On Sun, 21 May 2006 19:17:03 -0400, "Peter R."
wrote:

I actually received this comment today from an FSS (US Flight service)
specialist when I called for an IFR flight briefing for a flight from
Boston back to Syracuse, NY, early this afternoon. The Bridgeport FSS
specialist was not joking either. He went on to say that too often pilots
express concerns to him about seeing yellows and reds on the radar when he
knows there is no convection in the area.

Unbelievable. I made the mistake of responding by pointing out that it
certainly is easy to make those comments while sitting safely in a chair in
a building. I then continued by asking him where he was so that I could
stop by his airport, pick him up, and take him for a ride through some
level three returns. His reply was that he already has plenty of hours
doing just that.

On a flight just a week or two before I was to take the instrument
check ride my instructor had my file a plan from 3BS - MBS VOR - LAN
(ILS) - AMN (NDB) - 3BS (VOR).

The area between MBS and LAN was about 40 to 50 miles of solid yellow
and red. I questioned the wisdom of flying into such things and my
instructor said, "You did get a briefing didn't you?" to which I
replied, "Yes". He asked, "Was there any convective activity in
progress or forecast?"... No there wasn't. Are conditions favorable
for convective activity? No they weren't. ... Any other questions?
At this point he informed me he was just going to be a passenger even
if he was officially PIC.

So, we picked up our clearance and headed into the rain and man did it
rain! Torrential rain, but it was one of the smoothest rides I've
had. Coming back from Lansing (LAN) to Alma (AMN) was one of the most
picturesque rides I've ever had. We were between layers. There were
columns of cloud joining the two layers and individual clouds floating
around in there. The light was almost a fluorescent green or at least
had a strong green cast. It was beautiful.

The approach into Alma was a left turn to the NDB which is 5 miles
west of the field. Then the PT back to the NDB all the while just
skimming the top of the layer while going through the occasional piece
sticking up. The feeling of speed was tremendous. At the NDB we
started the descent into torrential rain. We broke out about 50 feet
above MDA in heavy rain with the runway directly ahead. We went
missed and headed for home.

Suddenly we were back in bright sunshine and MBS approach told us to
expect the visual into Midland (3BS). Unfortunately of fortunately
depending on your view all we could see in the Midland area was more
clouds. So the reply was we'd like to do the VOR-A into 3BS if it was
OK with them. They didn't know it was solid over there.

We had vectors to intercept the approach inbound which made it an easy
one, but again we were very close to minimums and a mile to the east
of the airport it was below minimums which we reported to app.

It was one whale of a nice ride, a good work out, and three different
approaches right down to almost minimums. All this through what I had
expected to be a really rough ride due to those red and yellow
reflections which really are only showing precipitation.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com