Originally Posted by
PilotJ3
First off…I rather have an FO that want to clear a wx by 80 miles (that will only consume about 100-200lbs more of gas) vs the one that wants to only deviate 5-10 miles and I have to explain them why we should keep going more to the left/right of the WX.
That's fine when it's one cell in the middle of nowhere. What do you do when a line of thunderstorms stretches across the country? Getting further from one buld up puts you closer to another. That's why you need to evalue each build up and determine which ones are the biggest threats so that you can give yourself more room around those. Like I said before, I would rather pass closley to the upwind side of a moderate build up in order to give myself more distance downwind of a severe cell. Spitting the gap right in the middle isn't always the best.
Originally Posted by
PilotJ3
You’re supposed to be min 25 miles between cells and if you’re going above 5,000 ft.
It's 5 nm below 10,000 ft, 10 nm between 10,000 feet-FL250, and 20 nm above FL250. Plus, clear tops by 5,000 feet and 1nm per 1 knot of wind.
Originally Posted by
notEnuf
Auto has had me deviate around a buildup thousands of feet below me and farther away than necessary. So what?
Because deviating around a small buildup could put you closer to a large one. Again, not all storms exist in isolation. I routinely take the radar out of auto to see what altitude the storm is at. There have been many times when I see 2 red cells, but then I take the radar out of auto and see that one cell is "red" at a much lower altitude. That's a clue that that cell is weaker. I wouldn't fly through it, but I would prioritize avoiding the stronger cell over that.
Evaluating the weather is an important skill. You won't always be in a situation where you can go 80 miles around a minor storm.