Penetrating Weather with XM

This was going to get ugly.

Crossing southern Louisiana in the middle of the afternoon in late May is never pretty, and today was going to be no exception ? thunderstorms were popping up everywhere you looked, and a long occluded front about 100 miles north of the coast stretching from Texas to Florida was holding the elements of convection right in the cooking pot, feeding the boiling cloud masses and generating some small but strong storm cells. They were everywhere, and there was no way around.

Headed west as, as low as we dared to go, it was clear that we didn?t have much choice but to press on.?.the cells had us surrounded and the line ahead was narrow but strong ? the XM was showing about three miles of red surrounding a mile of a darker shade I had never seen before, and the gradient from green to yellow and into the nasty colors was tight

I had Louise tuck in tight in trail and we drove on through ? as we hit the line, the visibility dropped to near zero and the water was cascading so hard off the windshield that we might as well have been in a submarine?.

Oh, wait a minute ? you didn?t think I?d be stupid enough to be doing this in an AIRPLANE, did you?! I was ?commanding? the 26? diesel rent-a-truck, and Louise was chasing in the Four-Runner with Karst the Malamute as co-pilot. We were moving her household from Washington to Houston, and I had never really played with the 396 and XM on a road trip before ? this was an interesting opportunity to use it to actually penetrate some weather (safely, with all four wheels on the ground, and the ability to slowly coast to whatever slow speed was necessary to stay safe) and see for real what the colors on the screen look like. If you are flying with XM a lot, especially in the Thunder Belt, you might do the same thing ? take it along on the road and see what you NEVER want to see in the air!

A couple of good points I took away from this ?low level? experience:

1) When the rain gets into the red zone, it is the kind of stuff where the road is flooded! The Kind of rain where it is so heavy that wipers are useless at 30 mph. I am guessing that at 160 knots, it might put so much water into the intake of a ?snout cowl? RV that the engine just can?t get enough air?

2) Tight gradients are REALLY BAD! Green is the kind of rain that rinses the airplane, but doesn?t get it clean. Yellow is something you want to stay away from, but the occasional foray probably won?t scare you too badly ? so long as there isn?t any red next to it! If there is red in the cell, I am not even going to get into the green ? there is too much electrical charge in the convection, and I have seen lightning bolts in the clear blue sky surrounding a tight storm ? no thanks!

3) Once you start seeing the XM identifying actual ?cells?, rather than areas of rain, it is time to go for an alternate plan, stay well away in the clear air, (VFR for me!), and watch from afar.

I have always enjoyed watching thunderstorms, but I like doing it from a fairly safe place. It?s a pain to drive in that weather (we were unfortunately stuck on the Atchafalaya Bridge, 18 miles with no way off, or we probably would have pulled over), but completely unsafe to fly in. It is unfathomable to me what goes on in the minds of pilots who think they can fly through ?red? radar returns ? storms don?t last that long, they will go away, and you can get through later! If you don?t believe me, take your XM on a road trip and go ?penetrate? some storms?.you?ll be a believer, and be much more cautious in the air?..

Stay Alive - use your head!

Paul

It's good to play what if

This is a good idea to drive with the XM weather and learn. I do it all the time when driving to work during the winter if I know there is a storm in the area. (We don't get the summer stuff for the most part out here) Your right about the colors and they really begin to take on a new meaning when you are safely on the ground and can investigate a bit. I haven't had the experience of a cell quite like you drove thru, but strong enough to know that when it starts getting yellow I'm out of my element for flying. Red is a no brainer and shouldn't be messed with.

It was the same in N.Georgia mountains. I was on the way from 9A0 to 92A in TN. The clouds were forming quickly with a lot of vertical growth. I decided to partake of my 496XM weather. Sure enough, there was a cell directly in front of me on my course line. I had no choice but to expect to get wet. No choice, well yes, you see the BMW R1150RT I was on is somewhat inflexible about taking a direct course vs the highway route. I did find some comfort with the knowledge that rain was ahead, it was a small cell, and I was prepared to penetrate it with the knowledge the XM weather provided. Other bikes were diving for cover or it least weather gear. I found that I was still dry a couple of miles up the road when the sun reappeared.

I have used it the airplane, but with a very different set of interpretation rules. Like so much in life, experience makes one much better at making the most of the technology........better than blind faith and diving in head first.

Wow paul!

You had me going there for a minute...I was aut to send you a private mail saying "What were you thinking"?

Good calibration for all of us.....Sadly I just don't do that much IFR outside of the benign western oregon WX to justify XM.

God to know though..Thanks

Frank