A Gulf Low

Getting home always seems harder than getting there.  It could be that on the way out we have left a day early to pick better weather or used other strategies to make the conditions more favorable.  It could be that we always arrive home in the afternoon which is prime thunderstorm time.  It could be rotten luck, like the 30 knot headwind outbound and the 3 knot headwind heading home.

Regardless, getting home this trip presented a challenge.  I had been watching the weather but once out there is not much you can do to change things except wait it out.  So as I watched the low pressure move over the gulf, South of Louisiana, I knew that the afternoon might be a challenge.  Departing OKC was hot but clear.  I had another complicated clearance that included a VOR, radial and distance plus more.  Of course once airborne it was direct KLUBB intersection direct which was basically direct.

We headed back to HAB because the fuel was still the lowest price I had seen in a while and it had everything we needed.  2:45 later we were at the fuel pump after seeing mostly clear skies.  Technology is great and we had watched the mess over Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Georgie get messier.  I was not really sure there was a way through but I figured we would fly up to the weather and at least get closer to home.

We launched into the blue skies and started watching and planning.  There were two lines, One ran from the gulf to the Atlanta area, the second ran from the gulf and curved around towards Amelia Island.  The first was looking good with a break at Auburn, AL.  The second looked like it may have a gap opening around Jesup, GA.  I had been watching the storm for 3 hours and it was racing North so the idea of trying to stay North of it and then South through a gap was not too appealing.

As we got closer I saw the rain in the panhandle was diminishing and I could get behind the weather.  This looked better and there were plenty of airports along the way I could use to divert if things did not go to plan.  The controllers were super helpful and clear me KAUO MAI  (Auburn and Greenville VOR).  

We were still in bright sunshine as we approached Auburn.  I had the onboard radar going on my MFD and the Satellite radar on the main GPS.  Auburn was a wall of clouds and with some deviations we made a nice turn and headed South.  The radar was showing just light rain it was not enough to really hear it but you could see it on the de-ice boots.

We continued South and broke out between gray layers.  It was sort of odd to go from a sunny day to dreary day in seconds.  We had about 100 miles to go before we were South of the rain.  Satellite was showing yellow all the way but the radar was showing mostly clear or green with a 5 mile band of yellow.

We went back into the soup and had pretty steady light rain with the 5 mile band of yellow still looming ahead.  I started picking up a few scattered pixels of red on the radar off to the right so we deviated a bit left and had about a minute of steady rain and then we were back out.  We were on the back side and from there we were able to stay dry and mostly VMC.  There were still some big cells but they were easily avoided.  

Approaching MAI I asked for direct Valdosta and after confirming the surrounding airspace was cold, was sent on my way.  The last big storm was over Valdosta and once we cleared it to the North we popped out again into sunny skies as if it had never happened.   We could see storms off in the distance and some pretty rainbows but the hard work was over for us.

I should say sunny skies except over JAX.  As we passed over downtown in bright sunshine, JAX had it's own personal rainstorm.  CC said it was like the cartoons where a character has a personal rain cloud.  It was a nice sight and I was glad it wasn't our problem.  We made a satisfactory arrival with gusty winds and soon had the plane away.

It was a flight of contrasts.  Busy and complicated departure from OKC followed by straight cruising.  Then we the best and worst weather.  I would not have attempted this in the Bonanza, the delayed radar is just not good enough when in close.  That said, the active radar is great within 60 miles and while you can  see weather farther, having the satellite for the big picture is also invaluable.  The combination let us traverse an area of severe weather weather with a mostly smooth ride and no more than light turbulence and light rain.  

Our route as flown.  The rain shown is not what we flew through.  It looks like it captured the rain picture around the time we turned South.  We did not fly through that cell by Valdosta, by the time we arrived it was smaller and well North.