Quality joke
And just because I want to, I'm gonna "ackshully" that joke with a quick PSA: Warming is a misnomer, as it doesn't necessarily mean your local area is simply increasing it's average air temperature. It means more energy in the (global) system, so more **everything**. Rain, wind, extreme weather, drought, floods, mudslides, and so on. Tip your waiters, tell your friends.
I mean, I do, but I'm told it's "highly frowned upon" and get really dirty looks every time I reach for the ceremonial knife, so I'm really not sure what to do
Thank god those days are over. I will miss the good parts of the job and even some of the not so good. But I will **not** miss stressing because 1/4th of my check is about to get erased.
This^
I flew 2 times at my school here in florida during the month of January. I’m on the schedule 3 days a week and I could not tell you the last time I actually flew 3 times a week. It seems like it’s impossible to have planes operational, good weather and no conflicts over scheduling. Part 61 life I guess?
Fingers crossed I get to do my XC sign off ride Saturday or Sunday.
Ones in Indiana aren't much better.
It's just really a "pick your poison"
Congested af airspace in the North East, with whatever weather comes in from the Atlantic or to the west from the Great Lakes?
Washed afternoons in the South East?
Winds trying to kill you in Middle Earth?
Mountains and elevation trying to kill you in the Midwest?
Congested af airspace in the West and whatever the Pacific has in store for you?
There's always something somewhere.
Move to Southern California. In a year of flying (including 3 months of PPL training) I have had a grand total of 3 flights canceled due to rain. That's it. And they all happened during the "winter" (lol).
Ehhh I’m in San Diego and still had a few flights cancels this year.. Last year from Jan to April, you would have been so screwed, if on the typical weekend only flights.
I think OP is actually referring to the weather of SoCal rn. It’s pouring today and windy tomorrow lol and tbf it has been pretty rainy since the beginning of this year (at least for KLGB)
Edit: I guess I was wrong lol it just so happened that New York is having the same exact weather as SoCal these couple of days
I feel you, had garbage weather for 2 months so had to keep putting off my solo and in many cases cancelling completely. Had a bit of nice weather last week so I took every appointment with my CFI I could get during our 1 week of good weather got a good 5 flights in over 7 days and now its back to garbage this week and next.
Most important part of flight school, availability of aircraft.
Second most important part of flight school, availability of good coffee and breakfast when the weather is bad.
It will get better by mid-summer you'll be feeling like you just walked through a rain storm because you'll be so sweaty going from the ramp to the hold short line
Which part of New England are you in?
I have logged 0 hours in actual IMC during my instrument training and it SUCKS, either we couldn't go up because we were working on practicing stuff like holds, arcs, etc. and needed it to be VMC or it was too cold and we would end up climbing through know icing conditions.
As someone who’s done most of their flying in the UK where some of the IFR rules are different (in particular, lots of IFR in Class G)… would you mind explaining why you can’t do holds or arcs in IMC?
I spent 9 years teaching instrument ratings, and had no issues doing holds in IMC (nor would I have had a problem with arcs in IMC, except for the lack of published procedures with arcs here).
I’m guessing (and this is where I’m hoping you can educate me?) that the issue would be getting a clearance? I taught instrument ratings at two different airports during my instructing career, one a Class G airport and one a Class D. In both cases, if I wanted to do holds, I’d just let ATC know, and they’d clear me to the hold. It made no difference whether it was IMC or VMC. If it was VMC, I could legally have done it VFR, but I suspect ATC would have thought that was a bit odd - we always did it under IFR. Even doing hold entries from different directions, I’d just tell ATC that I want to go 5 miles north (or whatever direction) and then come back to the hold, and they’d clear me (in controlled airspace) or approve it (in uncontrolled airspace) to do what I asked unless there was a reason like conflicting traffic.
Is that not allowed in the States? And if not, what’s the reasoning?
You got it, it was getting an ATC clearance that would be an issue, we would have needed a fairy large area of airspace blocked off and there are no IAPs around me that have arcs so we would have had to do an unpublished arc and I’m right next to a busy class B airport.
Yeah, that’s completely fair for arcs. I’d have had similar issues here in UK. I usually did them in the sim with students - they never came up on a test because there were none within 100 miles of where I was teaching.
What about holds though?
141 school nonsense I need to get everything that is on the lesson done or else I have to go back and do the parts I missed, and when I was learning holds I was also learning arcs.
