I ended up going to Birmingham, AL again yesterday. The last time I went down there, the 340 had an exhaust failure shooting EGTs through the roof on the right engine, and I had to be rescued by John R., and airline back down to bring the 340 home when it was done. This time, the airplane handled just fine, but Mother Nature sure didn't. Even leaving at 6 am, the storms in Tennessee and Georgia were pretty rough. I worked through the line at the east edge. Normally I don't choose to go in front of the line, but I couldn't get behind it, and couldn't get over it. So I went through it, but in a just barely big enough gap, which closed within 15 minutes or so of going through it. Got a little turbulence, rain and ice, but we were through it fairly quickly.
The way home was more interesting. The early morning round of storms moved out, and the path was clear. Then around 2 pm it started firing up again, so I texted my guy and said "It's okay right now, but the weather is starting to fire back up". That was his hint to start wrapping it up and getting ready to leave. He got distracted, and by the time 3:30 rolled around, I texted him a photo of the line of storms already formed that were now going to be a problem. And were they. I could no longer work around the weather, and it extended for many states in both directions. This time I deviated behind it instead of in front of it, and there was one gap, one decent-sized place, to get through this line, and it was building and closing too. When I got to it, we were at 20,000', and dodged around the line of cells. Off to our right were tornadoes, and hail, causing damage to Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, etc. I ended up almost over the top of Cape Girardeau trying to get from AL to IN. I earned my paycheck for that day, and it started at the airport at 5:45 am and I didn't get down until almost 8:30 pm. Long day. Lots of strategizing, maneuvering, staring at weather movement and building, a little crystal balling, and a long time in the air working around it.
Today I was home. I got some hotel rooms for the upcoming Peru event, was out at the airport when Glenn came in for the Bonanza formation clinic this weekend, met him and AE and Steve at dinner, did banking and mailing and correspondence and home stuff. Nothing exciting, just life.
Tomorrow I have to get up at 6 am and fly the 340 down to Crystal River, FL to pick up Mrs. Hewitt. Normally I take the Cheyenne but it's in annual. I had permission to take the Conquest but it's in Ohio getting the oil leak fixed. So it's the 340, which is going to take me a very long time to get there and back, and I'm going to have to definitely stop on the way home for fuel, and possibly on the way down, too, if I have to deviate much around the weather. Yesterday was a 14 hour day, tomorrow is going to be probably close to the same, including the 2 hour round trip drive to Frankfort and back.
A series of weather shots, these all on the way down to Birmingham
And these are on the way home from Birmingham
Citabria on its first run since overhauled engine
Early morning departure (to AL), cooler radials in the background
Coming out the other side of the storms on the way down
A line to the west building rapidly
Behind that dark blue is a whole lot of bad stuff and destruction
Sunset back at the airport
And at a field of flowers outside the airport gate
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