Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Dodging the Weather, Safely
It began to rain lightly, but the ceilings were high. The winds were still modest, but noticeable. We departed 13 and made the inbound call to Columbia Approach for sequencing into CAE. After a short vector to the north, we were sequenced for the RWY 11 approach.
Charts, refile flight plan, short preflight, taxi and soon we are wheels up again for Florida. We are quickly cleared direct to SAV, and climbing to 10000. The weather ahead is looking very gray. I make the mental note that if I can’t stay visusal with the weather, we will divert to a nearby facility, or return to Columbia. As we pass above 8K I can see blue sky in our direction flight with walls of white clouds reaching for outer space left and right. I proceed on cautiously. We soon find ourselves in the clear with a layer of puffy clouds topping out at about 9000 feet.
Of course, I am still leery about the dark gray areas with towers of cumulus up to FL300 to our east and southwest. I am also somewhat concerned about the weather below a I hear flights cleared for the ILS into SAV. I monitor the local ATIS for the nearby airports in case something changes. The weather has gotten much lower with reduced visibility in rain. We are riding above it at 10K at 135 knots true air speed. Our flight plan on the 530 is cross checked with the outside picture and it still looks good as we will soon be making a left turn, which will take us clear of the towering clouds to the southwest. So far so good.
The flight continues uneventfully, and we are soon seeing and being told about heavy metal descending above us for arrival into Orlando. We are flying down the east coast of Florida. Dark clouds with high tops are to our east and creeping closer to the coast. Our flight path is still clear, but I have some concern about having to fly further offshore to stay clear of the weather. At this point, the winds and natural landmass convection typical for Florida favor no additional easterly movement of the weather.
The weather is just off of our right side and ATC issues a vector 30 degrees to the west. Looking at it, it looks like this will take us straight into heavy weather, where we do not belong. Sorry ATC, unable.
The voice replies with some disdain and requests to know why. I explain. He needs us to go that way for five miles. Apparently, there must be some disconnect between the FAA advisory to pilots about keeping a 20nm cushion between the airplane and tall, lumpy clouds and what they tell controllers. Um, sorry, no. We’re happy to do anything but that. Ok, then it will have to be a left 360. He tells us it is okay to keep it tight.
No problem. Bring the power back a notch, disconnect the autopilot and initiate the turn. Works for me. We continue our south-southwest heading and rejoin the course line, which is the airway as well. This is not working.
The clouds are reaching out to touch us and there are layers of cirrus clouds that are obscuring the view. We request left deviations. Approved. I know that the weather south is better. We will get past this and we do. After about 15 minutes, we self vector back to the airway, and the new controller we are talking to is happy about that. We hear about the weather from other flights trying to get into Daytona. Soon, we are descending into MLB, and there are numerous towers of tall clouds all around, but nothing between us and the airport. The ocean is still clear too, but the midafternoon Florida summer weather is anxious to start the party. Dennis is helping. I am glad we will be landing soon.
We see the Kennedy Space Center and fly down the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway. We are cleared for the visual to 9R, and start maneuvering for the landing. It is now just after 7pm. We have put just over 7 hours on the airplane.
Charts, refile flight plan, short preflight, taxi and soon we are wheels up again for Florida. We are quickly cleared direct to SAV, and climbing to 10000. The weather ahead is looking very gray. I make the mental note that if I can’t stay visusal with the weather, we will divert to a nearby facility, or return to Columbia. As we pass above 8K I can see blue sky in our direction flight with walls of white clouds reaching for outer space left and right. I proceed on cautiously. We soon find ourselves in the clear with a layer of puffy clouds topping out at about 9000 feet.
Of course, I am still leery about the dark gray areas with towers of cumulus up to FL300 to our east and southwest. I am also somewhat concerned about the weather below a I hear flights cleared for the ILS into SAV. I monitor the local ATIS for the nearby airports in case something changes. The weather has gotten much lower with reduced visibility in rain. We are riding above it at 10K at 135 knots true air speed. Our flight plan on the 530 is cross checked with the outside picture and it still looks good as we will soon be making a left turn, which will take us clear of the towering clouds to the southwest. So far so good.
The flight continues uneventfully, and we are soon seeing and being told about heavy metal descending above us for arrival into Orlando. We are flying down the east coast of Florida. Dark clouds with high tops are to our east and creeping closer to the coast. Our flight path is still clear, but I have some concern about having to fly further offshore to stay clear of the weather. At this point, the winds and natural landmass convection typical for Florida favor no additional easterly movement of the weather.
The weather is just off of our right side and ATC issues a vector 30 degrees to the west. Looking at it, it looks like this will take us straight into heavy weather, where we do not belong. Sorry ATC, unable.
The voice replies with some disdain and requests to know why. I explain. He needs us to go that way for five miles. Apparently, there must be some disconnect between the FAA advisory to pilots about keeping a 20nm cushion between the airplane and tall, lumpy clouds and what they tell controllers. Um, sorry, no. We’re happy to do anything but that. Ok, then it will have to be a left 360. He tells us it is okay to keep it tight.
No problem. Bring the power back a notch, disconnect the autopilot and initiate the turn. Works for me. We continue our south-southwest heading and rejoin the course line, which is the airway as well. This is not working.
The clouds are reaching out to touch us and there are layers of cirrus clouds that are obscuring the view. We request left deviations. Approved. I know that the weather south is better. We will get past this and we do. After about 15 minutes, we self vector back to the airway, and the new controller we are talking to is happy about that. We hear about the weather from other flights trying to get into Daytona. Soon, we are descending into MLB, and there are numerous towers of tall clouds all around, but nothing between us and the airport. The ocean is still clear too, but the midafternoon Florida summer weather is anxious to start the party. Dennis is helping. I am glad we will be landing soon.
We see the Kennedy Space Center and fly down the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway. We are cleared for the visual to 9R, and start maneuvering for the landing. It is now just after 7pm. We have put just over 7 hours on the airplane.
# posted by Bob @ 7:13 PM 