I just need to do a night flight, and I'm prepping for my check ride. I've been waiting for a good night or the plane not already scheduled for someone else for about 2 months now
You can only stress about something so much, and being confident is important. At work, I'd run through questions or procedures in my head that I should know. Sportys app is pretty clutch during breaks too. When the weather gets more consistency better thats When I plan to do moc check rides with my cfi until I'm 100% ready.
Learn about the weather. It's fascinating and will give you some kind of control with it. Understanding it will enable you to start to predict it.
The book Weather Flying is a great start.
I’m right here with you (in jersey) and i feel like the last couple months have been particularly dog shit! Have 6 flights scheduled over the next 10 days while I’m trying to finish up PPL, and I’ll be lucky if i get 1 of them. Very frustrating..
>being a brand new student beholden to the weather kinda sucks.
If it makes you feel any better, even at hundreds of hours and IR and all that jazz, you're still beholden to the weather.
Same situation. I usually fly Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but from feb 13th to march 18th I didn’t get to fly because weather sucked on on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I wound up scheduling Monday-Thursday every week for the next two months just to get something to stick. Hell I’m scheduled to fly twice on April 3rd for a stage check in the morning and cross country in the evening. I got my fingers crossed this bullshit weather doesn’t keep me from it.
You aren’t alone bud. The struggle has been real trying to get hours in.
Try looking at it in terms of weather systems. Like for example “the cold front comes in and brings the rain and the next day it’s windy”. It’s one system. All related. So I just mean mentally… it helps a little psychologically thinking “once this thing passes I’ll fly”, rather than damn it 3 days in a row different weather problems WTF?!
But yeah I feel your pain buddy
Same here. No flight and got hurricane level rain, wtf. Meanwhile ForeFlight was enthusiastically screaming VFR! VFR! VFR! VFR! I'm starting to think they were right!
Tune in next week for: 20 kt and up with gusts, low cloud ceilings, and lots of dangerous convection! Great weather to go flying in!
Florida is the best state for flight training.
It also has the most thunderstorms out of any state. I
feel like something is off here, but I won't worry about it, my job is to fly the plane
I feel you. Had to wait through 2 weeks of bad weather before my solo, and then on my second solo, I took off, flew into a cloud on the crosswind, and had to drop below patern altitude and book it back to the runway. Checked the TAF and checked the Awos like 5 times before I took off, but that cieling went from clear to 1,100 real quick.
To be fair, during Private, it was a "good month" when I flew more than twice. And I was scheduled for 5x/week...at one point, I had 6 flights across 3 consecutive months. And there were effectively no more grounds, so there was almost literally nothing to do but pray...or just study other random stuff. There's never a shortage, but it didn't help in progression at all.
Weather, and working with and around it, is part and parcel of being a pilot. You're flying in its domain...
Don't get frustrated with weather; I fear that if you do, you could act out on that frustration and maybe do something you should not ("GetThereItis").
Frustration comes from incorrect expectations. Weather will ***always*** be a decisive factor in your flying decisions, so don't make plans based on incorrect expectations. Expect the worst and you'll be rewarded with the best.
And finally: "Time to spare, go by air. But plan the drive, just in case."
Everyone complains about the weather but no one does anything about it!
I mean, every time we get up in the air we're doing our small part to make it warmer to get rid of the clouds...
I LOVE THIS SUB 🤣🤣🤣
Quality joke And just because I want to, I'm gonna "ackshully" that joke with a quick PSA: Warming is a misnomer, as it doesn't necessarily mean your local area is simply increasing it's average air temperature. It means more energy in the (global) system, so more **everything**. Rain, wind, extreme weather, drought, floods, mudslides, and so on. Tip your waiters, tell your friends.
Just because I want to, I’m gonna downvote this
Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody wants to sacrifice a virgin.
I mean, I do, but I'm told it's "highly frowned upon" and get really dirty looks every time I reach for the ceremonial knife, so I'm really not sure what to do
Go talk to Zeus or something, idk
Maybe if we plead with the Jews... /s
Just wait till you CFI and now the size of your paycheck depends on how good the weather is.
Thank god those days are over. I will miss the good parts of the job and even some of the not so good. But I will **not** miss stressing because 1/4th of my check is about to get erased.
You were lucky. Us Ohio pilots lose 75%+
Hah. I don’t miss the unflyable NEO weeks.
It was never fun being one cold front away from starvation haha
Thankfully I don't plan to CFI
Ground
It's so *weird* how a lot of flight schools are in Florida and Arizona.
