Sunday, August 16, 2020

That's A Weather Scratch

I was planning on a special flight today (actually yesterday too).   I had actually convinced, cajoled, intrigued, and enchanted the entire family to flying with me.

This took some doing as Abby had previously declared she would not fly with me until she graduated high school, on the grounds that she had to accomplish that first.  Tash refuses to fly woth me unless all 4 of us are in the plane as sbhe doesn't want the two parents in one airplane potential problem.  So this took quite a bit of work to pull off.

Destination will remain a secret until I pull it off successfully, but it was to the north to a neat spot the kids have never been to before.

First I booked for yesterday but the forecast was for rain at the planned destination and  thunderstorms here around the time for our return.  Forecast remained the same yesterday morning, so I cancelled and I went to the range instead as a consolation.

And the weather yesterday was, of course, flying perfect. No thunderstorms or rain at either location all day, great visibility, and high ceilings.  It could have worked.

Today's forecast looked great.  All yesterday and yesterday night the forecast was for VFR all the way through.

So, of course, this morning I woke up at 7am to loud bangs from the thunder and great big flashes of lightning. 

Conditions were low IFR with heavy thunderstorms at Pontiac and points to the north along the way with the final destination being clear - but there's no safe way to get there so there's no way we're going.  It's going to improve but will still be marginal VFR most of the day and well below my personal minimums - especially so with the family on board for their first flight.

Another weather scratch.

Argh.

2 comments:

B said...

And that is why I am working towards my instrument rating.

It doth suck when that happens though.

juvat said...

I've said it before, but it still holds water.
"It's better to be down here, wishing you were up there, rather than up there wishing you were down here."

As for the instrument rating, there is no feeling on earth better than taking off into a ceiling and busting through the top with nothing above. I don't know why, but it always gave me a thrill.