Winter Circuits

[f27bmaw]

Hello

I have just discovered this site, and wondered if you could help me with a dilemma I'm currently facing?

I started my ppl this year, and I have spent the last three lessons in the circuit. Things are going well, if slowly as a consequence of cancellations largely due to the weather. However, I'm now not going to be able to fly for the next three weeks due to work commitments.

Which means that I'm not going to be airborne again until well into September, when I am only going to be able to fly at the weekends. And realistically, although I will be looking to fly every weekend, it will only be for an hour and, with the weather worsening, no doubt a few of those lessons will be lost as well.

So the question is, should I persevere with circuits, or should I go onto other things and return to the circuit when the weather (hopefully) improves in the spring?

I'm worried that if I stick with circuits, because of the low frequency of lessons that I will be having, I will need lots before I can solo, and I will be spending all winter on a fruitless search for the required skills, yet if I postponed circuits until the spring (when hopefully I could fly more regularly) I would be able to complete this part of the course in much less time. And I could spend the winter months consolidating my current skills and moving onto other areas that are not so "intensive".

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks for your help

BMAW

[effortless]

Can't do too many circuits. This said, if you are in the south UK then you are coming up to the high wind season. Not that it will be any different from this summer. If you can afford it keep plugging on with whatever your instructor says. In my view the best flying weather will be after Christmas. You will, I hope, have lovely crisp mornings with little wind. Ideal flying weather. Nothing is certain though. I thought that we were in for a good summer but I have only managed six hours since March. I'm off to the south of France to get some nice flying in.

[BackPacker]

Don't worry about circuits or not. Your instructor has a lesson plan and knows when it is time for circuits and time for other things. (Or at least, he or she is supposed to have a plan.)

What's more important is to understand that a lot of lessons will be cancelled due to weather, and this is mostly so in autumn and spring. In winter, the weather is at the very least far more predictable so you know well in advance when a lesson is on or not.

If you want to progress faster, you've got to schedule more lessons (of which the same percentage will get cancelled) or be prepared to have a lesson at last minute notice. So plan two or three lessons each saturday, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Chances are that one of them gets cancelled due to the weather, but the other will be on. Or look at the weather each morning as you go to work. If the weather looks good, call the school, book a lesson for late afternoon/early evening (while it is still light).

To have a fixed booking of, say, every saturday at 2pm will mean a lot of frustration. Whereas, if you are more flexible, it will allow far more flying to be done.

[Daultonio]

Backpacker has hit the nail on the head,

You sound like i did when i started but dont worry, like backpacker was saying, the cold crisp morning are very good with little wind and also book a few hours in a day.
When I started I did some general handling and then did circuits all the time, but trust me it is worth it, when u have done enough and the instructor feels you are ready then u can go solo for your first time on the circuits, then you will move on to other things.
How many hours you done?

[RatherBeFlying]

An important part of learning to fly is learning to fly in all seasons. As for weather, book more lessons knowing that one third to one half will be cancelled. Check with your flight school for when this will be a good strategy.

In my opinion, flying once a week for an hour is an inefficent way to learn. If only weekends and no early mornings / late evenings are possible, I'd book two hour slots morning and afternoon both Saturday and Sunday.

The cash flow is steep, but you can get your license in a few months for less total money instead of a few years as happens with many.