Anybody get discouraged by weather as a student (or beyond)?

[Plasmech]

I have had 17 lessons so far. For every lesson flown, I have had at LEAST one cancellation due to weather along with it. Granted, there is NOTHING I can do about weather and there really is no use in complaining about it, but I have to be honest it has to an extent started to discourage me. When I consider that in order for a lesson to happen I have to be available (either after work or on a weekend), my instructor has to be available, the ceiling has to be high enough, the visibility has to be high enough, and the winds have to be low enough, there are a LOT of things that have to all come together in order to actually fly. As a student trying to get used to this is kinda tough, but looking further down the road, how many flights will I schedule, maybe trips with friends, that will get blown up because of weather?

I'm not even sure what I am complaining about here....certainly I don't have a logical, justifiable complaint if I have one at all...it's just that I wasn't quite prepared for weather to be playing quite this much of a role in my quest for a PPL certificate.

Anybody else feel similarly during their training? Again, I am aware that "it is what it is"...

[Conventional Gear]

The weather in the UK practically makes flying a hobby rather than a utility unless one has an IR or IMCr.

Don't know what stage of the training you are at, you should though find after basic training the weather you can fly in broadens a little.

My own instructor would pretty much fly in anything and I would go too! But I always booked a couple of extra lessons a week just in case of cancellations.

I did get a little frustrated at numerous wx cancellations of my qualifying cross-country. When I did finally go the vis was at VFR minima for part of the journey, not that pleasant on a leg I had never flown before, but heck I just wanted to get it done by then. It was though hard work and I understood why I hadn't been allowed to go before.

Generally now I have the PPL the weather isn't a big concern, if I can't fly I go do something else, we had months here in the UK this winter when hardly anyone was getting in the air VFR. Probably the biggest asset I have is my club, if I turn up and can't aviate, I can certainly communicate :ok:

[BackPacker]

You rightfully noted that the weather plays a large role in flying. What you will want to do is keep an eye on the weather (actual and forecast) every day. Look at the weather charts and such, so that you can see the patterns. Learn what sort of front or situation will bring good and bad flying weather. Armed with that knowledge and experience you can pretty much make a decision as to whether a flight is going to happen a day or so in advance. Or even three days in advance tell your passengers whether it's a go, or not, or iffy.

But yes, PPL-style flying (no IR) only has an 80-90% dispatch rate in a good season, and maybe less than 50% in the worst season.

Be flexible. Get the cellphone number of your instructor and if the weather looks flyable and a plane is available, call him up. Don't rely on a once-weekly scheduled session with no alternatives.

[RTN11]

If you have a good instructor, he will judge if he can actually teach the lesson in the current weather and cancel if he cannot.

It's the instructors who just need the money that will fly in almost any weather, where you don't actually learn what you were meant to because there's no horizon, or the vis is too bad to actually navigate, or the wind out of limits to learn how to land safely and normally.

Don't get concerned with the weather you need to learn a lesson or go solo, we pretty much want it to be perfect all the time. When you've got a licence and you want to get somewhere, you can go in some pretty bad weather, it's up to you how much you want/need to get to a destination.

[JOE-FBS]

Don't despair. That's leisure flying. Use the time for ground school whether formal study or just sitting around the airfield swapping stories ("Hanger Flying").

I have no idea about where you live but based in southern England, I reckon on achieving one flight for every three bookings in winter and two out of three in summer. In other words, with a plain PPL, assuming that you will achieve time and place is not wise.

Last summer and this current spring have been unusually good weather so I have achieved better than that and I am now broke!

Recently getting an IMC rating (a UK only rating) has greatly changed the situation as I may now fly on instruments; out of sight of the surface; and make instrument approaches so I have been making flights which I would previously have cancelled. In the US, you have to get a real IR but I understand that is much simpler than a JAR one. A full IR allows you into Class A which the UK IMCR does not (except under SVFR).

[mary meagher]

Just don't entertain the expectation that you will be able to use your private pilot license for business purposes! Even when you add the qualification of an IFR, if you really REALLY have to get there - to say nothing of have to return as well, a single engine plane, if the pilot has any sense at all, will be less than first choice to get to any business meeting. Oh yes.

