Dang Monsoon

CURSE THOSE DANG MONSOONS!

I’ve been flying for a long time and flew gliders before I flew power. Flying a high performance glider involves a plethora of knowledge about the weather. I became interested in weather when I took a course called Climatology while in college. This course had nothing to do with my major but filled a history requirement. My instructor was fascinating, and I still apply these principles taught to me to my flight planing. As it turns out this was my favorite class in undergraduate school.

When I was studying for my glider ticket, weather was the big kahuna. It is not possible to stay aloft in a glider unless you are aware of your surroundings from an atmospheric concept. When I studied for my power rating I did not receive much of an education on weather and it’s effects for safe flight planning.

My wife and I fly to San Diego every couple of weeks in the summer to escape the desert heat of Scottsdale. In July and August we usually return earlier than we want on Sunday due to afternoon dust and thunder storms in the Phoenix area. This weekend was no exception except instead of afternoon storms the forecasts from several sources was calling for severe thunderstorms and clouds for our route from San Diego to Phoenix that would start around 8AM and last all day. The flight usually take about 2 hours and the adverse weather was caused by moisture moving north from the Baja and Mexico.

I was concerned and checked the weather at 3 AM. I realized that if we left any any later than 6AM we could encounter some real problems. We usually go for a long walk along the ocean in La Jolla, followed by a nice breakfast and then fly home. Today I awakened my wife at 5AM and told her we need to be wheels up at 6AM. My wife has a lot of faith in my aeronautical judgment, and she did not question my decision. Having performed a weather briefing on WingX at 4:30, I filed a flight plan for 6 and we checked out of our hotel and were off to the airport. We loaded up the plane, and I received my IFR clearance on the handheld while my wife turned in the rental car.

At 6:05 we were cleared for takeoff. Normal IFR departure from Montgomery (MYF) field is to fly heading of 270 over the ocean off of runway 28 and radar vectors to on course. Usually there is a marine layer to climb through but not this morning. I made the 180 turn inbound when told to do so by SoCal and proceeded to climb to 9000 feet. I fly with an IPad with WingXPro and ADS B IN. I was still visual and soon was over the top of the clouds by about 500 feet.We could not deviate south as we would go into Mexico and could not deviate north as there was some heavy rain and towering clouds.

I read a column a few years back by Richard Collins. He stated that you should go have a look unless the weather is severe over the airport, but you should always have an out. By following this doctrine I have been able to make many trips that did not look flyable from the ground. 

As we progressed east I checked weather on my route in front where it was to far to see visually. At the same time we went into the clouds after passing the mountains east of San Diego. Things did not look good in Yuma, AZ on our route NextRad was painting red which denotes very heavy rain. I was switched from LA Center to Yuma approach. I had an out in my mind to fly NE to Blythe (BLH), CA. Working with the controller I was able to fly direct BLH and rerouted for the rest of my trip. The IPad is amazing with flight software. I touched BLH, Buckeye (BXK) and then Phoenix (PXR) and my new route was done. I also fly with a Garmin 396. After my IPad was set up, I then proceed to type in the new route on my Garmin which took considerable time compared to the IPad. This was all happening while I was IMC. By the way I do not have an autopilot so everything was hand flying. 

After release by Yuma I was turned over to Albuquerque Center and then Luke Air Force Base. I had originally planned to fly the VOR approach into Scottsdale (SDL), and when I broke out through the clouds fly VFR to DVT. When switched to Luke they told me DVT was VFR with a ceiling of 4,000 feet. I was cleared to start my decent from 9,000 to 4,000 and broke out about 3,800 feet. We then flew the last 13 miles of our trip VFR and   landed at DVT.

After unpacking  and putting the plane in the hanger, my wife and I went to breakfast. Upon arriving home a tremendous thunderstorm broke flooding streets in the Phoenix area 1/2 hour later than forecasted. We were extremely thankful that we left MYF when we did. Curse those dang monsoons.