Encounter with Thunderstorm

[steamee]

I'm one of the unfortunates living in the all grey all rain NE USA and yesterday was the only day in recent memory where you could see the sun from the ground. As luck would have it I had a plane scheduled after nearly a month of being grounded. Sweet!

Fast forward to late afternoon and I'm pre-flighting under some growing cloud cover, but nothing that said imminent doom. It was actually quite pleasant without any excessive wind or anything. However, my first clue that something was up was when I was about to call up ground control and heard them asking the preceding caller whether they had received Bravo (which contained some TS warnings SW of us). I called in and said we were ready to taxi with Bravo. I was a bit skeptical, but we looked around and I guess my CFI still thought we could beat the TS activity out. It's not like the skies had suddenly darkened or anything. Broken clouds with sun.

Clue #2: Ground control asks me what my intentions are and I said, "Remaining in pattern." Hmmm, ground had never asked me for my flight direction in all the time I had been training there, but I didn't hear anything else about it.

I throttle up and start taking us to the taxiway. I got re-routed by ground control to another taxiway. That's when I commented to my CFI, "Gee I don't think I've ever seen so much ground traffic here before." There were 3 light aircraft in various stages of taxiing back. In the distance I could see another skyhawk coming in. About 10 seconds after that ground control calls me up and says, "Thunderstorm activity moving into the airport from the SW, do you still want to proceed?" Clue #3!

Now I'm at a taxiway intersection where I'm holding for other traffic. Ground was asking what I want to do. At this point all my weather studying has freaked me out and I instinctively blurt out, "Negative." but then realize I didn't check with my CFI. I look over and he's looking around and keys the mike for us and tells ground we want to continue holding. Doh. I didn't actually tell ground what I wanted to do. It takes him about 2 seconds though to decide that we want to 180 back to the ramp. As ground moves us back my CFI says, "There's a reason why everyone is coming in."

As I pedal turn around the taxiway leading two other aircraft we notice that the skies that were directly behind us had indeed turned a menacing dark grey. Right when we turned onto our ramp a giant stroke of lightening, probably at least a 1000' tall, struck the ground a few miles SW of the airport. As we got out to tow the AC back for tie down I noted that it still wasn't excessively windy nor was there any precipitation.

So I got to drive the AC around a short distance and that was it. However, I did still learn some things:

• ATC will absolutely give you all the rope you want to hang yourself with. Not once did ATC deny my requests or ordered us back. However, they will give you hints as above.
• Thunderstorms can appear and move quickly and is not always preceded with any inclement weather to give you hints. This was a quick one. Everything was back to sunny in an hour.
• The area forecasts may not be 100% accurate but they are surprisingly close sometimes. The FA for my area predicted storm activity only in the afternoon. Lo and behold.
• I asked my CFI what we would have done if we had taken off just 15 minutes earlier which would have put us in the practice area as intended. He said we would probably have had to divert and land unexpectedly at another nearby airfield. This got me thinking that you could always have such an "emergency" even when your AC is fine. This TS was sneaky. Spent some time understanding how to get WX data on the AC MFD while we were doing ground.

Happy 4th and watch out for that weather!

 

[mikea]

If you had taken the runway the guy in the tower - after he cleared you - would respond by going to the phone pad and dialing the 9 and the 1.

 

[Maverick]

We can read the books and study for the written exams but when you experience it first hand it definitely makes for a lsting impression. I remember my long solo cross country. The weather forcast was nothing but great all day, hard to believe for Michigan, but true. I planned a trip from Detroit City (DET) to Traverse City (TVC) to Muskegon (MKG) and back to DET. I had my Nav Logs all filled out and departed DET for the first leg which I flight planned for two hours. Every checkpoint was right on the money time wise and that first leg was like clock work.

I landed at TVC, fueled up the airplane and had some lunch. Shortly after leaving TVC on my way to MKG I saw this dark spot on the horizon dead ahead. This was at a time when flight service stations were actually at many airports. So I caled the FSS at Traverse City and asked if there was any weather between TVC and MKG. They told me that a thunderstorm had developed over Lake Michigan and it was just coming in over the shore line. They recommended that divert to Mount Pleasant and then over to Muskegon and that would take me around this isolated cell.

