Florida wx in July

[Warrior2]

Hi everyone.

Im off to florida in July to complete my PPL and i would like to know what the climate is doing at this time of year!! ive never been to the states before so anything will surprise me!!

Ive heard that the aircraft performance will decrease drastically with the heat and may become dangerous, is this true???

Regard

W2

[obgraham]

It'll be hot.
It'll be humid.
That's why they make airconditioning.
In the afternoons there'll be plenty of thunderstorm activity.
That's why there's mornings.

[captain_rossco]

where are you heading? Thermals will be a hoot in florida!

Regards

Rossco

[javelin]

That's also why there are April and October !

[gcolyer]

Oooh October. To close to hurricane season.

Climb performance will not be anything to write home about if you are training in the standard florida training spamcan in July.

Mind you it would be nice to drop down to 500ft and cruise Daytona beach and do some site seeing :ok:

[BackPacker]

I was in Florida end of september/early october 2005. End of hurricane season, still had a few tropical storms blow over.

Normal days, be prepared to fly at first light (that 6am early) because the weather won't get really turbulent/unstable until about noon-ish. Afternoon, it depends on the actual humidity as to whether you can legally fly under the clouds or not. The instability generally dies down around nightfall, which is 7pm-ish (?). After that, remember that a number of hours you fly at night (dual first, then solo) count both towards your PPL and towards the Night Qualification.

If there's a tropical storm or a hurricane nearby, all bets are off however. Use the radar and other weather equipment to go up to do circuits, but forget long cross-countries. Good crosswind landing practice though.

As far as aircraft performance is concerned, yes, it is degraded but most of the time you'll be dual in a four-seater (unless you train on a 150/152) so there'll be enough performance. Runways are long enough everywhere, so you don't need to worry about that. And in any case, before each flight you're required to do all performance calculations anyway so you know what you can and can't do.

You do have to lean your mixture a bit when taxying, in order not to foul the plugs. And if you do find yourself short of climb performance, lean for max performance as well. How to do this properly depends on the POH and the instruments you have available. Go with your instructors advice.

Other than that, wear a t-shirt and shorts (unless you're on the professional track, in which case they make you wear a uniform) and bring a bottle of water on longer-ish flights.

Oh, and I now see you've never been to the states. Everything is big. Cars, highways, distances, malls, Americans, food portions, sky, egos. Fuel is cheap, so is eating-out and Wal-Mart. People are generally nice but a bit superficial. Money and status mean everything. And don't make jokes to government officials, particularly not about any security-related measure that you may find ridiculous. They don't, and they don't appreciate you joking about it.

And the flying is very, very relaxed. ATC services in general are much better than in Europe (WX-Brief, Flight Watch, Flight Following), no landing fees and no PPR.

[mccourtm]

I've been there at that time for the last two years and I'm going back this year again from end June to end July.
Last year I took a couple of lessons when I was there just to keep my hand in as I was due to do the skills test in Aug when I got home (Which I passed:)). At my level of experience at the time I can't say that I noticed anything different about performance as the runways were quite long. What I really did notice though was how calm it was in the air. I found that when I pointed the plane in a particular direction it just went there with little further effort, no bumps, turbulence etc.
I tended to take the first flight of the day, that's when the weather is at its best. By mid pm the big fluffy cumulous start to build up followed by storm.
This year I intend doing about 10hrs towards the IMC when I'm there.

Enjoy.

[gcolyer]

mccourtm

So you had to go through all the VISA and TSA malarky just to do a couple of lessons prior to your skills test back home?? Again to do 10 hours towards your IMC you need to go through the VISA pain again. Why not just do the whole IMC there as it is only another 5 hour on top of what you plan.

[mccourtm]

I never had to go through the visa application at all and hopefully won't have to this year again. I just turned up at Sunstate Aviation and booked a couple of flights. As simply as that!
I intend doing the IMC with Orlando Flight Training and I quote:
"If your MAIN reason for the trip is to have a holiday with your family then you are not required to have a visa if you decide you MAY want to fly a few hours whilst your family are doing other things"
I'm going on holiday with my family for the month so hopefully the visa rule above will apply.
Another reason for flying over there of course is that it works out at about €70/Hr cheaper, so why not?

[obgraham]

The rules have changed, and noncitizens have to produce valid visas to take any flight training.
I suspect not all schools enforce the rules equally, but Florida is likely very compliant.

[englishal]

The rules have changed, and noncitizens have to produce valid visas to take any flight training.
I suspect not all schools enforce the rules equally, but Florida is likely very compliant.
Could you give us a reference for that please?

Florida is horrible (no offence ;) ). It is flat, hot, sweaty, full of gun toting rednecks as is much of the deep South......Actually Tampa is ok, as long as you have AC and a cool beer ;)

California on the other hand.....Clear skies, warm, dry, sunshine, mountains, deserts, snow, ski resorts, death valley, islands oh and smog (around the LA basin) & earthquakes (which the Mrs, who is a Californian for much of her life loves because she is a Geophysicist;) ).

Also the Rednecks are of a better standard in California, they tend to keep to their own areas and prefer to be called Gangsters. I remember sitting on the porch at Compton airport (which is a very nice airport in the middle of gangland) listening to the melody of automatic gunfire over towards the court house.

[obgraham]

Could you give us a reference for that please?
My pleasure: look here at http://www.aopa.org/tsa_rule/ and scroll down to the "noncitizen section.

[englishal]

Thanks for that.

However, it is still a grey area though as no where does it mention "student" visa. I have a visa, but not a student visa, also when entering on a visa waiver you are essentially grated a "visa" on entry.


I believe that it is still the case that if you "main" reason for entry into the USA is a holiday, and your flight training does not exceed 18 hours per week, legally you are not breaking any laws and no student visa is required....In other words you could rock up at a flight school and do a ME rating without a visa...

But anyway, better to be safe than sorry!

Cheers

[j_davey]

Hi Warrior2,
At the moment i`m doing my ppl training in florida. well,actually this weekend i`m in Buffalo, but a few days ago it was around 85deg in florida(JAX). The Piper Cherokee i`m flying does not like hot weather and sometimes it just wont climb off the runway!(hot weather + full tanks) this can be a bit scary at times.

you`ll be hot and then some... expect major sweat patches and drink plenty of water.:ok:

jd.