stymied by storms

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
21,872
Location
west Texas
Display Name
Dave Taylor
Home Airfield
KMRF
Today was supposed to be a 5am departure in woody to Austin for a non-essential biz meeting, but I canceled. At wakeup time we were in a level 4/5 probably - the rain was so heavy it might have had a bit of hail in it (I am 15mi to the airport however). Metars weren't bad but tz watch the entire route and tz in progress several places along the airway (white line). Night time too (maybe that's easier if not equipped?) Too many other things against it, not enough sleep, behind in projects, worry. It was easy to stay in bed a while longer (but can't sleep now!) I suppose someone could depart /A and ask for deviations right off but ugh, that seems like terrible planning.... plus you would have to *know* you would be able to either clear,.. or be routed through the MOAs (yellow line to the south).
Doesn't it always happen that you cancel for weather, and not 20 minutes later you hear an airplane go by?!
 
Not to fret, Dave, you made the right decision. Why might night time be easier?
 
Heck, Dave, that's no worse than what I took of into after we had lunch together that day!

Actually, of course, it is. Looks like that big cell was heading SE faster than the line I got out ahead of. Good call.

Judy
 
Dave I would have made the same decision. Just out of curiousity did those colors ever change to the nasty yellow, orange or dreaded Red?
 
yeah I followed it; it became a solid, lengthening mass with worse colors. and after a couple hours rain the clouds are on the deck at home here. Associated with the cold front. IF I was fresher IF it was daylight IF I had /G IF I had wx avoidance IF it was a critical mission. Ah well I am enjoying the forced rest at home in the unseasonable cool drizzle. Judy, c'mon back I promise clear calm weather!
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
yeah I followed it; it became a solid, lengthening mass with worse colors. and after a couple hours rain the clouds are on the deck at home here. Associated with the cold front. IF I was fresher IF it was daylight IF I had /G IF I had wx avoidance IF it was a critical mission. Ah well I am enjoying the forced rest at home in the unseasonable cool drizzle. Judy, c'mon back I promise clear calm weather!
Click to expand...


Oh, yeah. I won't hold you to that promise. You know, I ground myself for fatigue faster than just about any reason. I can cope with a LOT if my brain is sizzling along at its normal speed (hey!! no snickering!!), but if I'm tired, I'll tackle only day CAVU over absolutely flat land. Otherwise, I'm grounded.

Judy
 
Well, Dave, I flew the plane up to Tyler today for its annual. Normally, I take as little additional stuff along as I possibly can, but because of that storm, the "cool" front, and the forecast of TSRA between Waco and Tyler, I elected to take the XM weather receiver and tablet PC. Forecast for Tyler all day was 2500' ceilings with chance of isolated TSRA, making it unnecessary to file an alternate. The Tyler ILS is OTS for runway work.

Well, it turned out that the satellite receiver was a "nice to have" but not necessary for TSRA purposes - all the rain was in the Dallas area, so I didn't need to have it along after all. But the ceilings at Tyler were much lower than forecast (1200-1500'), meaning I ended up flying the GPS approach to runway 22 (no vectors to final, those might have been offered if I'd elected the VOR/DME approach instead - heck, Longview Approach was unfamiliar with the GPS approach, didn't even know the FIXES!!! Controller asked me for the fix name and where it was relative to the airport... then cleared me to "the IAF I had previously requested").

Sigh.
 
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