Between the mountain ranges is a great place to do cross country flying. I found that if I were willing to detour a state or so off course, I could almost always go around the weather and get to my destination.
I think it was the AOPA's Thomas Haines who points out that Pennsylvania must be
one of the most frustrating places to fly VFR or even light IFR. He describes the
Allegheny mountains as the world's greatest weather-makers. (I think some of that
is proximal prejudice, since he is based at Frederick, Md. and is always getting
balled up with that range, but he has a point.)
The thing about this whole mid-Atlantic area is that you just can't ever plan anything
weeks in advance. A week, maybe. Weeks, no. It can rain and blow any time of year,
with about equal probability on any given weekend. We have some of the Florida-like
'get your flyiing done before noon' stuff. Then again, we have weeks at a time where
every late afternoon and early evening can be sparkling. But you still can't predict.
The route across Pennsylvania, roughly following Route 80 has a tendency to haze
up very badly. Industrial and agricultural particulates from the midwest can turn what
is reported as 'sky clear 10 miles visibility' into the inside of a light-bulb with little warning
or predictability
Greg
.
