The plan was to go up and visit my daughter. She asked me to bring my plane so we could take her new boyfriend for a ride. Unfortunately, the plane wasn’t available until 3pm on Saturday, but that’s ok because she was working until 5pm, and so we could go out to dinner and then flying on Sunday. And maybe my long distance friend Mark. So I booked it. Then came the first hitch – the boyfriend wasn’t available to go flying on Sunday after all. Oh well, we could still do dinner, and Liane and Mark and I could still go flying. And then Mark remembered a former commitment. Oh well, dinner was still on the menu, and Liane and I could go for brunch and a flight on Sunday.
At 1pm, I was checking the weather, and there were thunderstorms to the south. I thought that was ok (because storms around here generally move to the east), except the flight service weather briefer pointed out that they’re moving north. I checked the radar just before leaving for the airport, and the thunderstorms were now over Buffalo, but still a bit south of my route. I decided to go to the airport anyway, but when I got there I checked the radar again and those little red echos had moved right onto my route, and looked like they were heading straight for my destination. At this point, I gave up. The Aviation Weather site showed a SIGMET (Significant Meteorological warning) for thunderstorms in the area.
The image above is the current radar picture. If I’d left when I’d originally planned, I probably would have been landing about now. Or crashing. There is hail falling here in Rochester right now, and the dog won’t leave my side because he’s scared of the thunder.