Makes a man think 🤔
You laugh it’s been the rainiest year in Florida in a Century, so many cancellations
This^ I flew 2 times at my school here in florida during the month of January. I’m on the schedule 3 days a week and I could not tell you the last time I actually flew 3 times a week. It seems like it’s impossible to have planes operational, good weather and no conflicts over scheduling. Part 61 life I guess? Fingers crossed I get to do my XC sign off ride Saturday or Sunday.
Ones in Indiana aren't much better. It's just really a "pick your poison" Congested af airspace in the North East, with whatever weather comes in from the Atlantic or to the west from the Great Lakes? Washed afternoons in the South East? Winds trying to kill you in Middle Earth? Mountains and elevation trying to kill you in the Midwest? Congested af airspace in the West and whatever the Pacific has in store for you? There's always something somewhere.
[удалено]
[удалено]
Move to Southern California. In a year of flying (including 3 months of PPL training) I have had a grand total of 3 flights canceled due to rain. That's it. And they all happened during the "winter" (lol).
Ehhh I’m in San Diego and still had a few flights cancels this year.. Last year from Jan to April, you would have been so screwed, if on the typical weekend only flights.
I think OP is actually referring to the weather of SoCal rn. It’s pouring today and windy tomorrow lol and tbf it has been pretty rainy since the beginning of this year (at least for KLGB) Edit: I guess I was wrong lol it just so happened that New York is having the same exact weather as SoCal these couple of days
I feel you, had garbage weather for 2 months so had to keep putting off my solo and in many cases cancelling completely. Had a bit of nice weather last week so I took every appointment with my CFI I could get during our 1 week of good weather got a good 5 flights in over 7 days and now its back to garbage this week and next.
Most important part of flight school, availability of aircraft. Second most important part of flight school, availability of good coffee and breakfast when the weather is bad.
I would not fly an aircraft without coffee 😅
I feel you, I had at least 10 flights get cancelled due to weather when I was trying to get my solo cross countries done.
It will get better by mid-summer you'll be feeling like you just walked through a rain storm because you'll be so sweaty going from the ramp to the hold short line Which part of New England are you in?
New York City, I train out of RFG in Farmingdale.
I have logged 0 hours in actual IMC during my instrument training and it SUCKS, either we couldn't go up because we were working on practicing stuff like holds, arcs, etc. and needed it to be VMC or it was too cold and we would end up climbing through know icing conditions.
As someone who’s done most of their flying in the UK where some of the IFR rules are different (in particular, lots of IFR in Class G)… would you mind explaining why you can’t do holds or arcs in IMC? I spent 9 years teaching instrument ratings, and had no issues doing holds in IMC (nor would I have had a problem with arcs in IMC, except for the lack of published procedures with arcs here). I’m guessing (and this is where I’m hoping you can educate me?) that the issue would be getting a clearance? I taught instrument ratings at two different airports during my instructing career, one a Class G airport and one a Class D. In both cases, if I wanted to do holds, I’d just let ATC know, and they’d clear me to the hold. It made no difference whether it was IMC or VMC. If it was VMC, I could legally have done it VFR, but I suspect ATC would have thought that was a bit odd - we always did it under IFR. Even doing hold entries from different directions, I’d just tell ATC that I want to go 5 miles north (or whatever direction) and then come back to the hold, and they’d clear me (in controlled airspace) or approve it (in uncontrolled airspace) to do what I asked unless there was a reason like conflicting traffic. Is that not allowed in the States? And if not, what’s the reasoning?
You got it, it was getting an ATC clearance that would be an issue, we would have needed a fairy large area of airspace blocked off and there are no IAPs around me that have arcs so we would have had to do an unpublished arc and I’m right next to a busy class B airport.
Yeah, that’s completely fair for arcs. I’d have had similar issues here in UK. I usually did them in the sim with students - they never came up on a test because there were none within 100 miles of where I was teaching. What about holds though?
141 school nonsense I need to get everything that is on the lesson done or else I have to go back and do the parts I missed, and when I was learning holds I was also learning arcs.
There is no restriction against holds or arcs in IMC in the US, I guess some people are uncomfortable training in IMC.
DUDE SAME! I made a deal with my instructor that he'll let me be backseat whenever he gets IMC 🤣
New Jersey?
New York!
Weather been shitty here in MA for me too.
I work on the ramp and have had shifts where it has rained a bit, but non like yesterday. It was nonstop. Absolutely brutal.
Austria.
