Frustrated with this damned summer

[prettygrumman]

Tafs today London north, 170/7 9999. Cobblers.
If it isnt drizzle, rain, poor vis then its gusting 45 knots across the runway.
Looks like May and September are the hour building months. Have done just
3 hours since May on IMC training. Anyone else getting frustrated? :ugh: :ugh:

[Duchess_Driver]

...and the weather doesn't help much! :ok:;)

Agreed Wx is PANTS, but 3 Hours IMC, since may.....????? I've done 5 trips with one student since the beginning of August. No problems in that department.

[IO540]

Have done just
3 hours since May on IMC training

Something else must be going on. Is the instructor looking for perfect days?

[omcaree]

Recently it seems that whenever I have an aircraft/instructor booked, the weather closes in. Then I can't rebook for a week because of availability. And a week is too long to get a reliable forcast, so inevitably I end up with another cr:mad:p day!
A tip for anyone here would be, don't book an aircraft on a day that I'm going flying! :ugh:

[Pitts2112]

so inevitably I end up with another crp day!

But isn't that exactly what you're looking for for IMC training?
Sounds like this summer ought to be working out just perfectly for you. :)

[papa600]

Anyone else getting frustrated?

AFFIRM! ..... this summer has been largely a write off so far in Scotland as well esp for purely VMC pilots - flyable days few and far between .... low cloud, drizzle, mist, thunder pours, torrential rain, then add in aircraft availablility, own availability and you are looking at a flight every 6-8 weeks.

Global warming ... can we have some up here please?

[SkyHawk-N]

I can't see a problem with the weather :cool: ;)

[soay]

Global warming ... can we have some up here please?
What makes you think that's not what we're getting! The only change that's been predicted with any confidence is that GW will make the weather more unstable.

[aviate1138]

soay said....

"What makes you think that's not what we're getting! The only change that's been predicted with any confidence is that GW will make the weather more unstable."

Aviate adds......

Seeing as the GW alarmists have said GW will produce droughts/flooding/less,more hurricanes/melting/freezing etc there isn't any weather that GW isn't linked to! Stable or unstable.....

Now we have Peter Tatchell [Grauniad Greenie] claiming [with absolutely no proof] that oxygen levels are falling as a result of fossil fuel burning! When will this utter madness end?

[SNS3Guppy]

Perhaps it's a matter of the focus. If the weather is too poor to go do cross country training, and you have strong gusty crosswinds, perhaps today's the day to grab an instructor and work on your crosswind landings. Perhaps it's not an obstacle, but an opportunity.

[BroomstickPilot]

Hi Guys,

Between 2004 and 2006 I was working to renew a licence that had been expired for over 40 years.

I pretty soon realised that two out of three of my lesson bookings were failing to take place because of Wx.

So I got into the habit of booking three times as many bookings as I wanted and that worked a treat.

I'm not sure Gobal Warming is the entire cause of the crap Wx: exactly the same thing happened in 1960. I did my entire PPL in 21 days in glorious weather during June, (and this was in Manchester of all places; Britain's rainforest!). After the beginning of July, however, we had wet, squaly weather for months until the Autumn started.

In 1967 I returned to gliding at Booker and tried to get my gliding up to a decent standard. I booked two weeks holiday planning to spend it all at the gliding site. 'Same thing happened: after a few days good flying weather the monsoon broke and that was it for the rest of the summer.

Nowadays, I have a strong preference for winter flying, which I find to be far better than summer flying because of cool, stable atmospheric conditions. 'Much better.

Broomstick.

[Mariner9]

Bad weather this weekend? :rolleyes:

My flying (all VFR in VMC):

Saturday
Upfield Farm (South Wales) to Damyns Hall Essex
Damyns Hall Essex to Maypole Kent
Maypole Kent to Brock Farm Essex
Overnight at MIL's :oh:

Sunday
Brock Farm Essex to Upfield Farm South Wales.

Total distance flown 320 NM
Total flying time 3 hrs 05 mins.

A bit gusty but superb vis. Pretty good weather in my view :ok:

[gasax]

I appreciate we have not been lying about in the sun. But really it hasn't been that bad.

I cannot help but think that forecasters are terrified of going a Michael Fish and so seem to play very safe.

This weekend (well technically a long weekend because it included Friday) two aircraft covered over 1100 miles each and the only 'bad' weather was within 20 miles of home!

Cracking weekend really - And if you get the chaqnce do go to the Scaffren Diest fly-in

[Mikehotel152]

I'm with G-EMMA and Broomstickpilot...so to speak...:O....

