End Of The Line

It had been a perfect day, so far. My early-teen kids and I had flown to Tampa, Fla., for a family reunion. Bidding fond farewells, it was time to motor back to the Washington, D.C., area and put the airplane, the kids and me to bed. Of course, it was summertime and, of course, a fast-moving cold front stretched from the Gulf of Mexico well into New York. A pre-launch glance at the FBOs Nexrad display showed a well-defined mass of yellow and red splotches, embedded in green, parallel and west of my course, but moving east. It was definitely time to go. Soon, we had climbed to 11,000 feet and cleared the Florida peninsula. Cruising a couple of miles offshore, we were in the clear, but eyed the dark clouds closing in from the west with trepidation.

Key Takeaways:

• While flying from Florida to D.C. with his kids, a pilot faced a rapidly approaching severe thunderstorm line during a summer flight, with ATC unable to provide a safe route through.
• Prioritizing safety over speed, the pilot decided against trying to fly through or under the storms, choosing instead to divert to Wilmington, NC, and land before the front hit.
• After waiting out the weather overnight, they completed their journey safely the next morning, reinforcing the lesson that it's crucial to plan ahead, be patient, and wait out severe weather.

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