Page 34 - July19TNT

Jet Journal
Going Anyway
by Kevin Ware requires heat and moisture, and with the
Pacific Ocean at 45 degrees Fahrenheit off to our west for 3,000 miles, we get plenty of moisture but rarely enough heat to drive that moisture high. On the other hand, it seems any time we need to make a trip east, all the convective activity in the middle part of the country has been saving itself especially for us.
So, one of the first things Scott and I do is look at the size and pattern of the
It was the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend and the Midwest was experi- encing an unprecedented level of con-
vective weather with thunderstorms, tornadoes and f looding all urgently re- ported by the TV news. Unfortunately, a longstanding Lear client of the company I fly for had an unexpected death in the family and needed to attend the funeral on that Saturday, right in the middle of all the weather.
Now, we are rather careful professional pilots and the “going anyway” attitude might seem to contradict that statement, but not so. Over the years, we have de- veloped ways of operating in or near bad weather which are quite safe, and for the next several minutes Scott and I outline our severe convective weather strategy – something not often required flying up and down the West Coast from Alaska to California. Convective weather
The airlines were canceling flights left and right due to the conditions, and the distance from the West Coast was too long to drive or take the train. As a result, I got a call from our dispatcher Lori late on Friday morning asking if I can fly the Lear 45 to Iowa early on Saturday. While she is talking, I pull up the weather on my cell phone and see nothing but red radar returns widely dispersed over the entire three-state area. Thinking out loud about what to do, I ask Lori who will be the other pilot (a Lear 45 requires a crew of two), and she says Scott has tentatively agreed to go. Though newly rated in the airplane, Scott is a very experienced pilot I have flown with all over the country for a decade. I tell Lori I can do it then promptly call Scott. When I get him on the phone, I mention all the red radar returns, and he says, “Well, we’re going anyway, right?”
weather system. Usually, the convective area runs on a southwest to northeast line, extends about 200 nm wide and is al- most always moving eastward around 10 and 20 knots – with predictions to worsen as the day goes on. If we find our destina- tion is east of a system with the weather moving that direction, that makes us feel very uncomfortable because it means the conditions will only deteriorate as our arrival time approaches and we will likely need to overfly the system. On the other hand, if our destination is already in the middle of the action, that is a much more favorable sign as it means things are likely to improve. In the case of this trip, our destination in Iowa (DBQ) was already in the middle of the weather, which we found encouraging.
The next thing we look for is good VFR conditions on the upwind side of the weather. When severe weather passes,
32 • TWIN & TURBINE / July 2019 Jet Journal