Fun with Weather IRL

[stevekirks]

In real life, I'm flying back from Columbus, OH to Springfield, MO (home) on United. Here's the skyvector link and it should be a doozy.

Low vis in Chicago and TS/hail/tornados in Springfield around my arrival time.

Wish me luck...

Steve

[N119XD - Shawn]

looks like someone trying to go around LAX without talking to a controller! Safe travels!!!

[stevekirks]

Safe on the ground in Chicago. Parallel approach with a 747 and I have pics. Nice ride. Airbus A319 drivers made it look easy. Next stop: airport food!

[stevekirks]

Made it home at 1AM Central after a divert to Kansas City and a swap to a different aircraft. The turbulence and wind gusts were bad enough the pilots gave it only one approach try and then headed for KMCI. After we landed in KC, I talked to a couple of United guys off to the side and they said that the turbulence was bad enough that they wanted to pull the plane and look it over before we went back to Springfield. They pulled a spare ERJ145 from the other side of the tarmac (since KMCI is a United maintenance facility) and we took it home.

The landing this time was fine and pretty normal with an approach to nearly minimums - we broke out of the clouds (OVC007) at maybe 500 feet AGL and the pilot later said "it was easy from there" and "frankly a relief after the first approach". Co-pilot said they were already serious discussing the divert without trying for the landing when they entered Springfield Approach's airspace. I figured something was up when we put on extra fuel in Chicago and came in *way* west and south of the normal inbound route.

I sometime get nervous, but this was the first time I was genuinely scared during an approach. The pilot had just dumped the last of the flaps and the gear was already out. The turbulence was pretty bad, but not like you're hitting your head, but more like a serious roller coaster ride. He rolled right for the turn to catch the localizer for runway 02 at Springfield and the bottom dropped out. Engines surged to full and then the plane came up like an elevator but turned on its center what felt like 20 degrees to the right. Then down and left and finally level for about 3 seconds. That's when the gear came up, the nose up, and engines at full again. Pilots later told me in the parking lot that the gear came up at 1750ft (about 500ft AGL) and the approach turn into the localizer was at 3000ft, so we lost 1200ft in about 10 seconds during the turn and elevator ride.

No wonder we diverted....

I'll try to get some pics uploaded later today and update the post. I've got some amazing shots of the rain.

[Kerbo]

Wow, that's a little more excitement than I would want, glad they made the right choices.

[davidspreckeriii]

Wow you were about an hour away from me when at kmci