This summer is about as rubbish as last summer when July was a wash out or too windy. I was doing my PPL and spent most of July waiting for a day for my crosscountry and, later, for my test.

The only saving grace for the summer of '08 - for me at least - is that it hasn't had much effect on my hour-building, CPL or MEP rating. It seems that CPL Instructors are much more willing to fly in poor conditions as you can always fly round the showers and the pilots and aircraft are more capable of negotiating the conditions.

Still, much sympathy to all those trying to get up in the air, but failing for one reason or another...

[Crash one]

gasax, You are lucky, the forecasts lately have been not too bad up there. I've been trying to get to Eshott / Fishburn for weeks but I don't want to stay there for a fortnight. Sunday I think I exceeded the crosswind limit but survived, won't try that again! Sunday before that I got chased out of a CB that I thought was a rain squall till I stuck my nose in it, won't try that again either! All in all a crap summer. Come back 1995. As for global warming, I don't believe a word of it. Didn't the Romans refer to this country as "That wet misty island north of Europe"?

[SOTV]

21/04/08 - Date.

Lessons booked - 34

Actual hours - 7

EGNC.

Nuff said.

:mad:

[soay]

As for global warming, I don't believe a word of it.
Do you mean that you don't believe it's happening, or that human activity is causing it?

The evidence is so overwhelming that global warming is under way that even those scientists who dispute the cause can agree on that. The Bush administration was one of the last outposts of denial, and now they have conceded that fact, you know it must be true!

[omcaree]

Bad weather this weekend?
That's because I wasn't flying at the weekend!

The thing with global warming is, us poor Brits get none of the warming! Melting ice sending North Atlantic currents haywire, etc... So all we get between now and when the entire country sinks is more cold, damp, windy, unsettled weather, great! :ugh:

[Gertrude the Wombat]

IMC training??

That's what I'm doing right now.

Zero weather cancellations.

Weather no problem, just fly through it, that's the whole point of IMC training (it's not as if the freezing level is low enough to worry about).

So, 30 knots across the runway plus gusts? - who cares, the instructor can do the landing, I'm there for the instrument flying.

[Crash one]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Crash one
As for global warming, I don't believe a word of it.

Do you mean that you don't believe it's happening, or that human activity is causing it?

I don't think the way it is described is correct, "our fault, industry, the motor car, aviation etc" I believe it has been creeping up on us for thousands of years, since Neanderthal started to cut down trees, I don't think there is anything we (today man) can do about it because we have left it far too late. Quoting GW is in my opinion a knee jerk method of raising taxes, prices, restrictive laws & the like. The fact that modern technology has allowed us to detect it doesn't mean it only started yesterday.

[omcaree]

At least the met office can make bad weather look pretty :}

[dont overfil]

Humans can't prevent global warming but we are very good at adapting. Thats why we invented the IMC rating.
DO.

[soay]

I don't think the way it is described is correct, "our fault, industry, the motor car, aviation etc" I believe it has been creeping up on us for thousands of years, since Neanderthal started to cut down trees.
I doubt that any of the activities of Neanderthals, or indeed any other form of hominids had any effect on the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, until the Industrial Revolution. That was when we started burning, in significant quantities, the carbon that had been stored under our feet for millions of years. The by-products of burning it include greenhouse gases which have the same effect as, well, a greenhouse. Once the temperature rises enough to melt the permafrosts, which is already happening (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4120755.stm) in Alaska and Siberia, the methane trapped beneath them is released, in a positive feedback cycle. Methane is apparently about 20 times as effective a greenhouse gas as CO2, partly because it remains in the atmosphere for much longer.

It's only human nature to blame everything but ourselves for what's happening, but sooner or later common sense will have to prevail. However, it's also human nature to remain in denial until the evidence is so overwhelming that it will probably be too late to do anything about it, except fight for dwindling food and water resources. I find it puzzling that natural selection has led to the dominance of selfishness over common sense, to the extent that we seem willing to self-destruct, to maintain our lifestyles.

[Captain Smithy]

I wondered how long it would be before Global Freedom Oppress... oops sorry Global Warmi... oops sorry Climate Change was mentioned on this thread. :rolleyes:

Overall weather wasn't too bad until about 4-5 weeks ago, when things went rapidly downhill. Muchos heavy rain & low cloud since then. Managed to squeeze in a Navex about two weeks ago though during a brief spell when the weather was half-decent, but that's all. August has been a quiet month. Gives the bank account a rest though :E

Forecasts predicting a good weekend... that means it will probably be keech again :bored:

Smithy

[aviate1138]

soay said in part.....

