Turbulent Ride to Austin

Had to fly back to Austin the norming after the plane was supposed to be back in Houston due to worse than forecast weather in Austin the evening before.

I would normally not have flown in the weather on this day; it was gusting over 25 knots at Bergstrom (KAUS); I suspect higher winds where we were, actually after takeoff at Austin Executive (KEDC, forer Brid's Nest Airport) while we were level at about 110 knots the stall warning briefly came on. Not fun.

While this picture was taken the autopilot was on and you can see the turbulence knocking around the plane - normally it would be perfectly straight and level, but at some points the wind had us at pretty large bank angles, which the autopilot instantly corrected. I was constantly ready to take over the controls in case I had to just keep the wings level and stop trying to maintain altitude.

Austin Executive is a cool airport; they are undergoing a major expansion and putting in an absolutely beautiful and huge new runway, parking, terminal, and hanger facilities; however to do this they had to cut the old runway about in half, so all that's currently usable is a 1500' narrow runway attached to the old parking area. So landings really get your attention, particularly with any crosswind.

Despite the less than ideal weather, I had to bring the plane back to Houston. The flight was not fun at all, but we got back to Houston safely, and that's all that counts in the end.