Flight to Florida -- The Cure for Winter

I will save your post for our future Florida trips.

The secret to doing long, multi-day VFR cross country flights is to be
relaxed and flexible about your ultimate destination. Remember, we always
have three destinations flight-planned, and choose the one with the best
long-range weather prognosis on our day of departure. Thus, even though we
once again hoped to go to the Hangar Hotel in Texas, for the third spring in
a row we scrubbed the idea and headed direct to Florida, thanks to
nasty-looking predicted weather in the Texas panhandle.

The other "secret" (although it's hardly rare) is to have XM weather. With
that incredible tool on board, we know what we're flying toward hours in
advance, and can make adjustments accordingly.

For example, we left Pensacola (heading South to St. Pete) with conditions
marginal VFR and deteriorating. However, with XM weather (and a thorough
pre-flight weather briefing), we knew that flying North (away from the gulf,
which was pumping the moisture on-shore, causing the lowering
visibility/ceiling) would get us quickly into nice VFR, and then (at
Tallahassee) we could hang a right and head straight south in good (if
incredibly turbulent) VFR. From Tallahassee South, ceilings were 3500
scattered-to-broken, and the view of the gulf was fantastic.

I would NEVER have attempted that flight "pre-XM", simply because I'd be
trying to paint a picture of weather in my head from a radio briefing (IF
you could even get ahold of Flight Service), and you'd have no idea of the
"big picture" that live XM paints so wonderfully for you.

With XM, however, it was just another routine flight. Not comfortable,
thanks to the bumps (and, yes, it would have been nice to have gone on top
of the layer, where conditions were reported to be smooth by Jim & Tami, who
were IFR in their Aztec), but entirely safe.

Flying at 5500 feet, my lovely wife has corrected me -- we *did* climb
to 7500 feet after departing Iowa City, and never deviated again until we
landed in Bay-Minett, AL.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"