If you're going to fly in the southeast in the summer, you're going to confront thunderstorms 
. Let me just pass on a brief story of my flight yesterday.
I had been on Mustang Island off the coast of Corpus Christi, TX on a family reunion for a week. My wife, son and I had flown the Mooney down and had a great time. (Nice little unattended airport on the island - KRAS)
I had kept an eye on the weather while I was there (the condo had a broadband connection
). A direct route home (approx 760 nm) to the east side of Atlanta went on the east side of Houston, and there were thunderstorms blocking that route night and day.
The same was the case yesterday morning, and I certainly didn't want to get pushed out into the Gulf if I had to divert and ATC wouldn't let me into the Bravo airspace. So I filed a route around the west side of Houston at 9,000 with a planned fuel/lunch stop in Meridian, MS.
The XM weather on my MX20 was showing TS over Houston even on the west side so I diverted even further to the west and north before turning on course. It was also clear on the NEXRAD weather that Meridian would be under a TS when we got there, so I changed my destination further north to Columbus, MS (KGTR). The FBO there loaned us his van so we could drive into town for our now quite late lunch. On the drive back a thunderstorm dumped a bunch of rain on us and I found that the FBO had brought my plane into a hanger because on high winds - good outfit!
The weather radar at the FBO showed a high percentage of the area between me and Atlanta covered with TS and a call to FSS was just as negative. I knew I wasn't going to get through this IFR and considered departing VFR and staying low. However FSS had said that this TS pattern generally subsided later in the day, so I planned to wait it out a bit.
After an hour a Cardinal flew in and I talked to pilot. Turned out he had flown from the east from Birmingham. AL at 3,000' without a problem. With this pirep in hand, we departed VFR. This leg was flown between 2 and 3,000' and again, the NEXRAD was fantastic. When level 5s were building over Birmingham, we saw where to deviate and when. Two hours later we were on the ground at home - 9A1. We were in the air on these two legs well over 6 1/2 hours and had flown 1,000nm including all our deviations, which is something like 22% more than direct. The net result was a long day, but I don't think I subjected my wife in the back seat to so much a a single bump of any consequence. She read and slept the whole time.
My son Lane is a relatively low time PP and he hand flew the whole flight (both directions).
GA cross country flying is a CONSTANT decision making process. This flight was a great experience in using a whole lot of the tools we have available to make long and safe flights in single engine aircraft.
. Let me just pass on a brief story of my flight yesterday.I had been on Mustang Island off the coast of Corpus Christi, TX on a family reunion for a week. My wife, son and I had flown the Mooney down and had a great time. (Nice little unattended airport on the island - KRAS)
I had kept an eye on the weather while I was there (the condo had a broadband connection
). A direct route home (approx 760 nm) to the east side of Atlanta went on the east side of Houston, and there were thunderstorms blocking that route night and day. The same was the case yesterday morning, and I certainly didn't want to get pushed out into the Gulf if I had to divert and ATC wouldn't let me into the Bravo airspace. So I filed a route around the west side of Houston at 9,000 with a planned fuel/lunch stop in Meridian, MS.
The XM weather on my MX20 was showing TS over Houston even on the west side so I diverted even further to the west and north before turning on course. It was also clear on the NEXRAD weather that Meridian would be under a TS when we got there, so I changed my destination further north to Columbus, MS (KGTR). The FBO there loaned us his van so we could drive into town for our now quite late lunch. On the drive back a thunderstorm dumped a bunch of rain on us and I found that the FBO had brought my plane into a hanger because on high winds - good outfit!
The weather radar at the FBO showed a high percentage of the area between me and Atlanta covered with TS and a call to FSS was just as negative. I knew I wasn't going to get through this IFR and considered departing VFR and staying low. However FSS had said that this TS pattern generally subsided later in the day, so I planned to wait it out a bit.
After an hour a Cardinal flew in and I talked to pilot. Turned out he had flown from the east from Birmingham. AL at 3,000' without a problem. With this pirep in hand, we departed VFR. This leg was flown between 2 and 3,000' and again, the NEXRAD was fantastic. When level 5s were building over Birmingham, we saw where to deviate and when. Two hours later we were on the ground at home - 9A1. We were in the air on these two legs well over 6 1/2 hours and had flown 1,000nm including all our deviations, which is something like 22% more than direct. The net result was a long day, but I don't think I subjected my wife in the back seat to so much a a single bump of any consequence. She read and slept the whole time.
My son Lane is a relatively low time PP and he hand flew the whole flight (both directions).
GA cross country flying is a CONSTANT decision making process. This flight was a great experience in using a whole lot of the tools we have available to make long and safe flights in single engine aircraft.
