M-20 Series Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 33.7; Flight Crew Total 2131.7; Flight Crew Type 1545.7
Situational Awareness
Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Weather
I was flying VFR to pickup my daughter. I received a full VFR weather briefing just prior to departure which contained no Sigmets. The forecast was VMC for the entire route. Mention was made of some convective activity near ZZZ; but this was not expected to affect my route of flight. En route I had access to XM weather and SkyRadar. One hour prior to my ETA I noticed a large cell with level 6 activity within. My judgment was that I would arrive at my destination well before the bad weather. I made some preliminary plans for an alternate; but as I approached within 20 minutes of my destination I thought I would have an uneventful arrival. ATIS was reporting winds 280 10/gusting 14 with a broken ceiling at 5;500. Approach Control and Tower casually mentioned the weather but there was no sense of urgency concerning the developing situation. I was wrong. On a 2 mile final lightning struck the field. As I rotated to land; a large microburst was observed on the airport and wind gusted to 40. By this point I landed and started to taxi to the Ramp. Rain and wind became torrential and the aircraft started to weather vane on the taxiway. I maintained appropriate control inputs and made it to the ramp where I turned the aircraft into the wind; kept the engine running and maintained full forward yoke; full nose down trim. At times wind gusted to 55 KTS. The Nexrad display was displaying level 6 returns over the field. The rainwater on the ramp had whitecaps. Tower did a great job of keeping me informed of wind direction and speed. I 'flew' on the ramp for 20 minutes before the winds let up. I taxied to the line and got tied down. Line personnel during this episode had taken to a tornado shelter; a glass door was broken at the FBO and ceiling tiles were lost. A Cessna 172; unsecured was flipped over on its back at the height of the storm. A large helicopter that was tied down was freely weather cocking. My airplane was not damaged.I have always considered myself a cautious; non-risk taker. I have not hesitated to deviate in the past when weather was dangerous. I am ashamed of my judgment during the conclusion of this flight. There were several factors that led to my decision. A few weeks prior I returned from a trip and encountered a large cell about 20 miles north of my home airfield. I landed without incident. This season I've flown VFR around large cells without encountering turbulence. I recently acquired additional Nexrad instrumentation for my airplane. I also have a Strikefinder. I had a false sense of security about the weather that led me to make a tactical decision inappropriately. I could not believe a convective cell could move that fast. I am unfamiliar with Mid West weather. My personality is heavily goal directed and I let myself believe that I could complete this flight to my original destination. I should have been talking to Flight Watch to get real time data about the direction and velocity of the cell. In the future I will not hesitate to talk to Flight Watch and give wide berth to Convective Activity.
M20 pilot reports landing just before an approaching thunderstorm then having to 'fly' his aircraft for 20 minutes in torrential rain and 55 KT winds while sitting on the ramp; with the engine running.