Circumnavigation of the US in my Home Built Aircraft: Leg 11 - Jonesboro Arkansas (JBR) to Joplin Missouri (JLN)

I was stuck in Jonesboro for four days due to weather. This was just agonizing after just sitting for 2 1/2 days in Thomson Georgia. What made matters worse in Jonesboro is that it is located in a "dry" county. Prohibition is still alive in Craighead County, Arkansas. No alcohol of any kind for sale.

I'm not a big drinker but I like to have one vodka tonic at the end of the day. Four days of sitting in a hotel room with nothing to do, and no alcohol, is cruel and unusual punishment!

There was no guarantee I was going to be able to fly today either. Once again the forecast was for low clouds at 1500 feet with broken and overcast layers up to 6000 feet. The route forecast was erratic. The airports along my flight were showing everything from low IFR to clear below 12,000 feet. Thunderstorms were forecast at no specific time.

The one glimmer of hope was a report that the cloud base at Jonesboro might rise up to 3300 feet around 2 PM.

I left the hotel at 9am and Lyft'd to the airport. I sat in the pilot lounge watching junk on the big screen TV until 12:30. The clouds were still down around 1000 feet. I borrowed the FBO's Mercedes SUV and drove to a nearby breakfast place for eggs and bacon and waffles.

When I got back to the airport there was a big ugly raincloud directly overhead. I decided I would wait around until 3 pm and then call it. When 3 pm arrived it showed some signs of clearing to the east. Only I was going west. Westward there was a broken layer with the bases around 2500 feet. There were also impressive columns of cumulous clouds in that direction.

Not looking good

I decided I needed someone with local knowledge to help with this decision. One of the FBO employees was a pilot and I asked his opinion on departing at this time. He reviewed my route on Foreflight and said, "I would do it. Stay low. Use flight following to help with traffic separation."

972GL tucked in the the hangar at Arkansas Air Center

I made the decision to go and hurriedly packed up my stuff and took off. This was going to be an interesting flight.

What you don't see in this pic are the tall columns of cumulous in my direction of flight

I stayed down around 2800 feet and rode in bumpy, but tolerable, air. I was flying into the sun which caused the heavy haze to glow. The bright glare made visibility ahead very limited. I called up Memphis Approach and they gave me a squawk code. At times like this there is a certain comfort to be had from having a helpful voice immediately available.

The cloud bases lifted some and I was getting tired of the bumps so I climbed up to 4500 feet. This put me in the middle of cloud layer. It was smooth air but I would be dodging these things as I tried to follow my route as close as possible.

Smooth air but a lot of deviations

The clouds continued to be erratic. There might be an open area with no clouds, and then there would be a massive building cumulous rising up to 10,000 feet. Around the next cloud there might be a massive line of clouds stretching for miles in each direction. It was completely random with no obvious pattern. It would stay this way for the rest of the flight.

I climbed up to 8500 feet and found smooth calm air for a while. That didn't last as the clouds ahead were much higher. I dropped back down to 4500 feet and stayed there for the duration.

On the way I passed over famous Branson, Missouri and snapped a picture for my sister Susan. She and my other sister, Dottie, had planned to visit here together. It never happened as Dottie developed cancer and passed shortly thereafter.