running up the coast, outrunning the weather

[jetdriven]

So we took a short weekend jaunt down the coast from Houston to South Padre island.  I hesitated taking the trip until Friday, because of a front which randomly moved south and north, the weather service couldnt figure out if it was going to dissipate, move south as a cold front, or move back north as a warm front.  Finally, by Friday, they predicted a cool front moving south and dissipating into Mexico. We got up early, fired up the trusty 201, and took off.  We navigated just west of Corpus Christi, then all clear to Brownsville.   We could have ran right down the coast and saved a few air miles, but the life raft and jackets were on loan to a friend.

 

Waking up early on Sunday, there was a huge mess of weather sitting along a line from San Antonio to Austin, and moving towards Houston at a slow pace. From the looks of it, it wouldnt clear Houston until dark, and could extend between us and Corpus, making the trip back a disaster.  Leave at 5 PM or leave now. I took a shot and decided to run for Houston and beat the weather.  Got to the airport for a 10:45 departure and ran up the coast at 5,500 feet. Clear air and we could see the weather staying about 20 NM onshore.  East of us, the sky was clear.  There are several airports along the coast that were suitable alternates, Corpus Christi, PSX, BYY, LBX, and GLS.  LBX has a nice restaurant, cheap gas, and only 25 miles from our home base. About 35 miles out from LBX,at 12:30 PM, the unstable air, the gulf moisture, and the approaching cold front caused the storms all along the coast to explode.  The frames on the Garmin ADS-B screen were rapidly intensifying and moving offshore.  Lightning and ugly dark clouds all onshore but they started moving to the coast.  A huge cell rolled right over LBX and nixed that plan.  Gusting 35 knots and visibility 2 miles. Then the stuff cut off Galveston, now we were down to 1200 feet altitude, 15 gallons of gas and BYY (18 miles SW of us), or PSX (45 miles SW of us) were the only options.  They weren't looking too good either.  Clear over the water but no airports there, and the life raft and jackets were not in the plane. Great.

 

Time to get the hell out of this mess and land.

 

Direct BYY was looking alright until we saw 3 lightning strikes about 5 miles ahead. Deviate south 5 miles, then due west to BYY. Right. Now.  Got the airport in sight on a 5 mile final with a gray wall of water and lightning approaching about 2-3 miles south of the field.   Landed just as it rolled over the airport and got soaked while tying the airplane down.

 

4 hours later we departed behind the mess and flew home in clear air.  Next time, if using the ocean as your escape route, be prepared to actually use it, IE, bring the raft and 406 PLB. Perhaps we should have just left at 5 PM.  Live and learn. 

 

1700 radar image and 18:03 radar images.  We landed at 17:54

 

 

[Rwsavory]

Thanks for the post.  These are good things to keep in mind when flying in thunderstorm season.  

[Seth]

Another out, and I know it crossed your mind, was simply putting down on a road, and waiting out the storm if you ended up that low on gas.  I agreen, have the life raft/flotation devices and PLB on board if you're going to use an overwater route as an escape.

 

I have screw in metal coils for tie down in grass (not the claw) that came with my first plane.  I've used them twice when there were no spots at airports to park and I had to park in the grass - they won't provide ultimate tie-down security (sun'n'fun a few years ago perfect example) but to keep the airplane intact on a precautionary off airport landing for weather, maybe enough to be okay and fly out afterward.

 

Good job avoiding the weather and having "outs"

 

-Seth

[Hank]

I bought a set of screw-in anchors at SNF after the tornado came through. It was the normal EAA set; I saw no planes with them that had pulled loose, although several Claws let go and many planes broke loose. Threw away my dollar store dog screws when I got back, even though they held me in place because the EAA set is so much sturdier. Now I'm gonna have to look for the picture I took side by side.

