This flight is taking a very strange flight path.
Weather? Right now, the weather in TUL sucks. Rain, rain, and more rain.
It is interesting when you can discuss a flight path that doesnt make sense while the plane is actually EN ROUTE.
Anyhow I thought it was worthwhile to share.
Appears the diversion only added ~30 min to their flight plan. Also appears they wanted to climb over the weather and might have been heavy with fuel or cargo.
There’s something else no one seems to have thought of. The aircraft is owned by a car dealership (the first listing for Jones Motorcars in Google yields Mercedes Benz of Northwest Arkansas, Fayetteville).
I think they could have been wining and dining one or more customers and, in the course of that, took the scenic route to Fayetteville.
Take a look at previous flights of this aircraft:
flightaware.com/live/flight/N299 … /KONT/KGJT
flightaware.com/live/flight/N299 … /KFYV/KABQ
flightaware.com/live/flight/N299 … /KGJT/KDSM
Granted, they could have been avoiding weather but the first flight above is really the long distance from ONT to GJT!
It could be that they are adding the plane to a Part 135 certificate. Might be proving runs.
Mile high club!
Must be nice to hve money to burn fuel. Noticed they went over major cities as is tourist.