Wx Avoidance
Airborn from Lgw on a Dvr Dep,turned east to see a wall of weather extending North/south range around 50 miles away ,transferred to london unit,very very busy due to a/c deviating ,got my request in to turn right,Negative,ok turn left,Negative,ok climb Negative, unable,now I am getting closer to the wx, which is looking intensive from the returns,another request I have to turn NOW,ok Right 5.not enough,I am turning to avoid,Atc exchanges non stop,skirting the worst taking the best path through,icing on,lights up,all strapped in,one stike followed quickly by another,cabin crew calling ,quick scan a/c all ok,clear area ahead turning now ,hdg received climbing now clear of the worst ,now effectively I am aog at dest as I have to have a stike chk by an lic engineer,all this has happened within 10 mins of dep,let alone calming passengers and crew.
Heres the pitch,Atc do not have w/x returns on there screens,unlike our Florida cousins,if a/c were deviating so much through this sector then why was I allowed to get airborne on this route when a flow delay would have been effective,or given a sid from Lgw that would have kept me south of the problem area ,remaining with lgw atc untill east of May to keep me clear of inbounds.In 25 years of commercial flying I have never had wx deviation refused,yet I was placed in the position of turning onto hdgs that had to keep the a/c clear of the worst of it without approval,this is a situationI care not to repeat and I was not alone in taking the action I did ,listening to the RT.
So before some bright spark comments,don't get airborne,this w/x was not evident initially, but further down the route.lessons here for me, or atc I might suggest, would be to hold present pos untill you can give me the clearance I require.
Thoughts and comments pls.
Max