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Final Approach
I hadn't flown since my BFR on Tuesday, 6Y9 was a no-go because of wx, and the next two days look really bad (wx tomorrow, wx plus Obama on Monday) so I was determined to go somewhere locally today. The forecast discussion said that the atmosphere across the south was solidly capped and was expected to remain that way until the convection over IL moved in later in the evening. So I decided to go to JXN for dinner, flying outbound in the direction the nasty stuff was coming from for safety. The discussion mentioned a "low end potential" for local cells to develop south of M-59, the area which had seen the best insolation (it was up to 35C down here today). As soon as I was airborne I could see on XM that the cap was already being eroded: cells were sprouting up here and there, mostly between ARB and TOL. There was one starting to pop over DEXER that I tiptoed cautiously around the backside of. By the time I'd landed at JXN there was lots of red showing around AZO. I asked the tower if they were seeing the same thing, and how fast it was moving. They were, and they thought I'd have at least an hour to finish dinner (my first inclination was not even to shut down). But the controller gave me the tower phone number and said I was welcome to call for an update in a half hour or so. When I called in 20 minutes, the bad stuff was already at BTL and he said I'd better finish my lunch and "mosey on out of there". By the time I was ready to taxi, he reported that the storm front was moving past RMY. I launched without delay and turned NE, only to find that there was now a string of cells stretching from about halfway between JXN and ARB to SVM, and another much larger complex moving in from the NW. Farther south over Detroit and downriver there were growing areas of red. It was a bit of a nervous flight for me but I threaded a course between the string of cells and the cluster to the NW and finally rounded the cell at the north end of the string, coming down into VLL from the north just ahead of an area of moderate precip. The Mark I eyeball was nearly useless because of the haze: you weren't going to see anything until you were within a few (< 5) miles of it. For the first time since I bought the plane, I put all of Tom's toys to good use: GDL-69 (XM receiver), WX-900, and the GDL-90 (depicting traffic in the red areas, showing that the XM data was old and the cell had moved on), and DTW APP was very helpful as well. I don't like to be out when that kind of wx is popping, but when things get interesting I'm definitely thankful to have that extra equipment.
I wish I'd remembered to bring my camera... for a screen shot or two.
I wish I'd remembered to bring my camera... for a screen shot or two.
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