Pack it in for today

I waited at Harv's Air Service at St. Andrews airport for 4 hours, checking the hourly weather reports and forecasts, looking at the sky and talking to the local pilots. The weather is just not going to let me fly today.

I was hoping to get to Brandon at least, another couple of inches towards home on the map. But the cloud level has never risen about 1500 ft and the revised forecast issued at 1pm says the promised 10,000 ft ceiling isn't going to happen until much later now. Regina is still stuck in low clouds and could expect thunderstorms after 3pm. Moose Jaw is raining and reporting lightning to the north. Winnipeg is expecting thunderstorms all evening through to late morning.

Did I mention the weather sucks? Even the Weather Channel has a "Very Strong Thunderstorms Imminent" warning scrolling across the bottom of the screen for an area 60km to the southwest of Winnipeg. The full text says:

Severe weather bulletin issued by Environment Canada for southern Manitoba.
Severe Thunderstorm warning for: Piney, Woodridge and Sandilands, Reynolds south of Hwy 1, La Broquiere and Marchand.
At 1040am RADAR indicated a very strong thunderstorm near Marchand moving east at 60km/h. Nickel sized hail was reported at Steinbach with this storm. Hail to 2cm and wind gusts to 90 km/h are possible with this storm along with very heavy rain and frequent lightning. This storm is expected to track north of Woodridge and south of the TransCanada over Sandilands provincial forest.
This is a warning that severe thunderstorms are imminent or occurring in these regions. Some of these storms may produce large hail and strong wind gusts. Remember that some severe thunderstorms produce tornadoes. Listen for updated warnings.
Strong thunderstorms have developed over southern Manitoba just northeast of Morris. Some storms may produce large hail and wind gusts of 90km/h or more. Very heavy rain and frequent lightning are likely. They are expected to weaken by late morning.
Please refer to the latest public broadcasts for further details.

Guess which way my flight route would have taken me?


Given the reports of large hail stones yesterday, I am concerned about leaving the plane tied down in the open. I asked the guys at Harv's whether they hanger their planes every night, and they said they do. I asked if they can squeeze another one in, and after talking to Adam, the owner, he said they will try but he can't promise until he sees if a couple of planes on cross-country trips come home early. There is apparently not much free hanger space at this airport. Another aviation school I tried said they don't have room.

So anyway, we rolled the plane across the apron and parked it in front of their hanger, so they can easily move it in at the end of the day. Adam knows Pat, our general manager at Pacific Flying Club, so hopefully he will try a little harder to squeeze FPAK into their hanger.
Nothing else to do but wait it out. That probably makes Monday afternoon the very earliest we can get back to Boundary Bay, assuming no more weather delays (yeah, right.)

Did I mention the weather sucks?