Bleedin' weather
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 526
Likes: 0
From: Aberdeen, UK
You should try it up here. For the last 3/4 weeks the few good days we've had have been blighted by a wall of harr sitting on the coast - which happens to be 2 of the 3 VFR exit/entry lanes. Inland is clear of harr, but with a cloud base of circa 1500-2k feet for the last 2 weeks, and some big hills, it gets fiddly.
Today just sums it up - lovely, bright, hardly a breeze, SCT012TCU - nuts, and a TAF which looks like the world is going to end - or at least I'm going to get very wet.
With work et al (even given that I can sneak off when wx permits), keeping any semeblance of currency is a nightmare
Today just sums it up - lovely, bright, hardly a breeze, SCT012TCU - nuts, and a TAF which looks like the world is going to end - or at least I'm going to get very wet.
With work et al (even given that I can sneak off when wx permits), keeping any semeblance of currency is a nightmare
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 262
Likes: 0
From: Croydon (but really from Barnsley)
Tell me about it! I was planning to have my skills test in May, except then between the end of April and the end of May I didn't get any flying done.
So I was planning to have it in June, except then I hardly got any flying done.
My exams expire at the end of July, except I've not got any flying done and it doesn't look too good for this weekend either.
In the inestimable words of Mr. Flanders and Mr. Swann:-
January brings the snow
Makes your feet and fingers glow
February's Ice and sleet
Freeze the toes right off your feet
Welcome March with wintry wind
Would thou wer't not so unkind
April brings the sweet spring showers
On and on for hours and hours
Farmers fear unkindly May
Frost by night and hail by day
June just rains and never stops
Thirty days and spoils the crops
In July the sun is hot
Is it shining? No, it's not
August cold, and dank, and wet
Brings more rain than any yet
Bleak September's mist and mud
Is enough to chill the blood
Then October adds a gale
Wind and slush and rain and hail
Dark November brings the fog
Should not do it to a dog
Freezing wet December then:
Bloody January again!
So I was planning to have it in June, except then I hardly got any flying done.
My exams expire at the end of July, except I've not got any flying done and it doesn't look too good for this weekend either.
In the inestimable words of Mr. Flanders and Mr. Swann:-
January brings the snow
Makes your feet and fingers glow
February's Ice and sleet
Freeze the toes right off your feet
Welcome March with wintry wind
Would thou wer't not so unkind
April brings the sweet spring showers
On and on for hours and hours
Farmers fear unkindly May
Frost by night and hail by day
June just rains and never stops
Thirty days and spoils the crops
In July the sun is hot
Is it shining? No, it's not
August cold, and dank, and wet
Brings more rain than any yet
Bleak September's mist and mud
Is enough to chill the blood
Then October adds a gale
Wind and slush and rain and hail
Dark November brings the fog
Should not do it to a dog
Freezing wet December then:
Bloody January again!
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 145
Likes: 0
From: UK
Take heart Dop, the trick is to make certain your CFI/Examiner knows you are primed and ready to drop everything and do your skills test as soon as there's a half day wx window. If this means bunking off work, C'est la vie. I'm lucky in that being someone who works shifts it was easier, but my CFI knew how desperate I was to complete and made himself available whenever there was a possibility of going for it.
It worked for me, After a couple of false starts
(the usual story, it was fine at my place, the forecast was OK, you get to the field, start planning and the wx closes in.... arse x10) we got the skills test in one go in a morning. Ironically, the next day, I went back to the club to finish some paperwork, once done, I joined several of the instructors in the clubhouse bar, 'congratulations' they said, along with 'You are one lucky 
with the weather' comments as we looked out across the runway with the rain hitting the window horizontally and the windsock attempting take-off!! It turned out to be the only day suitable for the next ten or so, so grab the opportunity when you can if at all possible, if you have a decent boss, chat to him/her about it, they may be sympathetic and let you dump work at short notice (if you don't have a decent boss, disregard this advice and pull a sickie).
The only other thing to do is 'Chair-fly', go through landing/take-off chks, HASSEL/HELL chks, stall configs and recovery, any procedures etc., yes, you will look and feel like a total tw@t doing it (so do it in private
) but believe me, it really helps when you aren't actually airbourne. It works for the RAF, they encourage this practice.
It worked for me, After a couple of false starts
(the usual story, it was fine at my place, the forecast was OK, you get to the field, start planning and the wx closes in.... arse x10) we got the skills test in one go in a morning. Ironically, the next day, I went back to the club to finish some paperwork, once done, I joined several of the instructors in the clubhouse bar, 'congratulations' they said, along with 'You are one lucky with the weather' comments as we looked out across the runway with the rain hitting the window horizontally and the windsock attempting take-off!! It turned out to be the only day suitable for the next ten or so, so grab the opportunity when you can if at all possible, if you have a decent boss, chat to him/her about it, they may be sympathetic and let you dump work at short notice (if you don't have a decent boss, disregard this advice and pull a sickie).The only other thing to do is 'Chair-fly', go through landing/take-off chks, HASSEL/HELL chks, stall configs and recovery, any procedures etc., yes, you will look and feel like a total tw@t doing it (so do it in private
) but believe me, it really helps when you aren't actually airbourne. It works for the RAF, they encourage this practice.
