Aaaarrrgghh!!!!

[kookabat]

Insanely frustrated right about now...
Have been trying to finish off a PPL for a fair while now... kicked off the navigation bits proper mid last year.
My first attempt at Nav 1 was cancelled due weather.
We went on the second try.
My second nav was attempted, cancelled due weather and eventually abandoned after five attempts.
Third nav was cancelled once or twice due aircraft or instructor unavailability...
Fast forward a bit... got to solo check stage - scheduled no less than 17 times over three months before we finally got it out of the way.
First solo nav happened on the first attempt!! The first time a scheduled nav actually went ahead on the first try! So I thought that my bad run of weather was broken and we'd be able to finish the PPL by the time I go back to uni (three weeks or so)... had the next nav scheduled for tomorrow morning....
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...and get a phone call tonight from my instructor saying the aircraft's gone belly-up!!!!


I JUST CAN'T WIN!!!!!!!

[Marian]

Yep, I know exactly how you feel - I'm in the same situation. I've been waiting to do a solo landaway since mid December. As well as the rubbish weather we have been having I'm also being affected by the surge in recruitment by the airlines - decimating the instructor population at the club where I fly. Whilst I'm really pleased for them getting the jobs they have waited for for so long, it means that I've had a new instructor for each of my past 4 lessons. So each lesson has been spent with the instructor getting to know my level of ability and me getting used to them.

I've given up now until after Easter, when I hope not only the weather will be better but I might be able to have the same instructor for consecutive lessons. Thats assuming that there may be new instructors available!

Its a frustrating sport sometimes isn't it!

[Algirdas]

You are already winning Kookbat...
Just enjoy the process - it involves flying

[kookabat]

it involves flying

But that's just the problem... I'm NOT flying...

[ChampChump]

But you will, K, you will. I suspect Whirly will leap in with her special brand of wisdom. but meanwhile I offer the thought that all the frustrations are part of the process, preparing you for all the frustrations once you earn that rating. Aircraft go u/s, weather misbehaves, pilots too, resulting in untold misery that can fade as quickly as it develops. You're just getting the experience earlier than some.

If you concentrate on all the things you have achieved thus far, you will see that despite everything thrown at you, progress has been significant. You've reached an advanced state of studentship which is no mean feat, presumably while studying pretty hard elsewhere.

Grab every chance you get to go flying, even if it's not part of your master plan (spare seats do occur at short notice and just being airborne works wonders, even if you're not always hands-on) and......




.....hold that dream.

[Kolibear]

Don't worry - getting your PPL is the easy bit. Keeping your PPL is the really difficult part.

[Rans Flyer]

I’ve been waiting since August to do my NPPL(M) GFT (11 cancellations due to bad weather)!

What makes it worse is that I brought a plane and have been paying insurance and hangerage (£200pm) for 7 months now and the insurance will not allow me to use it (even for some solo practice) until I’ve passed.

One day…….

[philmercer]

How long??

Am I missing something here.???

Went to the states to a very reputible flight school and did my JAA PPL (A) + Night Rating in four weeks (First week just doing writtens). Lost 1.5 days due to bad weather and got a nice tan thrown in to the bargain.

Also at a fraction of the cost than over here. Like you guys I started doing mine over here last summer and completed 8 hrs before getting completely racked off with the whole weather thing!!

[dublinpilot]

The thing is though, once you're back you're going to have to deal with the weather.

These guys are slowly learning about the weather, what's appropriate to flyin, what's not, and getting good experience at dealing with it.

I imagine you could spend your four weeks in the US, and never see low cloud, and never have to deal with a cross wind?

I am not putting down the US route, just trying to show the others that they are learning something from training in a poorer climate.

dp

[mazzy1026]

it involves flying

Yeah on the flight sim!

With regards to Florida - I aint flown there but have read several reaosns why you shouldn't go there. I actually contemplated it myself a year ago but now I am glad I didnt go to do my training. I will gladly go there when I already have my PPL.

Kook - I know how you feel far too well. You will know by my last post that I am getting fed up now with cancellations due to weather. It really does annoy me but that's life and if I dont accept it, then I will just get myself down.

Keep going !!

Maz

[G SXTY]

Let’s see now, my QXC was scrubbed 13 time due wx - or was it 14 – I really can’t remember. Got to 44 hours and found I needed another 1 hour solo nav before I could take the skills test – and waited nearly 3 months for good enough weather.

