> > Funny you should mention that, Ed. My entire goal was to make it

there.

Once there

it was sort of ho-hum, what am I doing here?

Most frequent question I was asked: "How is that rotary working out

for

you?"

I guess Tracy gets some perverse joy out of dodging thunderstorms :)
For me it got to be a bit old, especially with a wide solid line of

them

towering

above 20,000'.

Finn

Ed Anderson wrote:

 Well, the answer is to get performance like Tracy's and climb above the
20,000' thunderstorms {:>).  Lets face it, Tracy has had lots of

practice

going back and forth across the country.  Me? I like cooler, quieter
weather. I feel like I owe to myself to go to Oshkosh at least once, but
will probably keep putting it off {:>)

BIG SNIP<

Wish I could claim to be a macho pilot with no fear of thunderstorms but it
just isn't that way.  The practice Ed mentioned is the key to safely
avoiding them.  Not so much the flying itself but interpreting the weather
forcasts, contingency planning (don't be afraid to chicken out and change
your flight plan), and listening carefully to the traffic on flight watch
frequency (122.0).  When the weather is active there is a constant stream of
weather in-route reports which will tell you where the really bad stuff is
and where to go around.  It does help a lot to have an aircraft that will
cruise effortlessly at 12,500 or higher so that you have a big picture view
of the weather as Paul mentioned.  Trying to navigate underneath the clouds
when there are scattered thunderstorms is like flying blind by comparison.

Finn made the return trip from Osh. a day before I did and hit much worse
conditions.

Tracy Crook
tcrook@rotaryaviation.com
www.rotaryaviation.com

 
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