Only CAVOK is OK!!!
I am doing my commercial training at a large FTO on an integrated course. I had a small amount of previous flying experience before starting the course. The training is to a very high standard and the instructors are great but does anyone else who maybe in a similar situation to me feel like you are wrapped in bubble wrap! By that i mean if the cloud base is below FL100, the wind is 5KTS plus or the visibility is less than 45km you stop flying. It just seems unbelievable at times.
In the past i'd been encouraged to go flying on days that weren't CAVOK to build experience. Never to go below minimums but at least experience something close. This definantly helped awareness, navigation, accuracy etc. The dangerous days for flying are the gin clear Sunday afternoons and bank holidays when you get the PPL pilot out who hasn't flown since last May bank holiday and who hasn't flown with the vis below 50km before. Flying round with their heads looking at their (not so) fancy GPS and not out the window.
Why aren't cross wind landings on the PPL syllabus and why generally aren't people taken up on crap weather days to show them what it's like? The only thing more dangerous than the Sunday driver, is the Sunday flyer!