" Once the temperature rises enough to melt the permafrosts, which is already happening in Alaska and Siberia, the methane trapped beneath them is released, in a positive feedback cycle. Methane is apparently about 20 times as effective a greenhouse gas as CO2, partly because it remains in the atmosphere for much longer."

Aviate says...

Firstly where is the actual data and not hysterical Greenie Hyped claptrap?

Take one substantiated fact. Since 1750 the Anthropogenic CO2 added to the planet's atmosphere is barely one 10,000th part. Do you really believe adding 1/10,000th part to atmospheric gases is really affecting our climate. Which is and always has been variable.
Maybe, just maybe, the Sun has more effect and not garbage in - garbage out computer climate modeling [ ever seen a weather forecast accurate to more than a few days at best [in the UK]?

[soay]

where is the actual data and not hysterical Greenie Hyped claptrap?
Well, here's (http://aquarium.ucsd.edu/climate/Climate_Change_FAQ/) the opinion of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who first highlighted the effect that the gases used in refrigerators was having on the ozone layer, which lead to them being phased out of production:

"It has been known since 1869 that CO2 traps heat. This is settled physics. It has been shown beyond a shadow of doubt that humans have increased CO2 in the atmosphere by 30% in the last 150 years. Basic physics plus remedial math, and the rest is details."

NASA, not normally associated with "hysterical Greenie Hyped claptrap", concurs here (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/GlobalWarmingQandA/).

[Captain Smithy]

Errr lads, remember there's a thread running on Jet Blast for this :uhoh:

[BFPO]

No problem with the weather here... in Cyprus! More flying time than you can shake a stick at! :ok:

[Crash one]

I'm no expert on this but didn't we hear recently that other planets in our solar system are also suffering from climate change? If this is true then ???
So we may have increased CO2 by 30% in 150yrs. This depends on the concentration level before we started. Let's suppose it was 3parts per million, now it is 4parts per million, is that a big deal?
What I am saying here is, 30% of what? Let us not have people believe that CO2 amounts to 30% of the total atmosphere!!
Figures , statistics, surveys etc can be made to look anything you like.
Call me a sceptic / unbeliever, what you will.
I seem to remember circa 1963? the sea froze in Devonport harbour. Was that a mini ice age?

[soay]

In the last 30 years, the concentration of CFCs in the atmosphere has doubled from about 420 to 840 parts per trillion, but it's still enough to burn holes in the ozone layer - as predicted by the scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. I think it's safe to assume that they understand the much simpler physics of greenhouse gases as well!

[Crash one]

If an increase of a few hundred parts per trillion can have such devastating effect on this planet then I suspect the environment is far too unstable for us to meddle with it. If we try to slow the rate of destruction we may well easily go too far & trigger an ice age.
I do not doubt the qualifications of these scientists. But, what proof is there that climate change is going to continue until it makes life as we know it impossible? If it increased rapidly in the blip of 150 yrs, surely it may be the result of a solar flare, a wiggle in our orbit, or whatever else that we may not know about yet, that may be a regular occurence every 2billion yrs, & may decrease just as rapidly. Where is the proof that it will not?
Just because industry & climate change detection happened at the same time doesn't mean they have to be related.
If the weather the day after tomorrow cannot be predicted accurately enough for flight planning purposes, how can we believe that climate change over the next few yrs, let alone hundreds of yrs, can be predicted any more accurately?
Animal life in various forms have been generating methane in vast quantities far longer than a few pockets of mankind have been burning a few lumps of coal, volcanoes pooping off regularly probably shoot half an industrial revolution's worth of greenhouse gas upwards every few yrs.
I am not convinced we started it, or can stop it.

[aviate1138]

soay is blinded by the Greenie mantra that Anthopogenic Global Warming is proven and yet there is not one shred of scientific data that says mankind is making the planet warmer. Plenty of hysterical Al Gore/J Porrit/J Hansen/IPCC politically warped computer predictions but no true independently reviewed scientific data. Peer reviewed, yes but that is so very often reviewed with none of the original data being made available!!!

CO2 is not a poison. We need it. What we don't need is socio-political Greenies using the lie of AGW to inflict more taxes on everyone.

Next thing soay will be brandishing will be Mann's hockey stick! :rolleyes:

[soay]

soay is blinded by the Greenie mantra ...
Give that man a job at Fox News! He's a master of their cop out for the hard of thinking: stick a disparaging label on someone so no further thought has to be given to the challenging things they are saying.

[Crash one]

Lets not resort to the usual arse kicking contest, stay on track guys, no fighting in the playground.

[straightfeed]

Apart from the GW debate........

Having sold my share and being retired I'm seriously considering chucking in this UK flying lark due wx.

