Brantel
Well Known Member
For months my wife has been training for her third half marathon to be ran at Disney World this weekend. That being said for months I have been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to get to fly us down in the RV.
For the past week I have been painfully scanning all the available weather information that would impact our decision to fly or drive. I absolutely hate driving these days and looking at a 11+ hour drive ahead of me when a 3hr flight would do it, is not my idea of fun.
For the last 24hrs my wife has been hounding me to tell her the decision...fly or drive.
Well this morning the call was made to drive.
Our flightplan was simple:
KMOR to KISM, VFR GPS direct @ 9500ft on either Thursday or Friday with a firm requirement to get back home by Monday (Strike one)
First the weather in the Southeast has been all over the place in the last 24hrs due to a strong upper level disturbance. It looks like all the clouds and storms are going to be out of the way by noon but the entire Southeast is forcast to be hammered by strong surface winds in the neighborhood of 25-30mph. (Strike two) The winds aloft are forcast to be very strong in the 60 knot range. While I am OK at crosswind landings, my wife gets nervous and I will be fully loaded with a CG in the back of the range by the time I get there. I know they have cross runways there but I always plan to expect to have to land somewhere else along my route. That somewhere else may not have a runway aligned with the strong winds.
The forcast for the return trip on Monday has an area of widespread precip that basically cuts off our return path home on Monday. We must be back on Monday which leaves us few options. (Strike Three)
And then I see this this morning
A POTUS TFR.....not valid at the time we plan on arriving but we all know these things can get changed quickly. (Strike Four)
I struggle with these decisions because sometimes I feel like I am being too overly cautious. I love having an RV to take trips in but I do not want to ever put my wife under unnecessary risk just to get my fix.
This makes twice that I have planned to fly us to Orlando for her race in which I made the call to drive.....
What would you guys have decided?
For the past week I have been painfully scanning all the available weather information that would impact our decision to fly or drive. I absolutely hate driving these days and looking at a 11+ hour drive ahead of me when a 3hr flight would do it, is not my idea of fun.
For the last 24hrs my wife has been hounding me to tell her the decision...fly or drive.
Well this morning the call was made to drive.
Our flightplan was simple:
KMOR to KISM, VFR GPS direct @ 9500ft on either Thursday or Friday with a firm requirement to get back home by Monday (Strike one)
First the weather in the Southeast has been all over the place in the last 24hrs due to a strong upper level disturbance. It looks like all the clouds and storms are going to be out of the way by noon but the entire Southeast is forcast to be hammered by strong surface winds in the neighborhood of 25-30mph. (Strike two) The winds aloft are forcast to be very strong in the 60 knot range. While I am OK at crosswind landings, my wife gets nervous and I will be fully loaded with a CG in the back of the range by the time I get there. I know they have cross runways there but I always plan to expect to have to land somewhere else along my route. That somewhere else may not have a runway aligned with the strong winds.
The forcast for the return trip on Monday has an area of widespread precip that basically cuts off our return path home on Monday. We must be back on Monday which leaves us few options. (Strike Three)
And then I see this this morning
A POTUS TFR.....not valid at the time we plan on arriving but we all know these things can get changed quickly. (Strike Four)
I struggle with these decisions because sometimes I feel like I am being too overly cautious. I love having an RV to take trips in but I do not want to ever put my wife under unnecessary risk just to get my fix.
This makes twice that I have planned to fly us to Orlando for her race in which I made the call to drive.....
What would you guys have decided?