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

WLG-BHE is 15 minute flight if the wind is in the right direction, 20 minutes if in the wrong direction or 30 minutes if really bad luck.

I've flown between AKL and SIN countless times and always interested in where cross the east coast of Australia - furthest north is Cairns, furthest south is Hobart!

Seems the great circle is north of NTL (Newcastle) and south of OOL (Gold Coast). Really surprised you'd go south as Hobart, but I imagine that is where the headwinds are the calmest at times.

Having flown MEL-PER countless times, it would make sense; some days the headwind isn't bad, other times it can be brutal. Same goes with the tailwind having had some incredibly fast PER-MEL flights.

On the TATL's, I like to see how far north the crossing is done -- and if over Greenland, just how far north.

One crossing that stands out was a DXB-EWR flight when MH was operating KUL-DXB-EWR as a one-stop.

Northern Flight Path on DXB-EWR at 7114 miles flown

The 7114 miles from a different Perspective

I had to input cities we flew near, but this is pretty close. If anything, we were just a bit further north going across Greenland.

If you look at the actual great circle flight path, it's much further south but incedibly close on the #'s at 6861 mi; with these numbers going north only add's 253 miles, but I would venture to say it decreased our time in flight.

Wheels up to Wheels down on this one was 15 hrs and 15 minutes, but I've done the route ~14 1/2 (DXB-NYC direction).

Bit faster going eastbound and the flight path has been closer to the GC, over Scotland, continental Europe, Turkey, Iran, and then coming in across the Gulf.

Map with Geo Borders and comparison with the actual GC

Also interesting is just how far north you'll go on a route like LAX-ICN as you eat dinner & fly up the coastline watching the Ocean that you'll eventually cross .

Here in the states, I find some of the t-storm dodging detours interesting though.

One final thought - now that FlightAware lists the distance between the two cities, the planned distance per the flight path, and the actual distance when complete, how about we start submitting requests for actual "butt in seat" mileage now that it's available

ORD to BHM - flew all the way to somewhere in the heart of Texas and back up to BHM. 4 1/2 hours on what would normally have been a 1 1/2 hour flight. The FA came on the speaker at the end and said she swears that in 5 more minutes we would have been in Jamaica

Last May flying CO DTW-IAH we had to take a big detour in the west over Oklahoma and Texas so we ended up spending 3hr07 in the air on the 1,077 mile flight. With padding the flight was blocked at 2hr28, we ended up over 45 minutes delayed inbound despite an ontime departure.

I wish I still had the Flight Aware map of it.

Not a storm, but a French ATC strike.

EGKK-DGAA in 7:45 (direct route would have been 6:12 on the day).