I had some business meetings in the Riverside and Ontario areas of Southern California last month on a Tuesday/Wednesday. On Thursday my wife was to go into minor surgery so it was kind of important – make that pretty darn important – to be back home. For a few days it was forecast to be scattered showers in the CA central valley with isolated thunderstorms, and that didn’t scare me since I would be in the valley and could see and avoid them. Had I had to cross the sierras I would have been scared.
As it turns out, this was the day that small tornadoes touched down and destroyed some crops. It was a wild weather day to be sure, especially for California, but my see and avoid plan was sound. I did see, and I did avoid. I ended up seeing a lot of bad stuff near where I wanted to land so I diverted, landed in Rancho Murietta, waited an hour, then continued on to my home base of Placerville in good weather.
My wife, knowing it isn’t wise to 100% count on me when flying, had two back-up rides home from the hospital for the next day. When I told her I diverted and landed, she thought it was all over. I told her I was pretty sure the bad weather would move past Placerville and allow me to land before it got dark, and luckily it did.
West Coast Flying Adventures 