Any suggestions (not offensive please) of a nice warm place with some good wx where a UK licence can be used hassle free. I fancy a week or two at a time.

Its got to be cheaper than owning/sharing a plane in the uk with little prospect of flying.

SF

[Mariner9]

Its got to be cheaper than owning/sharing a plane in the uk with little prospect of flying.

Crikey - you make it sound like its virtually unflyable here all year round :hmm:

I've got in 60-odd VFR hours in the UK this year so far, admittedly down a bit on the last couple of years, but there are reasons other than weather to account for that (a particularly busy year at work for instance).

Yes, the weather this August has been dominated by a procession of lows, but if the Azores high pressure had been over us for the month we'd all have been complaining about poor visibility through haze.

All part of the joys and challenges of flying in the UK climate in my view.

[IO540]

It seems to me that a lot of people are suffering from not being able to arrange to fly when they want to, due to

1 - weather
2 - personal availability
3 - aircraft availability

My suggestion is to look at what can be done about these.

1 you can partly fix by getting an instrument qualification. It is also the case (a slight paradox, this) that to fly to the limits of legal VFR you jolly well need a full instrument navigation capability. I have an IR and would cancel perhaps 25% of randomly planned future flights. If I had only a plain PPL I would be cancelling at least 75% of randomly planned flights. But the % figures also depend on whether the plane is half decent - a piece of junk is no good even if you do have an IR (or an IMCR). They also depend on the availability of instrument runways.

2 and 3 are personal things. If you buy a plane of your own, or buy a share in a well managed small group, then you get good availability. You also get the lowest marginal flying costs.

[Crash one]

Quote: Having sold my share and being retired I'm seriously considering chucking in this UK flying lark due wx.


Unfortunately? Iv'e just done the reverse, retired & bought an a/c.
I have all the time in the world to fly but so far 25 hrs since April mostly due to wx. Sometimes wonder if I did the right thing.

[OyYou]

The French are blaming it all on the fact that there are 13 full moons this year. A year being the 12 months between Winter Solstices . Not a calendar year. There were 13 last 'year' too. It's back to the normal 12 next year so the weather should be good in 2009.

About as accurate a forecast technique as the Met Office!
:ok:

Best wishes

http://avanimation.avsupport.com/gif/Rollsby.gif

[omcaree]

So while we're all worrying about CO2, it was the moon all along! :)

Instead of that massive mirror to reflect some of the sun away from the earth and keep us all cool. How about a drag 'chute for the moon? :ok:

[dont overfil]

Oyyou. I can see the pollution from your aeroplane. It's your fault.
DO.

[S-Works]

what bad weather? It's not that bad. I suspect more likely that the free time people have for flying coincided with bad weather days. I have done over 300 hrs so far this year. Was in Guernsey and Quiberon at the weekend, Dunkirk this week and have been out today after fixing the runway lights.

[jonkil]

155 hours so far this year... all VFR & in a microlight. From North West Ireland to Southern England, Isle of Wight and Scotland. Blois in France at the end of the month.:ok: Not the right country if you are a fair weather pilot.:{

[JohnHarris]

Jonkil, are you one of the group of 4 microlights from Donegal ?, if so it was us who met you all at Otherton on your trip of the UK in May this year.
You microlight fellows seem to be the pilots who add real hours to your log and doing the real touring, well done.

[omcaree]

Generally a nice day today, but courtesy of a nice big storm sitting over Peterborough too windy for me in a Cub! So another week to wait for lesson #4 :mad:
Like I said, the weather is fine until I try to fly!

[C-dog]

Hmm,

Been looking at getting from NE Scotland to High Wycombe all week. Want to do it in a oner but there's always a belt of rain somewhere in the way.

Ah well keep waiting and doing the local thing!

[gasax]

It's only rain - you can fly through it. If you wait for perfect VFR conditions the length and breadth of the country you will never go anywhere. We have a maritime climate and many separate weather zones.

Catch as catch can is the only way to do it.

[jonkil]

Jonkil, are you one of the group of 4 microlights from Donegal ?, if so it was us who met you all at Otherton on your trip of the UK in May this year.
You microlight fellows seem to be the pilots who add real hours to your log and doing the real touring, well done.
Hi John,
Yes indeed I was part of that group in May. I was in one of the C42's. Excellent touring trip where we flew back via Wales and across to Wexford and up home. Thanks for everything that weekend and we will return when we have a bit more time to hang around !
We flew to the IOW again a month later to the Spamfield event.
There is a good report on the May trip HERE (http://www.bmaa.org/forums/default.aspx?f=41&m=28709).
Looking forward to a trip up the western Isles in September.