Hi Sean,
Thanks for the update. I’m still a bit sceptical about the effectiveness of the limited trial sites and the usefulness of ‘Rain Radar’ in the UK in general, but could really have done with decent in-air Wx bulletins yesterday (Monday), trying to head home from Sywell after the LAA Rally.
I was just about to leave Sywell after packing up all my gear and checking Wx locally, intending to head for the Manchester Corridor and hoping to try to get behind the front and up the West Coast, when another pilot showed me the latest ‘Rain Radar’ on his smartphone. Now showing heavy rain over the Lakes and all the way south except for a narrow ‘gap’ into Mid Wales. OK - quick change of plan and headed south west towards the ‘gap’. Clear and sunny with broken cloud at c.4-6000ft as I passed Wellesbourne and around Gloucester, with blue sky above and I could see right down the Severn. I considered going above, but could see less ‘gaps’ to the West, so decided to stay below, but as I turned northwest, my ‘gap’ vanished rapidly as I approached Shobdon and heard a heli - presumably just ahead of me but not showing on PAW - tell Shobdon
he was ‘abandoning and returning to Gloucester’ about 3 miles out of Shobdon as ‘Cloudbase’ was down to 300ft - after asking for and having received an ‘advisory’ report from Shobdon minutes earlier that rain there had stopped and that cloud locally was ‘broken at about 800ft’.
I tried going back East, then North but was met with another wall of cloud, so decided to put down at Pound Green in descending cloud and 20g30kts as the front approached. My only other viable alternative after almost 2 hours in the air was back east towards Birmingham and Sywell. I received a call shortly after landing from a fixed wing colleague grounded at Beverley after trying to get north via the East Coast, so no better there.
Unfortunately as you know, ‘Rain Radar’ doesn’t give the
full picture. The ‘rain’ when it appeared at Pound Green actually consisted of about 10 - 15 minutes of light drizzle, which barely wet the plane, or me tying it down for the night as by the time the CLOUDBASE lifted again, it was too late to go on and still 10G20kts, so still here. Hospitality 1st Class though - the owner made VERY welcome despite no PPR.
I will now watch the weather developments with renewed interest.
Best Regards
Peter