Weather today is kinda cruddy, so I was looking forward to getting some actual as well. But, I got a briefing and was putting together the plan, and lots of factors were stacking up against me.
For one, I have to work today, and generally I don't get to the airport until around 7pm, which means an 8-8:30 departure. Unfortunately, the FBO in ocala closes at 10, there's no way off the ramp after hours, and they charge $100/hr to stay late. So, I was going to try to be off by 6 to give myself plenty of cushion. It's about a 3:15 flight. That means I'd have to leave work around 3 to get through atlanta traffic in time to fuel the plane and be off by 6. Lots of stressful get-there-itis built into that mess...
The low ceilings and vis aren't a big problem since we were planning to fly IFR anyway. The big bad low pressure system in the gulf is spawning some storms, but I have NEXRAD and I'm sure we could pick around them without too much incident.
The winds aloft are reporting 15kt headwinds in GA and 26kt headwinds down toward north florida. Yuck.
Both me and my copilot are big guys, and in a li'l bitty airplane, and we generally are happiest with tabs fuel. For this trip WITHOUT THE WINDS, we'd probably stash an extra 10 gal or so in the wings for comfort factor.
The winds add almost an hour to the trip!
All of these things individually are surmountable, but together they make up the sort of chain that leads to Never Again articles, so I'm gonna go ahead and say Never Again right now, and stay home and seal my left fuel tank instead
