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Paul Volk, a long standing member of the
WSI InFlight Founder's Club had the following experience showing the safety
and utility of WSI InFlight during a flight taken Tuesday, March 11, 2003.
His mission? To safely arrive in D.C. where he would be taking his wife
out for lunch on her birthday.
 "Wow.
Intended destination was W00 [Freeway, MD], but InFlight showed large area
of snow coverage over and to west of W00, moving to east, with mixed precip.
enroute. Decided to proceed VFR as long as possible, and turn around if
weather had not dissipated. Flew northward through indications of mixed
precip. (none encountered). Continued northward into indications of snow,
and encountered snow EXACTLY where InFlight radar depiction indicated. Proceeded
another 10-15 mi. north until vis. and ceilings no longer supported VFR
flight, made a 180 turn intending to go home. Passenger (who was actually
using the InFlight system and narrating the wx to me over intercom), noticed
that Manassas, VA (HEF) with which we are familiar, went from IFR to VFR
according to graphical METAR. A large "hole" in the snow coverage had opened
up to the west and we decided to proceed VFR to Manassas. Had no further
wx problems in this trip, as snow was dissipating rapidly in area of new
destination."
"InFlight SAVED THIS TRIP! Without InFlight,
we would not have departed toward the large area of winter wx in the first
place. (We only had an hour window to depart on this trip or we would not
have gone.) Without InFlight, we would not have known IN REAL TIME that
a diversion to the west was practical, and without the graphical METARs,
our attention would not have been drawn to this fact. Kudos to the system
for increasing the utility of my aircraft on this trip. Whatever you do,
PLEASE RETAIN THE GRAPHICAL METARS, they are invaluable."
For more information on WSI InFlight, click
here.
 Paul Volk is an
engineering consultant living in Williamsburg, VA. He flies a 1995 Piper
Saratoga II HP, based at Williamsburg-Jamestown airport (JGG). He has over
2900 hours of flying experience as a private, instrument-rated pilot. Besides
personal trips he often flies missions for Angel
Flight Mid-Atlantic, a non-profit organization that provides free
private air transportation to medical patients that cannot afford commercial
transportation. |
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