Sure it’s frustrating (like 101 other things in flying), but it’s a lot better than being a solo stude trying to land in a limiting crosswind, or in marginal VMC, or with a CB parked next to the airfield . . . No disrespect, but with student PPL hours and experience you’ve already got your hands pretty full - you really don’t want to make things even trickier by launching into iffy weather. Tis most definitely better to be down here wishing you were up there, etc etc.

(And Florida might have nicer weather, but it does have challenges of it's own - like trying to get a C150 off the ground in 35deg heat with an instructor sat next to you who likes a pie or two.)

[Noah Zark.]

Really naff weather, innit? Just to remind yourselves what it's all about when you get back up there, try this > http://groups.msn.co,/Flyinpix/photoalbums
When it comes up, look under the word "Pictures", and click on 'show photos'.

[kookabat]

my QXC was scrubbed 13 time due wx - or was it 14 – I really can’t remember.

Still beating ya!! Think I just about hold the all-time record at my flying school for cancellations... dammit...

you really don’t want to make things even trickier by launching into iffy weather.

I fully realise that, was just letting off a bit of steam...

On the upside, that solo check has got to have been one of the best-planned navs of all time, considering I was at it for three months...

[Whirlybird]

I suspect Whirly will leap in with her special brand of wisdom.

Well, how nice to be mentioned in my long absence from PPRuNe...you did mean me, didn´t you...don´t say you meant Whirlygig. I´ve been on holiday in an extremely isolated part of the world with no internet access whatoever (still not home, but can now log on ), so couldn´t butt in. And now I don´t need to. ChampChump, you said exactly what I would have done. And kookabat, unless you plan to emigrate, get used to it...you are going to be planning flights which don´t happen for............the rest of your life.

[ChampChump]

It's good to be missed! Of course I meant you....and thank you for the affirmation

Have you managed any Whirling in that holiday?

CC

[Evil J]

At the risk of geting into the same old US versus UK argument it can be done in the UK fast if you get the right school and right preparation. I did my PPL in Kent in 3 1/2 weeks, only to be beaten by my brother who did a full JAR PPL in 12 days...thats not a typo...a full JAR PPL in 12 days (OK he'd done the ground school before he went)... don't believe me?? ask mad jock...we has his instuctor...it can be done.

[kookabat]

Just quickly... unbelievable as it may seem given my whinging about the weather, I'm actually in Australia .
It hasn't been JUST the weather, more a combination of lots of things that has kept me grounded for so long - like, need to schedule flights around work, then instructor isn't available, then on the one day in the week when me, an instructor AND an aeroplane are available the wx turns to sh#t. Or, as happened last week, the weather co-operates but the aircraft goes kaput on me...
I was just having a general complain about my shoddy luck... But thanks for all your 'words of wisdom' anyways!!

[wbryce]

I think I had a very easy ride through my PPL.

Solo was sprung on me with no hint of it happening.
Solo QXC was planned and it was a lovely day for it.
Skills test planned and another lovely day for it.

So much pleasure! wheres the pain?

[Fly Stimulator]

Weather frustrations don't stop after you've got your licence either.

I arrived home last night after finally completing a journey from Sardinia to Sweden in a small VFR-only aircraft which started two months ago!

After a good start for the first two days I hit the fog that can sit over central Europe for weeks in the winter and had leave the aircraft in France and return home by train and scheduled flight.

I returned two weeks later but unforecast fog frustrated that attempt too, so, what with Christmas and New Year, it ended up being six weeks until I could move the aircraft. Even then I still couldn't go east and had to bring it to England where it sat for another fortnight before I finally got up through Holland and Germany to Sweden at the weekend.

Altogether I spent more time waiting at airports and railway stations than I did flying. All part of the fun of winter flying in Europe, but I'd have been grateful for at least a little Florida-style weather!

[Whirlybird]

Have you managed any Whirling in that holiday?

Nope. And not even any plank flying...except by courtesy of Lufthansa and Aerolineas Argentinas. But watching 30 ft waves as we rounded Cape Horn, kayaking to the sound of glaciers calving with penguins diving underneath me, getting stuck in sea ice, close-up views of whales diving and seals basking, and camping ashore on snow watching an Antarctic sunset, more or less made up for the lack of my regular aviation fix...withdrawal symptoms only just beginning to kick in now.