At that point I threw my Nav Logs in the back seat, tuned in the Mt. Pleasant VOR and headed toward it. I passed well in front of the now visible cell and as I approached Mt. Pleasant I could see that I had a clear route to Muskegon so I decided to continue to Muskegon. Although I was never close to that storm cell I learned that you don't have to be very close to still feel the effects in the way of turbulence that can be pretty intense. What I learned from that is that what I felt was not close was probably still a bit too close.

In any case I made it to Muskegon, gave the weather a check at the FSS that used to be there and departed for Detroit City. Then when I was nearing the Detroit area I saw a line of rain showers extending from the Pontiac area to the down river area blocking my way back to DET. Again I diverted north of Pontiac planning to land at one of the northern suburb airports if necessary. Once I was east of Pontiac I had a clear route to Detroit City and I turned in that direction. I was in the clear but the wind was picking up speed and it made for an interesting cross wind landing.

I learned a lot from the flight. I especially learned not to place too much trust in weather forcasts especially when you're in a state that is prone to changes as Michigan is. And always give thunderstorms a wide berth. You really don't want to be near one especially during takeoff and landing procedures. Microbursts and wind shear from thunderstorm have driven commercial airliners into the ground well short of the runway during approach procedures.

Happy Skies!

Jean

 

[jesse]

Any chance you or your CFI looked at the radar before the flight? Doing so isn't fool-proof by any means, but, it generally gives you a pretty good idea of what is going down.

 

[dmccormack]

Any chance you or your CFI looked at the radar before the flight? Doing so isn't fool-proof by any means, but, it generally gives you a pretty good idea of what is going down.

Agreed.

I live in SW PA -- and have been putting up with the same messy spring/summer.

Area Forecasts are ok for general flight planning (and are the only forecast products with tops -- which may or may not be the actual case).

It takes about 1 minute to look at radar, look up the winds, and take a glance at METARS at nearby fields.

After a while you'll develop a feel for your local area and what conditions cause thunderstorms to appear.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Any chance you or your CFI looked at the radar before the flight? Doing so isn't fool-proof by any means, but, it generally gives you a pretty good idea of what is going down.

Not always, especially WRT timing. I once went for what was supposed to be a quick flight to shoot one approach before the storm arrived... And on our way out to the runway, Ground said "Archer 62Sierra, looks like there's a Level 6 thunderstorm that's almost here." It both intensified and sped up between looking at the radar and getting in the plane (which was a pretty short span to begin with, since we knew we'd only have time to shoot one.)

I'd never even heard of a Level 6 t-storm, and I'd never seen purple on the radar before, either. Tops went to FL590!

 

[jesse]

Not always, especially WRT timing.

Doing so isn't fool-proof by any means

It isn't perfect...but most of the time it provides a lot of valuable data...and is one of the best things you can do with the 1 second it takes to view the image.

 

[AdamB]

yeah I have to wonder too. Maybe the CFI intended it to be a lesson???

 

[DutchessFlier]

Just read your post...I have been away for 2 weeks (Forget about the rust covering my whole body)..has the NE WX gotten any better at all???
The week before I left (June 6-22 to 6-28) we cancelled my flights and lessons 5 times...amazing to say, all because of thunderstorms and my last logged flight was June 25th...sheesh!!! Hows it going now?

 

[alaskaflyer]

yeah I have to wonder too. Maybe the CFI intended it to be a lesson???

In my experience he would have had a cell phone glued to his ear talking to his girlfriend/wife/credit counselor until rotation or electrocution whichever happened first

 

[AdamZ]

Just read your post...I have been away for 2 weeks (Forget about the rust covering my whole body)..has the NE WX gotten any better at all???
The week before I left (June 6-22 to 6-28) we cancelled my flights and lessons 5 times...amazing to say, all because of thunderstorms and my last logged flight was June 25th...sheesh!!! Hows it going now?

Wx has been awesome for the past week.