[Becca]

We had enough fuel to make it back to Mustang Island or Corpus down the coast as the weather filled in, it was still clear to south and never forecast to build in south.  We actually talked about our fuel situation as we passed Corpus and when we would have to turn back to land at Corpus at minimums (30 minutes) and had not gotten to that bingo when we landed at BYY.  I would contend it would have been foolhardy to proceed up the coast had we not had a southbound escape route and I would not have been so agreeable to Byron's weather plan.  Fleeing over water and ditching is not an "escape" plan if the thunderstorms fill in as they were forecast to do.  It is also not a good escape plane or an excuse to fly into unpredictible weather surrounded on your 3 other sides by potential storms -- we knew in this case that we were storm free to the south down land and towards airport.

 

Anyway it all worked out ok, if it were up to me we wouldn't have pressed all the way up to BYY or LBX but just called it a day at PSX when we passed by it, it was becoming clear the front was pushing toward the water and growing (we had good vis the whole time of what was going on) by that point and that it was unlikely we'd make it into LBX.  Likewise, we really pushed it with the line of storms at BYY, we might have been better off fleeing all the way back to Corpus.

 

As a secondary note, this storm system had been forecast to dissipate by 5 pm - which they did.  If we trusted the forecast, teh right thing to do would have been wait to leave South Padre until the evening rather than out run it.  We just didn't trust the forecast and thought it was possible the storms might linger through the night.   The local weather guys seem to have been having a hard time this season nailing down exactly how the storms are going to behave and this was a particular unstable set up with a front and a sea breeze building on each other...  Hindsight is 20/20

[jetdriven]

PSX was a fine idea and I / we seriously considered stopping there. However, we just arrived at LBX  literally ten minutes too late to get in, I didnt want to give up that much progress by going further south. Had we been 3 minutes later into BYY we wouldn't have gotten in there either. Going 10 miles offshore and then direct Corpus was a great idea for getting away from the severe weather, but no raft makes flying beyond gliding distance from shore a no-go idea.  Not for a planned ditching, but for emergency purposes such as engine failure.  Next time I'll  bring the raft, or wait until 5 and enjoy the beach. 

 

Had the weather forecast not just been mirroring the current conditions, Id far rather be departing behind the front than in front of it.  Every 12 hours the forecast was wildly different.

[thinwing]

I am so guilty of this...I wake up see some weather and most of the time decide to launch early to avoid...maybe its the thought of darkness approaching and being really concerned with night/t cell operations.Any way you made it or should I say ,lucked out....in this case a 5pm departure would have been less stressful...but that is hindsight..the ultimate panel equipment would predict the future..

[Becca]

Why not go ahead and add that extra 10 gallons of bladder capacity, Byron?  Knowing you, you could probably do the work yourself and have your IA inspect and approve it?  It would have come in handy on this flight and I'm sure that you would enjoy having it.  You and Becca seem to do most of you flying with just two on board, so payload probably isn't much of an issue for you.  140-145 KTAS at 8 GPH with 64 gallons of capacity pretty much means I never have to refuel en route.  By the time that I land I am typically ready to call it a day. 

 

Jim

 

We have some higher priority spending to do on the plane right now ... plus, I'm convinced you always need 10 more gallons no matter how much you have.  I am convinced that we would find ways occasional to be short on fuel even if we had 10 more gallons.  (Example:  We had 30 gallons when we went to leave LVJ, we were in a rush, but took the time to refuel at LVJ's high priced fuel so we could tanker round trip - 55 gallons when full - to even more expensive fuel Padre Island.  If we had bigger tanks, we might have had 45 gallons at LVJ and not spent the time and extra money topped off and tried to tanker that round trip with just 45 gallons and ended up in an even tighter situation coming back.)

[jetdriven]

I would like the extra fuel capacity, after all Mooney designed it with that much fuel.  700 NM is pretty much the maximum range at normal cruise speed, flying slower can stretch that out to 850 NM but that sucks too.  If it weren't 2,700$, or 3 grand laid in the decision would be easy.

 

Regarding the flight up the coast, we flew it at 65-70% power, 145 knots.  But given the moving weather, I would have liked to flown faster getting there sooner, but doing that would have left us with 10 gallons remaining with a 50-mile away alternate instead of the 15 gallons we had  Should have filled up given the weather uncertainty, damn the cost, next time I will.