Flight to Las Vegas Pirep -- Part I

Absolutely.
The turbulence, properly defined as "light", (never full defection of the
controls, altitude excursions of 200 ft or less), was caused by a sinking
jetstream causing high winds over the surface while flying towards rising
terrain. Headed west from Hutchinson, KS, we climbed from 8,000 to 10,000
searching for a better ride. 10,000 was the best altitude according to the
winds aloft forecast and we even tried 12,000 with no better results. Lower
alts that were still above the MEA were available, however surface winds
were kicking up significant dust storms below that I really didn't want to
fly through. Our impression was that turbulence would have been worse lower.
The guys up above were making non stop radio calls to Center in planes of
every description looking for a smoother altitude, no one ever found a
smooth ride.

The decision making process at Hutchinson was deceptively easy. Everybody
felt better, it was VFR, surface winds were lighter than forecast. Get
there itis wasn't a factor, because we had no where to get to. We didn't
have reservations in Las Vegas until the following night, we could have
easily stayed in Hutchinson if we'd had known what was ahead. Current
METARs led us to believe that the surface winds along our route may also
continue to be lighter than forecast, but they were not, they were higher
than forecast as we learned as we approached Liberal, KS where a regional
jet was shooting an ILS35 circle to land 21 due to blowing dust into a 45G51
knot wind. We began looking for a more suitable airport with runways more
aligned with the wind and hopefully lower surface winds than Liberal was
experiencing. Best port in the storm turned out to be Dalhart, TX. Beyond
Dalhart is Tucumcari (sp?) and not much else. I was not going to push our
fuel constraints passed Dalhart. We had an alternative route planned that
would take us further south towards Tucson and thus avoid some of the high
winds, however that route required a fuel stop in Liberal, KS, Dalhart, TX,
or Borger, TX. All airports have 17/35 & 3/21. Dalhart turned out to be
the best combination of lowest wind and runway length. Winds were said to
be 230@38G46, but in actuality they were more like from 260.

Without a doubt we could have stayed in Hutchinson, KS. With everyone
feeling better, the conditions at Hutchinson being better than forecast, and
the forecast showing acceptable VFR conditions, we chose to continue.

Jim

"john smith" wrote in message
...
In article qIzUf.879212$xm3.440468@attbi_s21,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:

We would do that flight again today, under the identical conditions.
Mary
and I have analyzed the flight from every angle, and at every step of
the
way Jim's flight planning and decision-making process was sound. At no
point was there an obvious "no-go" condition that we missed, nor was
there
any pressure to actually get anywhere in particular that day -- a fact I
think I made clear. "Get-there-itis" was NOT a factor at all.

Not having looked at the winds aloft for your trip, I would be courious
to know what altitude was selected and why? Was an altitude change
condsidered to find smoother air?