Brand new IFR, I flew down from Austin to Corpus Christi in a l52. The headwind ensured that the guys on the interstate were overtaking me. But the thrill and satisfaction of maintaining an altitude that, with the loving oversight of the enroute countroller keeping me clear of traffic, I was able to slice right through all that georgous fair weather cu. Magic!

Planning to return next morning, phoned flight service from the hotel. Told him I wanted to file IFR return to Austin. "What kind of aircraft will you be flying, ma'am" he enquired kindly. I gave him the details.

"Well, Ma'am," he cautioned, "I do not recommend that you follow that plan today." "But I've got an Instrument Rating" I protested!
"None the less, on your route, there are forecast to be embedded thunderstorms, with tops to 35,000, strong winds, hail, and tornados....do you still want to go?"

I decided to spend another day in Corpus Christi.

[RatherBeFlying]

The days are getting longer; so, you can also book lessons before or after work. One tactic is booking more lessons than you intend to fly accepting that weather will cancel some.

There was one trip where I've taken an airline instead; another where I stayed an extra night in the hotel and flew back in the morning after the front had gone through.

The easiest way to kill yourself is having to get back to work when bad weather is moving in. After you get your PPL, the IFR rating is accessible and useful in the US:ok:

You need to become a student of weather systems -- look at the weather map, satellite images and radar every day.

As for being shut down by weather, I once canoed Lk. Superior from Marathon to Wawa one Summer.

On the Southbound leg, I sat out two out of three days because of wind and waves. On the Eastbound leg, I only lost one out of three days. I had heeded to advice to allow for being able to travel only half the time.

Oh yes, when planning a trip, the forecast for when you are coming back counts for much more than the one for when you are heading out;)

[Plasmech]

Thanks for all the replies guys and girls, or rather men and women :)

Yea, it's just something I have to get used to. Us pilots and students are slaves of the weather and that's just the way it is.

Wind is what kills by far most of my lessons. I am pre-solo, with solo coming as soon as we get a calm or near-calm day. One thing that's not exactly helping either is that the AWOS system at my airport is completely inaccurate, it always reads a LOT lower than the actual wind conditions.

So apparently it's very difficult to attain an instrument rating in the UK? Why is this? Here in the US, a private rating costs about $10,000 and an instrument another $10,000. $20,000 is a LOT of money to start a hobby with!

[IO540]

For every lesson flown, I have had at LEAST one cancellation due to weather along with it.

That's pretty normal, at certain times of the year especially. When I was doing my PPL in 2000 I booked every day in Oct/Nov/Dec (i.e. 90 lessons, potentially) and got just 3 lessons in, due to warm front weather, winds, drizzle, etc.

You have to grab a gap in the wx and get on with it.

But the average time to do a PPL remains at ~ 1 year, mainly I think due to the weather and the fact that a lot of people can fly only at weekends. The only sure way to do it faster is to go to Spain, or California (there is one school in s. ca. which can do a JAA PPL) and stay there and work your balls off for a few solid weeks. In the USA, Arizona is a pretty good place :)

So apparently it's very difficult to attain an instrument rating in the UK? Why is this? Here in the US, a private rating costs about $10,000 and an instrument another $10,000. $20,000 is a LOT of money to start a hobby with!

That's another long topic. The JAA IR is 7 exams, and min 50 (SE) or 55 (ME) hours of dual (instructor) training. Just the 50hrs will cost about US$15k. You can chip away around the edges but not much. The IR has a mandatory classroom attendance (which for most people means a hotel because it cannot be done at just any PPL school; due to European restrictive practices it must be done at a "professional" school) which will cost another little packet, and the exams cost about $100 each. If you fail any exam 4 times you have to sit all 7 again. I cannot see anybody doing an ab initio IR here for less than $20k-$25k. If you want details, email me; I have some notes comparing the FAA IR and JAA IR processes.

[wsmempson]

maybe a sensible idea to use the downtime to nail the ground-school element? Not very glamorous, but very necessary...