JonJay
Well Known Member
Newly armed with my 496 and "fresh" report from Weathermeister (love it), I departed for a relatively short jaunt, 145nm, to Eastern Oregon under rainy skies. Winds where reported at my destination from 240 18kt -24kt gust, manageable at that airports rnwy 22. ALL weather stations along route and in area where reporting decent cielings, no rain (which was present everywhere), and VFR conditions, (which turned out to be spotty at best).
Ceilings kept dropping as I entered the Columbia River Gorge, along with visibility, harder rain, and low level clouds. Working through the Gorge for about 15 miles, a narrow corridor with mountains on both sides of several thousand feet high, at 900 feet 5 miles vis., then less? Well, time to turn around, miss my meeting and live to tell about it. Last thing I needed was for weather to close me into the Gorge with no airport option in either direction. A PIREP an hour later from a 206 reported 1000' ovcst 1m. He turned back too.
Anyway, I have been watching the reporting change through the day finaly catching up with my reality. I guess I am surprised with all of the technology we have out there that our systems are so poor.
My 496 was not a lot of help either. I think it is a great tool to show really bad cells and broken weather, but for scud, it does not seem to do much good. Perhaps there are some settings I need to fiddle with, but if it showed low level scud and light rain on the map, you would not see anything else I guess.
Living and learning, or learning and living perhaps.
Ceilings kept dropping as I entered the Columbia River Gorge, along with visibility, harder rain, and low level clouds. Working through the Gorge for about 15 miles, a narrow corridor with mountains on both sides of several thousand feet high, at 900 feet 5 miles vis., then less? Well, time to turn around, miss my meeting and live to tell about it. Last thing I needed was for weather to close me into the Gorge with no airport option in either direction. A PIREP an hour later from a 206 reported 1000' ovcst 1m. He turned back too.
Anyway, I have been watching the reporting change through the day finaly catching up with my reality. I guess I am surprised with all of the technology we have out there that our systems are so poor.
My 496 was not a lot of help either. I think it is a great tool to show really bad cells and broken weather, but for scud, it does not seem to do much good. Perhaps there are some settings I need to fiddle with, but if it showed low level scud and light rain on the map, you would not see anything else I guess.
Living and learning, or learning and living perhaps.