phik

Jacob and I are headed to Toronto today (dropping Chris in Syracuse), and of course yesterday and today are the only two days in weeks that aren’t perfect for flying.

We checked in with Flight Services a couple times to get updates on a line of thunderstorms moving east over Syracuse. It was a big line, way too big to fly around, but there was a pretty big hole between cells along our route.

Unfortunately, getting Flight Services to describe them to you just doesn’t cut it. With no weather radar in the plane, and with virtually no weather radar on ATC’s scopes, we can’t have confidence that we can avoid the cells.

At the last moment before we re-penetrate the clouds and can no longer see the thunderheads with our own eyes, we do a U-turn and divert to the airport right below us, Johnstown, NY.

Johnstown/Fulton County turns out to be a very nice small airport, almost ideal for spending the afternoon. Valley View Aviation let us crash in their lounge, use their computer for weather updates, order pizza, and generally make ourselves at home. Two hours past their normal closing time, in fact.

Line after line of thunderstorms kept coming off the lake, with just barely too little space between them for us to make a dash. After four or five boring hours the sun went down, which made the weather clear up almost immediately, and we got into Syracuse around 21:00.

Toronto City tower closes at 22:00, so we accepted an invitation to the lovely chez shona’s parents, and will head out early tomorrow.

Definitely ready for sleeping.