This afternoon I flew from LELL (Sabadell) to LFGA (Colmar).
https://www.autorouter.eu/track/37548Sdl
This flight had a number of firsts. The pickup point out of LELL was REBUL. Although I got my IFR clearance a second after leaving the LELL ATZ Spanish ATC had me fly all the way to REBUL. The clearance was simply “climb FL160”.
On the way to there I had to make a few turns to avoid WX and eventually did enter clouds where I picked up some ice but was able to climb fast to get out of it.
Given today’s situation IFR pickup in the hold of SLL would have been much better. That is just a feeling but it appears to me that ATC is kind of reluctant. In France and Germany you can feel that you and the controller are a team. In the Barcelona area it feels more like giving you a service because ATC has to … On another flight I will experiment with asking for a shortcut directly. They may deny that because on the other flights it was basically getting me over to the French :-)
Further into my flight today I was watching the thunderstorms along my route on the ADL. The storm scope also showed several strikes that were not on the ADL. That had me a bit confused. At one moment I was heading towards a more or less clear area but it was full of strikes on the storm scope. And there was rain and static on the radio. I cleared that area quickly by turning.
The alternate air door also did open. It closed several minutes later.
I had an interesting day somewhere between FL190 and later FL090. Landing at Colmar was visual with CAVOK conditions,
but it was full of strikes on the storm scope. And there was rain and static on the radio.
The strikes you had on the stormscope were false strikes as a result of P-static on the airframe. That old and well-known problem of the SR airframe…
So I guessed and went by the indication of the ADL
You didn’t mention that, but it reminded of an IFR flight from Avignon last year. When I took off towards the south there were was a bigger thunderstorm just where the controller sent me after take-off. I asked for a different heading twice, and when they ignored that I informed them that i was “turning right 20 degrees to avoid” … and that worked and I was cleared.
I made mental note: I will not let them send me anwyhere I don’t want to go.
Oh, yeah … I did that several times today. “… turning 20 to the left!” not as a question but to let them know. They have radar and see it anyway.
