Lessons cancelled due weather

[Twick Air]

Hello all,
Having been an avid reader of this board for a few months, I have now started my PPL training so thought I'd better post something. Its just a general vent of frustration over lessons being cancelled due to bad weather. I initially booked six lessons over three weeks and four of them have been cancelled. Mainly due to poor visibility and no horizon.

I suppose in this country this is normal and its just something I will have to get used to, but I get the feeling it's going to take ages to learn anything at this rate. My flying school seems to book up quite well in advance so it's difficult to reschedule cancelled lessons, you just have to accept it and wait for the next one.

Anyway the next one is on Monday but I see rain is forecast so I'm not too hopeful. Oh well I'll just have to carry on reading my Thoms.

Cheers.

[Fly Stimulator]

That's the way it goes I'm afraid - we have perhaps not chosen the pastime best suited to the British climate!

Actually, apart from the persistent poor vis for the last couple of months this year has been a lot better than the same period last year, in the south east at least.

You could try booking lessons on twice as many days as you can actually afford, on the assumption that half will be cancelled!

Anyway, welcome to the club - it'll all be worth it in the end.

[Aussie Andy]

Hey Twick Air - welcome to the party!

Andy ;)

[iainpoll]

Hey, welcome!

Yep, somthing you will have to get used to, if we have high pressure its dry but too hazy to fly, if we have low pressure the viz is fine, but the rain keeps you on the ground!

Once you have done a few lessons they will take you up in poorer viz than they would now. In the early stages they like a good horizon so you can get used to the flight attitudes required for turns, climbing and descending etc.

Bad wx days should become study days - study those books and get the exams out of the way pronto, one less thing to worry about.:ok:

Good luck, let us know how you go.

Iain.

[topcat450]

I think I was lucky last year....I hardly had any cancellations due to weather...and the club I was at could reschedule 'after-work' flights at very short notice.

Just keep keen, and battle on...it won't happen every time.

Also, if the vis isn't great ask if you can have a go at going around the circuit, where long range vis isn't necessary.

Also if you've had 4 lessons cancelled..thats 4 lots of £80 saved, so you during the next spell of decent weather you can try cramming a few more lessons in.

[FlyingForFun]

Welcome to Private Flying and PPRuNe!

Agree with what others have said. Don't worry about it. And don't worry about re-scheduling either. Just book lessons twice a week, and "know" in advance that you probably won't fly half of them, especially during the earlier stages. It's something you'll have to get used to, I'm afraid, because it doesn't change even after you finish your training and get your PPL. :( Unless you get an IMC rating, of course :ok:

FFF
--------------

[FNG]

Frustrating indeed, but you do get good spells too. It took me eleven months, to do the PPL course, with all the usual weather faffing. I think that taking a year or so is pretty standard.

[knobbygb]

You'll find that cancellation come and go in stages. I've had 7 on the trot cancelled, yet once during training managed nearly 30 hours in 4 months without a single one. Get the lessons booked up months in advance, never mind weeks! I'm sure any decent school will let you cancel with a day or so's notice if you find you're flying too much or just can't make a lesson.

My formula was to book 3 slots a week (Mon, Wed and Sat) and plan on flying twice if I was lucky. That way you're never more than a couple of days from a possible lesson and shouldn't miss out on any good spells of weather which might materialise.

One thing I'd recommend later on in your training, is to fly in marginal weather as much as your instructor thinks is safe. I learnt more from 60 minutes of 'poor weather' low level circuits in crap viz. than I did in 4 or 5 hours in 'perfect' weather. If the weather's poor and you have to stop after 15 minutes, so what? The time's still loggable, and you've leart a valuable lesson.

[big.al]

Welcome to the 'cancelled because of bad weather' club.... Well worth spending the 'down time' on getting the ground exams out of the way - the last thing you'll want to do when (if!) the sun begins to shine is study, study, study!

I was lucky in PPL training - I only had two cancellations due to weather (but that's because I did the training in Florida!).:cool:

Since coming back to the UK, I was lucky for the first half-dozen or so flights booked. My final flight of 2002 was mid-October, and then despite PPL hire bookings at least every two weeks I didn't fly again until late January, all because of weather. In total I had nine consecutive bookings scrubbed, and since January more than half have been no-go.

I was supposed to have had conversion training to the C172 (in which I'm buying a share) yesterday, but this was canx due to mist and low cloud. Second attempt booked for Monday, but the weather forecast for then is lousy too!

Good luck with the training Twick Air.

[Bodie]

If you can afford it, I couldn’t recommend getting a share highly enough. It’s cheaper in the long run and I found I could increase the frequency of my lessons due to not having to worry about a/c availability as much.

