Ha... you heard that? That line of approaching storms this past Thursday threw a wrench in my plans. Don't think I wasn't aware.
All morning I was watching the radar and concluded that I would need to get out of BUF at least an hour earlier than normally due to the approaching storms. Thus, after arriving, preflighting, and starting up I called for my IFR clearance but it was not in Buffalo clearance's hands yet (typically the IFR clearance is available to controllers one half hour prior to a pilot's scheduled departure and up to two hours after before being deleted).
When BUF came back after locating it he stated that the scheduled departure time was not for another hour and fifteen yet. I quickly replied that I would be happy to depart VFR and pick up an IFR pop-up with Rochester (BUF was still VFR) just to get going before fire and brimstone broke loose above. He recognized my sense of urgency and was able to expedite the clearance delivery for me.
Fortunately the controllers opened up runway 14 (which is very close to the FBO there but has been closed during the day for work) just as I was about to taxi so I made my escape there. As I took the runway I could see the literal wall of rain right over the city of Buffalo, about 8 miles to the west.
After settling into a climb out to the east and away from that hell, I was switched to Rochester approach (the next sector over) and there was a GA pilot there who had missed an ATC call. When he finally replied to the ROC controller, he sheepishly admitted he had been monitoring Buffalo approach to catch all the action that had just erupted.
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