"Jay Honeck" wrote
snip Flight service forecasts was almost useless on all of these flights,
by
the way -- the weather was simply too variable. The simply didn't know
what they didn't know.

I too was in MI over the weekend and watched the weather on NOAA's ADDS
site, which from my short term memory I felt was dead on. (although I tend
to subconsciously filter out things that won't effect an easy IFR flight)
The FA's were calling for scattered thunderstorms, some severe for both
eastern IA and central WI to begin around 7pm local. I decided that would
be my deadline to be home. (and what's the deal with every time a
thunderstorm is predicted they also add that stupid disclaimer about "some
possibly severe producing strong and damaging winds with possible hail up to
and inch and 1/2 in diameter...bla bla bla... gees! that drives me nuts IS
there a thunderstorm that isn't capable of that??!) ooopps... off soapbox

We decided that we were better off heading for home early rather than later
on Sunday, just in case we needed to play aerial taxi for those
globetrotting Honeck kids. Around 8am I used ADDS to get another update on
the weather then called Lansing to file. The briefer asked if I had the
weather and advisories, I had, and he really sounded like he couldn't care
less. I asked for TFR's and his name and he made a point of emphasizing
that no TFR's existed at that exact moment. Once we knew that our pond
hopping IFR taxi service wouldn't be needed, we took off into crystal blue
skys. 1:30 hrs later we were home and I shot a DME arc into 21 at STE just
for fun. Life is good.

As 7pm approached the storms rolled in ahead of the cold front but produced
relatively little precip. It was the precip that was scattered, not the
storms, as the squall line slowly approached. Winds varied greatly as I
checked airports both closer to the front and higher in altitude. It would
not been fun nor wise to think that one could pick his way through that
squall line. There were several gaps, one near Dubuque and another near
Stevens Point, but the turbulence and wind would have been wicked. As I
watched the weather on XM it felt good to be on the ground holding onto a
cold one rather than in the air holding a yoke.

Jim