a light aircraft because of wind/ice/snow/thunderstorms.
did you look at the 121 options? sometimes Reno-seattle is dirt cheap
 
Look on the bright side. At least the decision was relatively easy. :)
 
We had planned a trip from Reno to Seattle this week in the Dakota to see the Tigers (my wife is from Detroit) play the Mariners.

Two years ago we did the same trip and, without an IFR rating, had to fly into Yakima and drive over the Cascades because of IFR conditions in the Seattle area. I had hoped that this year, with my now year-old IFR rating, we'd be able to fly directly into the actual destination.

Unfortunately, we've had very unusual weather here in Nevada with lingering rain and lots of embedded thunderstorms. With an MEA of 11,000, we would be well into the freezing level. Tomorrow is more of the same. Given the weather today as seen from my house, I would never even open my hangar door - hail is no fun.

So tomorrow, instead of a 3:50 flight, we are setting out for a 12-14 hour drive.

Sigh.

It would have been fun to fly it, but like said, good choice. We'd rather hear about your road trip than your NTSB report. I'll give ya a 'Go Tigers' even though I still hold a grudge over them destroying the Padres in the 84 Series.
 
I'm in the middle of my IFR training right now...the one use of my IR that I'm looking forward to will be taking my son to distant NFL games... @DesertNomad your post is bumming me out man!
 
It would have been fun to fly it, but like said, good choice. We'd rather hear about your road trip than your NTSB report. I'll give ya a 'Go Tigers' even though I still hold a grudge over them destroying the Padres in the 84 Series.
In Detroit, the '84 Series is "famous" not so much because we won, but because of what the good citizens did afterward... not one of my hometown's best moments. :(
 
Ditto! I avoid commercial like the plague.

And pretty successfully, I might add. Last commercial flight was to Europe in 2010. Only because it’s kinda hard to drive to or from Europe.
I've gotcha beat. My last commercial flight was to SFO in 2003. :D
 
My last commercial flight was to Europe in February.

Crossing the North Atlantic in my Dakota (and in winter!) seemed like an even worse idea than flying to Seattle today.
 
Stuff happens. :(

We flew from Atlanta to Champaign, IL this past Sunday to see our niece graduate. We stopped in Lexington, KY on the way to pick up one of our daughters, so she could go too. We put 6.4 on the hobbs flying over 900 nm round trip on Sunday, mostly great weather.

On an earlier trip to Charleston we ended up driving due to high winds and turbulence. When we stopped for gas and a bathroom break we had to hold the door open on the car or the wind would shut it, and lean into the wind as we walked to the gas station building and back to the car. That drive was easy to substitute due to the short distance. The graduation trip would have been canceled, just too far to drive in one day.

We fly commercial for long flights or during the winter months, which are often long trips too. I prefer to fly private, but flying from Atlanta to the west coast in a small piston plane is more of an adventure than a trip.
 
Armatures,,, I last flew in a tube, to La Paz in 1998!
Actually I had a brain fart... I flew commercially MUCH more recently than that, a one-way trip from KBTV to KDTW with a layover at KORD. It was in 2014 and it was for a good (i.e. GA) cause though - so I could move my plane from KVLL to KMPV, where I'm currently based.

Don't know how I could have forgotten about that...
 
An hour out of Reno and I'm glad we're not flying. Dark clouds with bases at maybe 2000 AGL and dropping, but extending up to freezing levels and T-Storms building.
 
Something to keep in mind for the future is that you can book a flight on Southwest and then, if weather allows you to fly GA, change your reservation and use the credit another time.
 
I'm planning to fly a 170 from MI to TX next weekend. Every day there have been some big storms between here and there. Luckily, I'm in no hurry. I'll fly around them or wait them out. Part of the fun of flying for those of us just flying for fun!
 
"When you have time to spare, go by air" is an incomplete phrase. After the dawn of the jet age it was changed to: "When you have time to spare, go by air. More time yet? Go by jet." :D
 
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