Ed Haywood
En-Route
We often talk about the value of in-flight weather for XC, but I had an experience tonight that reminded me it can be useful for local practice too.
My Decathlon is based at FD77, southeast of Tampa. My aerobatic practice area is 10 miles east/southeast of the airfield. Tonight at about 7pm I departed for a quick practice session. When I took off, there were 2 small showers passing by a few miles north and south of the airfield. This is not unusual in Florida this time of year.
After 20 minutes of vigorous practice I turned to head home, and could not see my airfield. The showers had become a full on thunderstorm parked directly on my airfield. Lighting and torrential rain. I skirted the edges of the precipitation to look for a way in, but it was a wall of zero visibility all the way to the ground. No way to run that scud.
I flew to an area of clear skies about 10 miles away to assess the situation further. I did not have my portable ADS-B receiver or my iPad on board, because loose devices tend to fling around the cockpit when pulling G's. I did have my cell phone in my pocket be with iFly installed. I found a cell tower and circled at 1K to get a NEXRAD update so I could figure out which way the storm was moving. After loitering for the better part of an hour waiting for the storm to move, I decided to land about 20 miles away at Wachula FL and wait it out. After another hour the thunderstorm moved away, and I flew back in the dark.
I would have been fine without the weather in cockpit, but it was a very valuable tool in assessing my options. So the next time you go out for a local practice session, consider the value of having your XC gadgets in your flight bag "just in case". Also, that old adage about fuel left on the ground turns out to be true. My 30 minute local practice session lasted almost 2 hours.
My Decathlon is based at FD77, southeast of Tampa. My aerobatic practice area is 10 miles east/southeast of the airfield. Tonight at about 7pm I departed for a quick practice session. When I took off, there were 2 small showers passing by a few miles north and south of the airfield. This is not unusual in Florida this time of year.
After 20 minutes of vigorous practice I turned to head home, and could not see my airfield. The showers had become a full on thunderstorm parked directly on my airfield. Lighting and torrential rain. I skirted the edges of the precipitation to look for a way in, but it was a wall of zero visibility all the way to the ground. No way to run that scud.
I flew to an area of clear skies about 10 miles away to assess the situation further. I did not have my portable ADS-B receiver or my iPad on board, because loose devices tend to fling around the cockpit when pulling G's. I did have my cell phone in my pocket be with iFly installed. I found a cell tower and circled at 1K to get a NEXRAD update so I could figure out which way the storm was moving. After loitering for the better part of an hour waiting for the storm to move, I decided to land about 20 miles away at Wachula FL and wait it out. After another hour the thunderstorm moved away, and I flew back in the dark.
I would have been fine without the weather in cockpit, but it was a very valuable tool in assessing my options. So the next time you go out for a local practice session, consider the value of having your XC gadgets in your flight bag "just in case". Also, that old adage about fuel left on the ground turns out to be true. My 30 minute local practice session lasted almost 2 hours.
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