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The nice thing about being a private pilot, or corporate pilot for that matter, is that the schedule is pretty flexible.
That flexibility paid off yesterday.
I’ve been gone away from home quite a bit lately. I was in Denver last week, Las Vegas this week, and now I’m home for the time being. A part of the job.
An interesting situation arose for our departure from Las Vegas. It was Wednesday morning and we didn’t plan to leave until Thursday noon time, but I wanted to check the weather to make sure everything was going to be ok.
Turns out, everything WAS NOT ok. We had about 3 hours to beat the storm and after that it would be pretty stupid to depart for A FEW DAYS. Yes, it was really closing in around us, and we had one shot.
With a flurry of packed bags, a summon for valet, and a crazy drive to the airport, we were out in time to beat the storm.
This storm, 24 hours later, shut down the Phoenix Skyharbor Airport with a tornado warning, flooded runways, and 40 knot direct crosswinds. Something you just don’t hear about this time of year in these parts.
Now, how does this relate to flightsim?
The nice thing about flightsim is that we can usually do what we want. There are no consequences other than wasted time if we end up bending the airplane and plowing into a mountain.
But, even we aren’t invulnerable in Flightsim.
I know a lot of guys that fly virtual heavy airliners like to go from one airport to the next connecting all their flights. This might be something they’d pay attention to, making sure they can beat the storm… or wait.
But if you’re flying for a virtual airline and you have to leave at a certain time, you are at the mercy of the weather at that time. Will there be a break? There’s no telling.
For those virtual airliner operators that go a step further and use something like FSPassengers, there’s even more incentive to play it safe.
Moral of the Story: Know your limits and be willing to stay put when things get bad. If you can get out, get ready to boogy!
This is what was waiting for me at home. My wife and puppy watching me land at our local airport.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Beating the storm for me is nothing but good timing. Sometimes you have no choice but to wait until it passes over. It’s a regular occurance in the summertime where you find yourself racing against time to get to your destination. All part of the fun experience I would say
On another note, even fast approaching weather at your destination could be a fator. (was many times for me). Iv’e seen it countless times where weather went from clear skies, to dark thunder in a matter of 20 min.Even coming into CYTS one time. We just beat the storm by a matter of 5 minutes. After exiting the airplane, we had 80mph winds. (actually strong enough to pick up one of our grand Caravans and set it back down 10 feet away)
fun fun.
Everyone has thier own experiences to share. Thanks for sharing yours! very interesting, especially like you mentioned. (For this tiime of year)
cheers!
Yeah, thunderstorms are something NO ONE messes with. In a lot of ways they are a bit different, too, as they can often ‘push’ stuff ahead of them that also isn’t good. Thankfully they are generally patchy and can move out quickly. Big winter storms will really put a damper on someones mood though!