Lately I've been on some flights with "interesting" flight paths to avoid t-storms. I'll start with a few of mine.
First one goes back a few years, but was an interesting experience. Arrived at MSP on a 757-300 from LAX as the Tornado Sirens were going. After the storm, I flew NW from MSP to SDF on a DC-9-30.
MSP-SDF (the scenic route)
Flight Path took us north out of MSP into Northern MN -- right turn and we proceed to fly over Green Bay; from Green Bay we flew towards Detroit and once over DTW we then flew south towards CVG and into SDF. This typical 90 minute flight was about 2.5 hrs wheels up to wheels down.
This year:
SDF-MSP (E175)
Departed to the west and overflew STL & MCI. Flew into Kansas, north over part of Nebraska, over IA, and into MSP.
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/C...125Z/KSDF/KMSP
SDF-ORD (on a CRJ)
Departed SDF westbound - overflew STL and continued a bit further west, turned north and flew towards where IA / WI / IL meet -- from there over to RFD, a few circles, and into ORD. This typical 1 hr flight was about 2 hrs wheels up to wheels down.
ORD-SDF (RJ)
Departed ORD & then circled to the east; overflew LAN, continued towards DTW; over DTW area turned south towards CVG and then into SDF. Flight time was about 90 min wheels up to wheels down vs the usual 55 minutes.
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The past couple of months we've had cold fronts stalling out just north of here with lines of storms running from the DTW area down to STL, blocking air routes over Indiana.
Couldn't the ORD ones in FlightAware, but here's a few interesting & similar ones:
SDF-MSP (warning - detours ahead
):
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/C...124Z/KSDF/KMSP
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/C...140Z/KSDF/KMSP
SDF-ORD: (Just a bit of a detour)
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/B...054Z/KSDF/KORD
Closing, have had some interesting Intl "detours" to catch better winds & such - they may be more out of the way in terms of miles, but it's amazing the routes airlines will fly here in the US just to avoid storms on a 250 to 600 mile flight -- even if it means flying 1000 miles
