Originally Posted by
Muz165
PPL Weather - To fly or not to fly?
One of our old instructor said: if you are a beginner, and you wonder if the weather is right for flying or not - then it's not!
(He meant that with our limited experience, we have to maintain a larger safety margin for all eventualities.)
Remembering my student days (not so long ago), it was always up to the instructor to decide in the beginning, but I always looked back what was the actual weather reported at our home base, especially wind (speed, direction, gusting). This was enough for circuit practice.
For cross country, we started to factor in visibility, ceiling and the probability of thunderstorms. Again, I always compared what was the forecast, what did I experience, and what was actually reported by various stations.
This way, I developed a pretty good grip on how much I can trust the various forecast, and how my experienced weather related to the actual parameters recorded (e.g., weather radar playback also). There's a lot to learn from this exercise.
So when the skill test came, I knew already 2 days ahead, that the selected date will be unflyable for me. The instructor insisted to meet at the airfield, but while driving there, I made up my mind that I won't fly that day due to the strong winds. The instructor also agreed when we met. We even called the examiner not to come and he also agreed to postpone by another day.
Next day, the wind lost strenght, but it was still gusty. The aircraft was still in the hangar, because the maintenance guy said "it's too windy outside"
Then the examiner asked my instructor to shut up for a while and asked me: in your very own opinion, are you capable to fly this weather? I just checked the wind speed recordings, and I knew it was just a little bit above what I already handled many times, so this gave me sufficient confidence and I decided to fly the exam, prepared with the expectation that I really have to be firm and alert on takeoffs and landings. Although we suffered from a bit of turbulence here and there, and takeoffs / landings were far from perfect, they demonstrated what the examiner wanted to see, and I passed.
So the moral of the story is: the weather parameters alone will never tell you, if you can fly or not. It's you, who must tell whether you can fly the weather you see. To learn this, after every flight, check back on the actual weather recordings and relate them to what you expeienced. This way you will establish your personal minima, and you can gradually work on reducing them (expanding the type of weather you can handle) in manageable steps.
But remember: your personal minima can change as well. After a 3-hour flight in poor visbility will drain your energy and you will have trouble to land if the weather at your destination is on your minima.
With weather, always have an exit strategy. A 180 turn, or a re-route or even landing out. Never let weather corner you in the air, because this is a killer.