[ChampChump]

Further to all the previous words of comfort, I'd just like to add that if you're using a smallish club, there's much to be gained from hangar flying on crappy days..shootin' the breeze and at least talking about Things Close To Your Heart.

Circuit bashing as usually possible if it's not too awful..or if you're lucky you might find a spare seat in an IFR flight. Just being a passenger can be most enlightening.

Read the books, drool over the glossies, run around the carpark with your arms outstretched..keep dreaming. It'll happen. It's a triumph of GB that any of us achieve avaition, but we do.

Good luck.
nic

[DRJAD]

I agree with Knobby - book more lessons than you need, you can always cancel some later, provided you stick to the school/club's policy!

My training worked exactly that way, and I don't suppose the weather was any different for me from that other people experienced - but it was still do-able in a reasonable time: about 6 months.

As others have said, convert every session into some sort of experience: poor weather flying (when your instructor thinks you're ready) is really useful and helpful even if its a short session, ground subjects (getting the exams. done is very useful, and there's a morale boost from each one), meteorological study (relate the actual weather to the Thom book, and study how it's described in TAFs/METARs/Briefing charts, etc.. No need to let cancelled flying turn into a solely negative experience.

Finally, welcome, good flying and good luck!

[Monocock]

Great article in Todays Pilot (the one with the AA5 on the front) about a "mature" student PPL. The chap wrote the article fantastically and goes into depth about the problems associated with the British weather and getting too far ahead with training or too far ahead with ground exams etc.

Worth reading I should say even if it's not appropriate to anyones individual circumstances.

[Twick Air]

Many thanks for all the replies and encouragement. You can rest assured I've wanted to do this flying thing for ages and a few misty days isn't going to put me off. I like the sound of booking three or maybe four lessons a week with the expectation that half of them will be cancelled in the early stages.
Will let you know how it goes.
Twick.

[socal]

doo-bah-dee-doo-dah


m Od NaR

[Saab Dastard]

Twick Air,

We all know EXACTLY what you are suffering! It took me a little over 2 years to get my licence, due to a combination of poor WX and requirements to work away from home for long periods.

Stick with it - if you want it, you'll get there.

I'm in Twickenham as well, BTW - where are you flying from?
Maybe we can meet up sometime.

Good luck

SD

[Maxflyer]

I started my PPL training in March of last year. I soloed in April. I did a dual pre QXC with my instructor in September (Sywell-Cambridge-Nottingham-Turweston-Sywell) and booked it in for the following week solo. Figured if all went according to plan I would have my license by November. Famous last words! Every week I missed out due to bad weather, haze, fog - the list went on. I finally completed the QXC on April 8th this year. I hope to take my skills test on Tuesday. Weather permitting of course.

Don't lose heart, you'll get there in the end.......That's what I keep telling myself.

[Gertrude the Wombat]

My school seems to have a new procedure of taking the student up in slightly iffy weather (perfectly legal, but, say, no horizon, or a bit bumpy but still within the dual crosswind limit) to see whether they want to try to cope with it. If the student chickens out after the first circuit then they don't have to pay.

(I've always elected to carry on so far - not having a horizon doesn't bother me, neither does a bit of rain or snow, or a 14 knot crosswind so long as there's an instructor sitting next to me. That's when I'm re-learning to land, it'll be different for cross country of course.)

But yes, I still get cancelled trips when you can't see the other side of the airfield.

[AerBabe]

You will find that as you progress through your training, fewer lessons are cancelled due to weather. Unfortunately you'll probably find around the time you'd doing Instrument Flight you'll have endless days of clear skies... and have to wear those awful foggles. As you get used to turbulence your instructor will let you fly in less calm conditions. The same with crosswinds.

My last PPL lesson was on a horrible windy grey day. We were dodging showers, 'hovering' and even flying backwards ... Fortunately the next day was beautiful so I did my GFT.

[RW05]

Welcome to the Crap Weather Club. It's all good training for when you get your PPL (mine took 11 months too) and find that things don't change. In fact they'll get worse because you won't have an instructor sitting next to you. I've flown 4 times this year, all due to wx. I'd love to go for the IMC but I can't build the experience I feel I need first.

[Andy_R]

Welcome to you Twick Air

Don't let the lousy weather put you off. When I started my PPL my record was 14 lessons cancelled in a row !!!!

And to echo the above postings, do make good use of your cancelled lessons. It is always worthwhile (if your school offers relevant courses) to sit in on, for example, a trainee flying instructors briefings. Or persuade your instructor to give you some one to one instruction. Even if they chrge you £25 hour, you will learn a lot and will be making good use of your time and theirs.

Good luck and enjoy yourself.