by Colin » Sun May 17, 2020 10:29 pm
It is really hard for me to say. I
cross the country a lot. I love it. I mostly do it during the summer months and long range, strategic planning around summer storms means having these weather products is *really* useful.
The XM picture:
I just flew SMO – TUS – FTW to drop the plane at annual. A large, unforecast storm snuck up from Mexico and engulfed Midland (MAF), directly in my path. Should I go around to the south? Around to the north? There was so little traffic due to the pandemic that I couldn't go by that. Fortunately, with the XM there is the added information of cell movement and lighting strikes, so I went south. The remnants of the storm left behind were pretty easy to pick my way through. I guess a couple decades ago I would have been asking ATC a *lot* of questions about their radar returns, but the truth is those are two dimension and I was at 13.5k and had some margin up and down. A fellow at 9.5k went further south than I did.
The ADS-B scan (twenty minutes prior, I believe):
If I *only* had the XM (which was true for decades) I probably would be more conservative. Since I have both, plus the visual out the window and the advice and updates from ATC, I feel better about the paths I chose.
The most important tool is a complete willingness to make a u-turn. The moment it is not playing out the way I think it is, I will reverse course, which I have done. I know it can close up behind me, but those situations are very rare and I work to avoid them, mostly staying around the edges like this.
It is really hard for me to say. I [url=https://flyingsummers.com/crossing-the-country/]cross the country[/url] a lot. I love it. I mostly do it during the summer months and long range, strategic planning around summer storms means having these weather products is *really* useful.
The XM picture:
[attachment=1]IMG_3332.jpeg[/attachment]
I just flew SMO – TUS – FTW to drop the plane at annual. A large, unforecast storm snuck up from Mexico and engulfed Midland (MAF), directly in my path. Should I go around to the south? Around to the north? There was so little traffic due to the pandemic that I couldn't go by that. Fortunately, with the XM there is the added information of cell movement and lighting strikes, so I went south. The remnants of the storm left behind were pretty easy to pick my way through. I guess a couple decades ago I would have been asking ATC a *lot* of questions about their radar returns, but the truth is those are two dimension and I was at 13.5k and had some margin up and down. A fellow at 9.5k went further south than I did.
The ADS-B scan (twenty minutes prior, I believe):
[attachment=0]IMG_0042.png[/attachment]
If I *only* had the XM (which was true for decades) I probably would be more conservative. Since I have both, plus the visual out the window and the advice and updates from ATC, I feel better about the paths I chose.
The most important tool is a complete willingness to make a u-turn. The moment it is not playing out the way I think it is, I will reverse course, which I have done. I know it can close up behind me, but those situations are very rare and I work to avoid them, mostly staying around the edges like this.