desertdog71
Girthy Member
First imagine you fly a Cessna 207 for a VFR 135 Sightseeing outfit in Northern Arizona.
Its your typical August day in Northern Arizona, as you wait for your passengers to arrive back at Gouldings Airfield (UT25) in Monument Valley, AZ.
You have a chat with another pilot that just arrived in a Caravan, and he in passing mentions a small dust storm near White Mesa, but not really doing much. Not unusual with convective activity in the area, and its been your experience that they usually fizzle out before getting too far north.
You go ahead and call dispatch for weather info, and reports are as you expected them. Nothing severe and just a couple cells way south, the ones around monument aren't even on radar yet. Page, AZ (KPGA) Metar is as follows:
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 222153Z AUTO 18010G16KT 10SM CLR 35/07 A3002 RMK AO2 SLP090 T03500067[/FONT]
Your passengers arrive and you depart UT25 at 2243Z direct to KPGA. Its about a 40 minute flight usually. You climb to 8500 feet and dodge a couple small showers when you look south and see a wall of red dust rising about 1500AGL and advancing Northward at great speed.
No problem, lets just hurry and get there. You push the plane to max allowable power and make for Page. Inform the passengers what is going on and contact Ops in Page.
New Metar for Page is:
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 222253Z AUTO 18009G16KT 10SM CLR 34/06 A3000 RMK AO2 LTG DSNT E SLP084 T03390061[/FONT]
Good deal, press on. 30 miles, 20 miles, 10 miles its gonna be close. 5 miles out entering a base for Rwy 15, and still clean and hurrying, and the airport VANISHES into the wall of red dirt and sand.
Here is what it looked like from the ground.
(photo credit to Jeff Larson of Westwind)
Here are the METARS that followed.
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 230015Z AUTO 19025G44KT 3SM HZ CLR 26/11 A3002 RMK AO2 PK WND 18047/2359 LTG DSNT NE AND E[/FONT]
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 222353Z AUTO 18028G43KT 2SM HZ FEW007 27/11 A3002 RMK AO2 PK WND 17046/2333 LTG DSNT NE AND E SLP101 T02670111 10350 20267 53000[/FONT]
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 222351Z AUTO 19031G42KT 1 3/4SM HZ SCT007 27/11 A3002 RMK AO2 PK WND 17046/2333 LTG DSNT NE AND E[/FONT]
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 222317Z AUTO 18031G39KT 1SM HZ VV005 30/11 A3000 RMK AO2 PK WND 19039/2317 LTG DSNT E[/FONT]
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 222314Z AUTO 18022G36KT 2SM HZ FEW005 32/09 A3000 RMK AO2 PK WND 18036/2311[/FONT]
Needless to say, I diverted to Bryce Canyon and spent the night up there. About 7PM the storms made their way up there and gave Bryce a good soaking which helped with the fires. I got back to Page about 2PM today, after getting my passengers a rental car, spending the night and one of the Pilots and our station manager returned the car back up to Bryce today.
Lessons learned: Pack a flight bag with extra clothes and toiletries even if we are VFR 135. "Not doing much" doesn't always stay that way.
Its your typical August day in Northern Arizona, as you wait for your passengers to arrive back at Gouldings Airfield (UT25) in Monument Valley, AZ.
You have a chat with another pilot that just arrived in a Caravan, and he in passing mentions a small dust storm near White Mesa, but not really doing much. Not unusual with convective activity in the area, and its been your experience that they usually fizzle out before getting too far north.
You go ahead and call dispatch for weather info, and reports are as you expected them. Nothing severe and just a couple cells way south, the ones around monument aren't even on radar yet. Page, AZ (KPGA) Metar is as follows:
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 222153Z AUTO 18010G16KT 10SM CLR 35/07 A3002 RMK AO2 SLP090 T03500067[/FONT]
Your passengers arrive and you depart UT25 at 2243Z direct to KPGA. Its about a 40 minute flight usually. You climb to 8500 feet and dodge a couple small showers when you look south and see a wall of red dust rising about 1500AGL and advancing Northward at great speed.
No problem, lets just hurry and get there. You push the plane to max allowable power and make for Page. Inform the passengers what is going on and contact Ops in Page.
New Metar for Page is:
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 222253Z AUTO 18009G16KT 10SM CLR 34/06 A3000 RMK AO2 LTG DSNT E SLP084 T03390061[/FONT]
Good deal, press on. 30 miles, 20 miles, 10 miles its gonna be close. 5 miles out entering a base for Rwy 15, and still clean and hurrying, and the airport VANISHES into the wall of red dirt and sand.
Here is what it looked like from the ground.
(photo credit to Jeff Larson of Westwind)
Here are the METARS that followed.
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 230015Z AUTO 19025G44KT 3SM HZ CLR 26/11 A3002 RMK AO2 PK WND 18047/2359 LTG DSNT NE AND E[/FONT]
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 222353Z AUTO 18028G43KT 2SM HZ FEW007 27/11 A3002 RMK AO2 PK WND 17046/2333 LTG DSNT NE AND E SLP101 T02670111 10350 20267 53000[/FONT]
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 222351Z AUTO 19031G42KT 1 3/4SM HZ SCT007 27/11 A3002 RMK AO2 PK WND 17046/2333 LTG DSNT NE AND E[/FONT]
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 222317Z AUTO 18031G39KT 1SM HZ VV005 30/11 A3000 RMK AO2 PK WND 19039/2317 LTG DSNT E[/FONT]
[FONT=Monospace,Courier]KPGA 222314Z AUTO 18022G36KT 2SM HZ FEW005 32/09 A3000 RMK AO2 PK WND 18036/2311[/FONT]
Needless to say, I diverted to Bryce Canyon and spent the night up there. About 7PM the storms made their way up there and gave Bryce a good soaking which helped with the fires. I got back to Page about 2PM today, after getting my passengers a rental car, spending the night and one of the Pilots and our station manager returned the car back up to Bryce today.
Lessons learned: Pack a flight bag with extra clothes and toiletries even if we are VFR 135. "Not doing much" doesn't always stay that way.
