Today I had the opportunity to fly to Lake Tahoe as part of my mountain checkout.  The plan was to awaken at 6:30 AM and spend 8 AM to 1 PM flying about the Tahoe area, learning about mountains and their effect on flying.

Unfortunately, the plan was thwarted by thunderstorms, forecast to be forming over the Sierras from 1800 to 1900Z.  Instructors Rodrigo and Khaled seemed to be pretty OK with it, however.  ”Thunderstorms are fun!” they said.  ”It’s like being at a wedding!”  They helped me out with an analogy:

Thunderstorms are like a wedding:

• Much like people gleefully throw rice at a wedding upon the bride and groom, thunderstorms throw out large, fist-sized chunks of hail at your airplane.
• In weddings there’s a lot of flash photography, and inside a thunderstorm you’re constantly blinded by searing lightning.
• The bride and groom get pushed about by the wedding planner from place to place, much as a thunderstorm will throw your airplane up into the sky with hurricane-force winds, and then just as suddenly drop it back out towards the ground.