U
Unregistered
Guest
I had my first encounter with bad weather this weekend. Me, and another more experienced IFR rated pilot decided to make a short 30 min flight. There was a stationary front over our area and the ceilings were lower that we would have liked but we felt they were high enough to make the flight in a safe manner. There were patches of light rain/drizzle in the area - but plenty of sunshine as well. We contacted FSS and looked at the weather and decided to make our flight.
The flight to our destination went well. We only had to steer around one small cell. We completed our business and took a quick look at the weather to see that the conditions had not changed. We took off and headed for home. The return trip was a little more challenging as we had to divert to the west a bit to get around some rain/fog (with 0 vis) in our path. To me it felt as if we were flying from one patch of sun to another. As we neared our destination and turned on AWOS we realized that making it home at that point in time was not going to be an option. They were reporting 1SM vis and 400ft OVC.
We kept going west a bit more and decided to head back (towards the weather) to an airport that's only about 7 SM from our home base that was reporting 7SM and 2000' ceilings. I experienced a bit of anxiousness as we were heading to our alternate and it felt (to me) as if we were in an ever shrinking bowl of good weather. We got on the ground just fine and taxied up to the FBO to wait out the bad weather. It only took about 20 minutes for it to blow over. We called the AWOS at our destination and it was reporting 10SM and 5000' ceilings. We headed out to the plane fired her up and got home with no problems.
I really feel it was a good learning experience for me and it reinforces the need for me to continue my training and get my IR.
The flight to our destination went well. We only had to steer around one small cell. We completed our business and took a quick look at the weather to see that the conditions had not changed. We took off and headed for home. The return trip was a little more challenging as we had to divert to the west a bit to get around some rain/fog (with 0 vis) in our path. To me it felt as if we were flying from one patch of sun to another. As we neared our destination and turned on AWOS we realized that making it home at that point in time was not going to be an option. They were reporting 1SM vis and 400ft OVC.
We kept going west a bit more and decided to head back (towards the weather) to an airport that's only about 7 SM from our home base that was reporting 7SM and 2000' ceilings. I experienced a bit of anxiousness as we were heading to our alternate and it felt (to me) as if we were in an ever shrinking bowl of good weather. We got on the ground just fine and taxied up to the FBO to wait out the bad weather. It only took about 20 minutes for it to blow over. We called the AWOS at our destination and it was reporting 10SM and 5000' ceilings. We headed out to the plane fired her up and got home with no problems.
I really feel it was a good learning experience for me and it reinforces the need for me to continue my training and get my IR.