f1rocket
Well Known Member
On Sunday, I returned from a 5-day father-son fishing and golfing vacation in Branson, MO with my #3 son, Ross. While the trip was not a particularly distant one, about 370 nm, what makes it worth noting is that this trip would not have been possible with any of my previous airplanes. Why? One word, avionics. The ability to get updated TAFs every 5 to 10 minutes and NEXRAD images make good weather decisions just that much easier. In the past, I would have never attempted a flight that day due to the enroute conditions and the hourly forecast in Branson. We decided to give it a try because of high ceilings, reasonable visibility, and the lack of convective activity. Once airborne, I relied on the TAFs along my route to determine if going further was wise. In the end, we navigated around some rain shafts but otherwise had a very uneventful flight.
While we had to deal with some rain during our stay, the fishing on Table Rock and the White River was great and we had a lot of fun golfing on a number of resort courses.
The trip home was some of the same. Clear in Branson but IFR in Indy but forecast to clear later in the morning. We launched and then monitored the weather at home. In the three hours it took us to fly back home, the weather cleared to marginal VFR with a 1000 ft ceiling but excellent visibility underneath. Using the terrain feature it was easy to stay clear of any cell towers that might be within range. Again, the near real time weather updates made this trip easy. We always had clear weather behind us so we always had outs.
The entire trip, and the memories from it, was entirely possible by wisely using the capabilities of the Dynon Skyview to augment what my Mark IV Eyeballs were telling me.
While we had to deal with some rain during our stay, the fishing on Table Rock and the White River was great and we had a lot of fun golfing on a number of resort courses.
The trip home was some of the same. Clear in Branson but IFR in Indy but forecast to clear later in the morning. We launched and then monitored the weather at home. In the three hours it took us to fly back home, the weather cleared to marginal VFR with a 1000 ft ceiling but excellent visibility underneath. Using the terrain feature it was easy to stay clear of any cell towers that might be within range. Again, the near real time weather updates made this trip easy. We always had clear weather behind us so we always had outs.
The entire trip, and the memories from it, was entirely possible by wisely using the capabilities of the Dynon Skyview to augment what my Mark IV Eyeballs were telling me.
