Day 10 - Wednesday 19 November
No flying today.
I had two flights scheduled - one at 10am, and one at 2pm. At 9.30am, pilots who had just landed were saying that it was flyable weather. The TAF was telling a different story, though - FM1500 (i.e. 10.00 local) TEMPO VRB15G35 +RA BKN005CB. Several people were taking off to get a bit of flying in before the weather arrived, but I decided to stay on the ground.
Well, the weather forecasters were wrong. 10.00 came and went, and then 11.00, then midday, and still no sign of the storms. I could have flown after all, but it's always better to be down here wishing you were up there, than up there wishing you were down here, so I wasn't sorry.
At 1.30, I was back at the airfield getting a weather forecast for the afternoon flight. Amended TAFs for several regions showed that the forecasters knew they'd got it wrong. I spoke to a weather briefer for the latest information. The leading edge of the precipitation would reach Fort Pierce within about two hours, they told me, and the front itself would arrive some time after that. So I was pretty confident of getting an hour or so of flying before the weather arrived - except that the wind was 50 degrees off the runway, and right on the limits. I got the low level winds - 40 knots at 3000' - and decided that although I could probably fly safely, it wasn't worth it - it was going to be very bumpy, and extremely difficult to get position fixes, and that wouldn't do me any good at all. Well, the weather forecasters were wrong again - just 20 minutes later, the skies opened up, and I was extremely pleased that I was on the ground!
I did manage to get two things done today. First of all, I took a good look at the Piper Arrow which I'll be taking my skills test in. It's got an extremely good nav fit, which will make it much easier to do the position fixing. The RMI means that I can read my radial from a VOR without having to twist the OBS and centre the needle. The DME can work off the frequency of either of the two VORs - there's no need to tune it separately. The ADF needle is also on the RMI, so that can be used just as easilly as a VOR. Hopefully these time-saving devices will give me that extra bit of spare capacity to make things a little easier. But of course my examiner can tell me that my RMI or my DME is unserviceable, so I still need to be able to work with the basic tools that I've got in the Cessnas.
I also spent a while talking to my instructor, finding ways of making the task of plotting these fixes easier. I have now removed my chart from the back of my clipboard, and bought a different shaped folder to clip it to separately. This way, I can fold it in half to make it a more manageable size on my lap, or to stow it in the pocket by my seat when I'm not using it, and I don't have to flip the clipboard over to see it. But the chart is still mounted on a solid surface so that I can write on it easily. The new shape has a lot more space east-west, which has allowed me to have a couple of extra navaids showing. One VOR in particular might have been useful on the last couple of exercises I've done, but I couldn't see it the way my chart was folded before.
I have also discovered the central rule on my ruler/protractor tool. There is a pin-hole near one end of the tool, and a hollow space running along most of the length of the tool, with nautical miles marked along it. I have attached a pin to the tool, and I can now push the pin through the pin-hole onto chart, positioned over a VOR, and then spin it around to the appropriate radial. I can either draw the radial, or mark off a particular DME distance.
Of course I don't know how much any of this is going to help when I use it in the air, but by tomorrow the weather should have cleared up and I'll be able to find out.
FFF
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PS - Keygrip, beer Friday sounds good!
