VFR "picking his way thru" heavy cells with XM Radio weather

On Wed, 6 Jun 2007 06:17:34 -0500, "Dan Luke"
wrote in
:


"Larry Dighera" wrote:

I mentioned that I was trained to skirt CBs by 20 miles. Of course,
that is the reason.

Maintaining such a hard rule WRT to *all* CBs would make flyng a very
difficult proposition down South in the summertime, as Dylan has pointed out.
Not all CBs need such a wide berth.


What method of avoiding hail is used there?


It's often difficult to maintain good situational awareness of the
buildups if you are in VMC under a cell's base, or the buildups begin
to merge.

That's what XM WX is for, praised be its name!

Some information is better than none, even if it is stale.

On 2007-06-06, Larry Dighera wrote:
Maintaining such a hard rule WRT to *all* CBs would make flyng a very
difficult proposition down South in the summertime, as Dylan has pointed out.
Not all CBs need such a wide berth.

What method of avoiding hail is used there?

It's extremely rare for hail to fall out of a typical airmass storm in
coastal Texas, and when it does, it tends to fall out of the bottom of
the storm, not be deposited miles from the rest of the precipitation.
Indeed, I've never known hail to fall out of such a storm at all
(although it undoubtedly must happen from time to time).

The times I saw hail in coastal Texas, it was always associated with a
line of severe thunderstorms, never the afternoon airmass storms. Flying
close to a line of thunderstorms anywhere is a bit foolhardy.

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

"Larry Dighera" wrote:

That's what XM WX is for, praised be its name!

Some information is better than none, even if it is stale.

Have you used it?

On Wed, 6 Jun 2007 10:50:09 -0500, "Dan Luke"
wrote in
:


"Larry Dighera" wrote:

That's what XM WX is for, praised be its name!

Some information is better than none, even if it is stale.

Have you used it?


No.

"Jim Carter" wrote in message
t...
"Dylan Smith" wrote in message
...
...
... I hate to think what the ride would be
like only 10 miles from that storm!

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

No one has mentioned the phenomena where hail is thrown out of the top or
side of the really big CB and may be tossed for miles, and its really not
that uncommon.

A good case for a lightning detector.

On Wed, 6 Jun 2007 00:36:36 -0500, "Montblack"
wrote in
:

("Larry Dighera" wrote)
"A man has got to know his limitations"

Or in this case, the limitations of his equipment.


"I WAS IN THE POOL!"
"I WAS IN THE POOL!"
"I WAS IN THE POOL!"


Montblack



Okay, his aircraft's equipment. :-)

"Larry Dighera" wrote:


That's what XM WX is for, praised be its name!

Some information is better than none, even if it is stale.

Have you used it?


No.

Then, with respect, you have little practical information on which to judge
its value in operational situations. "Some information is better than none"
does not do justice to the superb weather awareness it provides. It is far
superior to using ATC/Fligh****ch.

As to the "stale" business, in 200+ hours of using the product in the most
thunderstorm-infested region of the U. S., I have found 6-8 minute maximum
lag a non issue for avoiding CBs.

--
Dan

"The future has actually been here for a while, it's just not readily
available to everyone."
- some guy at MIT

On 6/6/2007 4:16:53 PM, "Dan Luke" wrote:

As to the "stale" business, in 200+ hours of using the product in the most
thunderstorm-infested region of the U. S., I have found 6-8 minute maximum
lag a non issue for avoiding CBs.

For strategic avoidance I agree but it still requires some thought. My
Bonanza is equipped with WSI downlinked weather displayed on an MX-20 moving
map, and WSI's refresh rates are normally 0 to 4 minutes old. I was under the
impression that NEXRAD could be up to five minutes old before being uplinked
to the delivery satellites (corrections appreciated). Therefore a worst-case
scenario is that the NEXRAD returns I see on my moving map could potentially
be up to nine minutes old.

At a groundspeed of 50 knots (my guess as to the average speed for a more
severe thunderstorm), nine minute-old data translates to about an 8 nautical
mile area ahead of the mature storm's direction as depicted on the moving
map. Thus, I add 8 nm to the recommended 10 to 20 nm (depending on storm
severity and type - frontal) to cover that lag time, assuming haze or IMC
prevents seeing the storm out the window.

What concerns me are those days where t-storms seem to be popping up
everywhere and returns go from light to intense in 15 minutes or less. In
those cases this relatively slow refresh rate makes flying through that zone
a bit of a butt clencher.

--
Peter

("Dan Luke" wrote)
As to the "stale" business, in 200+ hours of using the product in the most
thunderstorm-infested region of the U. S., I have found 6-8 minute maximum
lag a non issue for avoiding CBs.


RV-10: Cruise Speed .....200 (3+) miles/minute

"It's like he flew right into the storm, as if he didn't no that it was
there," one witness reported. g


Montblack

know