Tradition

Do something once and its the first time.  The second, maybe a bit of de javu.  Ahhhh, but the third time, then its a tradition.  Today we confirmed the tradition of flying to Saint Pete at the holidays to visit our friends.  They come down for the holidays from somewhere that has snow and cold cold weather.  Not sure why they left Florida to live in the cold North but like the Capistrano Swallows they return each year.

Weather has been wacky, yes that is a technical term.  I was a bit unsure if we would have to cancel.  The forecast models were all over the place but Wednesday night the models started to suggest that it would be low clouds all day.  We awoke to low clouds and basically the route there was low IFR.

We originally planned an early lunch but I figured some patience would pay off.  Sure enough it cleared at home and was coming up en route, by 11 AM we had at least 1000 feet.  We headed out and the sunshine ended as we were departing.  A rain shower rolled by and we had some brief rain and lower clouds but were soon on top of a snowy deck.

By Ocala it was starting to clear and arriving we had mostly clear skies.  Our friends had tracked us and we pulled up to a welcome committee.  As we sat eating lunch overlooking the planes, the clear weather turned to passing showers.  Then I glanced at the weather back home, 800 overcast and tending lower.   The forecast was updated to reflect the low clouds.

The Hangar restaurant at SPG has good food but they will never win any speed awards.  Lunch was a 2 hour affair for burgers and sandwiches. This was fine as we came to visit but don't think you will get a quick turn here.  Given the new forecast we decided not to delay too much.

Departing things looked pretty good, the showers had left the local area .  We had a turn to the West (the wrong way home) but once we were at 2000, we were given a North turn and a direct climb to 8000.  Between 5 and 6 thousand there was a bit of rain but we were soon on top again.  The weather back home cleared, while en-route was marginal VFR.

Our descent inbound took us back through the layer.  It is always fun to be skimming along the top of the clouds and then get swallowed in them.  The earlier clouds had left and it was basically sunny.  Our arrival to runway 5 was uneventful and were soon heading off to other activities.