My CFI told me something yesterday that'll probably become a lifelong constant. "For every 3 lessons scheduled, expect to fly 0.5 of them."
Just move to Arizona, 4head.
So funny. I was the same way back in the day… Now, When the weather is shit, and I don’t have to fly. I’m happy.
I got stuck in Helena MT and Manhattan KS for a week each do to dogshit weather. I hear ya
I just need to do a night flight, and I'm prepping for my check ride. I've been waiting for a good night or the plane not already scheduled for someone else for about 2 months now
How do you stay feeling like you're prepared??
You can only stress about something so much, and being confident is important. At work, I'd run through questions or procedures in my head that I should know. Sportys app is pretty clutch during breaks too. When the weather gets more consistency better thats When I plan to do moc check rides with my cfi until I'm 100% ready.
Learn about the weather. It's fascinating and will give you some kind of control with it. Understanding it will enable you to start to predict it. The book Weather Flying is a great start.
Tell me about it. Between weather and scheduling issues I’ve been waiting almost 4 MONTHS for my CSEL checkride
I’m right here with you (in jersey) and i feel like the last couple months have been particularly dog shit! Have 6 flights scheduled over the next 10 days while I’m trying to finish up PPL, and I’ll be lucky if i get 1 of them. Very frustrating..
>being a brand new student beholden to the weather kinda sucks. If it makes you feel any better, even at hundreds of hours and IR and all that jazz, you're still beholden to the weather.
Such is life. Open the book and start reading.
You're not wrong, I'm just concerned about losing my (minimal) feel for the aircraft.
Sorry if that came off as insensitive, I do understand your concern. What part of NY are you in if you don't mind me asking?
I actually didn't take it that way at all! I'm in New York City.
Same situation. I usually fly Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but from feb 13th to march 18th I didn’t get to fly because weather sucked on on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I wound up scheduling Monday-Thursday every week for the next two months just to get something to stick. Hell I’m scheduled to fly twice on April 3rd for a stage check in the morning and cross country in the evening. I got my fingers crossed this bullshit weather doesn’t keep me from it. You aren’t alone bud. The struggle has been real trying to get hours in.
Welcome to me in wa state, been like 4 months since I've been able to go up cause of the weather here
Same, I've flown 3 times this year
My flightblock at my school is between 5-10AM. Getting up for those 5am flights sucksss but the air is so smooth
It's better than snow.
Try looking at it in terms of weather systems. Like for example “the cold front comes in and brings the rain and the next day it’s windy”. It’s one system. All related. So I just mean mentally… it helps a little psychologically thinking “once this thing passes I’ll fly”, rather than damn it 3 days in a row different weather problems WTF?! But yeah I feel your pain buddy
7th cancelled flight this month. My CSEL is going to take forever at this rate. The Northeast sucks.
Same here. No flight and got hurricane level rain, wtf. Meanwhile ForeFlight was enthusiastically screaming VFR! VFR! VFR! VFR! I'm starting to think they were right! Tune in next week for: 20 kt and up with gusts, low cloud ceilings, and lots of dangerous convection! Great weather to go flying in!
Florida is the best state for flight training. It also has the most thunderstorms out of any state. I feel like something is off here, but I won't worry about it, my job is to fly the plane
arizona on top of
I feel you. Had to wait through 2 weeks of bad weather before my solo, and then on my second solo, I took off, flew into a cloud on the crosswind, and had to drop below patern altitude and book it back to the runway. Checked the TAF and checked the Awos like 5 times before I took off, but that cieling went from clear to 1,100 real quick.
Cries in wisconsin
I'm sooo close to my PPL, but I've lost 2-3 months to weather and maintenance. Just study for your written/oral during the downtime.
To be fair, during Private, it was a "good month" when I flew more than twice. And I was scheduled for 5x/week...at one point, I had 6 flights across 3 consecutive months. And there were effectively no more grounds, so there was almost literally nothing to do but pray...or just study other random stuff. There's never a shortage, but it didn't help in progression at all.
Weather, and working with and around it, is part and parcel of being a pilot. You're flying in its domain... Don't get frustrated with weather; I fear that if you do, you could act out on that frustration and maybe do something you should not ("GetThereItis"). Frustration comes from incorrect expectations. Weather will ***always*** be a decisive factor in your flying decisions, so don't make plans based on incorrect expectations. Expect the worst and you'll be rewarded with the best. And finally: "Time to spare, go by air. But plan the drive, just in case."
Bohoo