I Love Flying
So July 5th I got my commercial multi-engine license. Had to fly down to Jasper, Alabama from Bowling Green, KY to do it because we didn't have an examiner in our area. On July 6th I was pilot-in-command for the flight back, and this was when storms were sweeping South from Arkansas to North Carolina. I'd planned to head North East towards Chattanooga where it was -supposed- to be just isolated cells, because towards the NorthWest it was supposed to get stronger.
So we take off and head North East, dodge one cell, keep heading NE. The clouds are getting higher, and thicker, and ATC is warning us of heavy precipitation ahead. Now heading NE isn't looking so good. We end up getting socked in, reduced to maneuvering speed, and hitting downdrafts that drop us 500 feet in 10 seconds. The aircraft was shaking, and thusly shaking ME so bad that I could barely read the instruments, that I started getting that old phrase in my head, "Better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, then in the air wishing you were on the ground."
I look to my instructor, "Yeah....I don't like this. Let's divert." So I call up ATC and tell them we're diverting to nearest at Huntsville Executive. After that it pretty much calmed down. When we landed I checked weather and saw that out to the NorthWest it pretty much just dissipated to nothingness and now NorthEast, right along our planned flight path, is where it was the worst. So on our second leg we just flew NorthWest and had no problems.
Tried to outsmart the weather and the weather outsmarted us. It was quite exhilarating....but I'd rather do that in a sturdier aircraft. Lesson learned.
So we take off and head North East, dodge one cell, keep heading NE. The clouds are getting higher, and thicker, and ATC is warning us of heavy precipitation ahead. Now heading NE isn't looking so good. We end up getting socked in, reduced to maneuvering speed, and hitting downdrafts that drop us 500 feet in 10 seconds. The aircraft was shaking, and thusly shaking ME so bad that I could barely read the instruments, that I started getting that old phrase in my head, "Better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, then in the air wishing you were on the ground."
I look to my instructor, "Yeah....I don't like this. Let's divert." So I call up ATC and tell them we're diverting to nearest at Huntsville Executive. After that it pretty much calmed down. When we landed I checked weather and saw that out to the NorthWest it pretty much just dissipated to nothingness and now NorthEast, right along our planned flight path, is where it was the worst. So on our second leg we just flew NorthWest and had no problems.
Tried to outsmart the weather and the weather outsmarted us. It was quite exhilarating....but I'd rather do that in a sturdier aircraft. Lesson learned.
