KFWQ to KGEU

My longest flight so far! We left FWQ at approximately 0730 on Sunday, November 18th and arrived in the phoenix area about 12 hours later. We had one fuel stop at Col Jabara airport just outside Wichita, KS.

Weather on departure was crummy -- AIRMETS (Sierra, Tango, and Zulu) in the immediate area with low ceilings (600 feet) being reported by the FWQ AWOS. The issue wasn't clouds as much as ice -- the A36, while a great airplane, has no ice protection besides pitot heat and a windscreen defroster.

At daybreak I looked up and as far as I could tell, the lowest cloud layer was thin. We could take off, get over that layer, and stay between layers until we got far south enough to avoid the ice. I checked the Garmin 496 XM weather repeatedly, and finally decided a diversion southward would be the best plan. it added 16 miles to the overall trip of over 1600 NM, so it was an easy call.

I flew the first leg and though loaded pretty heavily the Bonanza climbed well. We punched through some wispy clouds and were soon on top of the low level crud, and beneath a much higher layer. We flew direct to Parkersburg, WV, then followed airways west past STL.

The skies cleared near Southern IL, and we remained in clear skies all the way to our destination. Winds were contrary (as expected on a westbound flight), so our groundspeed was around 145 knots most of the way.