Originally Posted by Sainty43
1.) Florida has great weather so will I not get used to that then come back to the UK and find it difficult? Apparantly they wont let you fly with more than a 7mph cross wind!!
This is a valid point. I was in OBA in March and the solo limits for PPL students are 6kt crosswind component and 12kt or below for T/O or landing (that's not to say that you stay up there - you just land asap when you hear the winds are gusting over 12). For hour builders with licence in hand the limits are up to you and the limits of the aircraft. If you are running short of time you can do a lot of hours night flying. The air is very smooth at nights and the wind drops to near zero. It's a lot cooler as well and the RT is much more relaxed when the towers close in the evenings.
The wind limits can be a bit frustrating when trying to build the 4 hours solo circuit time before going cross country, or when trying to get your qualifier done. The winds at your landing airports may be calm but its gusting 13kts down the runway at OMN so you can't go. On the other hand, I've landed a few times with gusts, where the wind picked up while I was away from the airfield, and it was not a pleasant experience. It gets bumpy enough during the day below 2,000 ft as it is without adding blowing crosswinds. It shouldn't really be that much of a problem at the minute, though you may loose a day or two. Those are the days for studying and getting exams out of the way, or if you have the exams done already then you can use that time for checking out the Kennedy space centre or the Gun range.
Originally Posted by Sainty43
2.) Florida airfields have huge tarmacced runways some 2000 metres long! Coming back to the UK I would be flying out of an 800 metre grass strip! Would that be a problem??
Not really. As mention, soft field and short field techniques are taught and practiced at two nearby grass strips Pierson (2j8) and Bob Lee (1j6). The only requirement is that grass strip landings have to be Dual. Anyway you can practice shortfield at OMN, I used to do this regularly when 35 was in use and try put it down on the numbers and exit at the Foxtrot taxiway, a distance of about 700ft of runway.
Originally Posted by Sainty43
3.) Also someone mentioned radio out there is completely different to the UK. How long will I find it will take to get used to the uk.
This is also a valid point, but you can also pick up correct RT when you get home. If you do your RT practical with AT then he will take little time in informing you that american RT is rubbish and definatly berates people for improper RT (even correcting ormond ATC on occaision). However RT is like learning a new langauge and you tend to pick the 'dialect' of wherever you learn it.This is quickly corrected when you are back in the UK and flying regularly.
As for the navigation, of course the Florida countryside is going to be different. People may point out that the highest elevation in Florida is about 100 ft but they rarely mention that there are 2000ft radio masts everywhere which are a lot more difficult to spot than a whopping great bit of landscape sticking up in front of you. And although its pretty flat and easy to fly around after a short while, if you get lost you may find that most of Florida looks alot like the rest of Florida. It's absolutly covered in trees, swamp and small lakes, and normal nav features like roads and rivers become harder to spot from a distance or cannot be conclusively identified if you do find them. Even small towns marked on the sectional can be hard to spot in the daytime because all the residental areas are covered in trees. Sometimes you will spot a regular block style street layout before you realise that there is actually houses there as well.
With a bit of haze and a lack of awareness while out of sight of the coast it's fairly easy to loose yourself inland. The plan then is to climb and head east untill you hit the coast and follow that. On your flight planning the school will emphasise the importance of good waypoints and leg times. You tend to pick large lakes and any of the multitude of large airfields scattered around as waypoints.
The biggest shock to most fresh PPLs on arriving back is the difference in weather and the change in landscape. Well you are already familiar with both already so this is not really an issue. If it worries you, just do a bit of dual and maybe invest in a handheld GPS unit as a backup to pilotage navigation.