Bonanza 33
Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 17.7; Flight Crew Total 1048; Flight Crew Type 648
Situational Awareness
Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution
Weather
Departed Traverse City (TVC) with Toledo Express (TOL) as destination with alternate Jackson; MI. Ultimate destination was New Jersey after fuel stop and an opportunity to look at and assess updated weather. En route from TVC to TOL; we contacted Flight Watch for update on Akron (CAK) weather which would have been closer to a half-way point between TVC and New Jersey destination but still behind a line of thunderstorms east of that location. Current and forecast weather at Akron had improved from an earlier briefing we received so we requested a change of destination from Toledo to Akron with Lansing Approach. While en route; we monitored XM weather and at the top of the hour (13:00); METARS showed ceiling at CAK had dropped to 600 overcast. We elected not to continue and requested diversion back to original destination Toledo Express (TOL). This request was made to Toledo Approach and we advised that we were electing to go to the better weather conditions in Toledo; take on fuel and within 90 minutes or so; make a decision about continuing the flight. Storms strengthened into a line that was in central PA between our location and home airport so we elected to stay overnight in Toledo and continued the flight the following day.
BE33 pilot describes using XM weather in flight to determine that continuing to destination was not advisable and that deviating to TOL to spend the night was the best option.