(Censored) Weather

[Sharpie]

I'm not a student but I am now facing having to pay >£150 just to get back on currency having not been able to get up in the club aircraft on the rare good days..

[Flyingboat]

I work away at sea so only have six months a year to fly,have not been up since September 16th as last time I was home the weather was dreadful and I kept re-booking as I was hoping to get some navex's done, the school tried hard and left whole days open to fit me in to no avail, not even for circuits.

[MarkTDH]

I work away at sea so only have six months a year to fly,have not been up since September 16th as last time I was home the weather was dreadful and I kept re-booking as I was hoping to get some navex's done, the school tried hard and left whole days open to fit me in to no avail, not even for circuits.

Ditto this flying boat,i also work at sea and with the crap weather i have missed two booked skills tests,i have 1 hour in the last 8 weeks,very frustrating,especially as all the good weather comes whilst I'm steaming across the Irish sea etc....

[weirdfish]

at last, it's not forecast to be raining, blowing a gale or foggy on a day with flying booked. Better still, I have two days back to back booked and favourable forecasts suggest I can be confident of getting a pre-skills test in, or at least some airtime to get my ebbing confidence back up.

However, this morning......

I seem to have woken up in Bedford Falls

It seems my run of cancellations will continue

[Paul_Sengupta]

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Navigation can be tricky in the snow. Especially around Stockholm when all the lakes are frozen over too. The lakes and islands normally make good navigation features...

[weirdfish]

There is a certain bookend like feel about it, as my first lesson was with snow on the ground earlier this year.

Forget navigation, getting to the airport will be my biggest challenge as my wife has taken my car as she doesn't like, with very good reason, driving her mx5 in the snow.

[RMurphy195]

There is a certain bookend like feel about it, as my first lesson was with snow on the ground earlier this year.

Forget navigation, getting to the airport will be my biggest challenge as my wife has taken my car as she doesn't like, with very good reason, driving her mx5 in the snow.

Havng lost almost the whole of October and November with cancellations (except for one lesson at the start of November) managed to fly last thurs and yesterday. Having to shake of the "rust" - very frustrating 'cos I'm "teetering on the edge" of being left alone in the aircraft for the first time but have to regain the feel and judgement needed for accurate circuits! Now watching the weather for tomorrow (not promising) and next week. I'm booking lessons on multiple weekdays in the hope of having good enough weather often enough ...

I really have to admire the patience of my FI, 'cos it must be just as frustrating for him as for me I would think.

PS - I also have an MX5 - they are easier to drive at this time of the year with winter tyres, but I wouldn't go out into the snow/ice too often if I could avoid it either!

[weirdfish]

PS - I also have an MX5 - they are easier to drive at this time of the year with winter tyres, but I wouldn't go out into the snow/ice too often if I could avoid it either!

I totally agree and usually have our winter tyres on it by now ,however, it's the local hilly back roads near the house that are the big problem and a mx5 would struggle with anything short of a half track conversion

[Iolanthe]

it's the local hilly back roads near the house that are the big problem

That wouldn't be Bread and Cheese Hill and Church Hill up from Robert Drake by any chance would it Fish?! (don't blame you if it is, Church Hill's "interesting"at the best of times!

Back to flying though.... we've none of the white stuff, just black ice. The airfield is on "Blacktop Amber" so I am hoping to get flying at the weekend - even if we have to use the grass strip if the tarmac is too icy...at LEAST ITS FLYING!!

[Keef]

Church Hill up from Robert Drake?
You know that church at the top of Church Hill...?

[weirdfish]

I certainly do, I've just been on a call out for work cery near it. It's predictably icy.


Iolanthe, I'm further into Hadleigh, near Scrub lane, but the this time of year the back roads don't get the sun so become, and stay icy for ages after the main roads are clear.

[Iolanthe]

Keef and Fish,

I do indeed know Church Hill and St Peter's very well.... I used to go to "Play Group" at St Peters church hall (Swans Green Hall isn't it now?) in the late 70's, I attended Robert Drake school and lived in Hazlemere Road until I was 8 years old... I also know Scrub Lane...small world innit!

[Keef]

Scarily small!

Daughters went to Kingston School, King John and SHS, and SEEVIC. Daughter 1 now lives behind Thundersley Common.

If you went to services in St Peter's between about 1980 and 2010, I was the penguin with the blue scarf up the front.

[Iolanthe]

Keef,
No, never attended any services at St Peters - I am a total athiest (sorry!) But it would have been 1978-1979 when attended play group there.

King John, yeah, my old Band (Thundersley Brass Band) used to practise there until they bought the Hall on Thundersley Common (or "The Rec" as it was always know in my family). On moving to Leigh I attended Westleigh Juniors then Belfairs, so never went to any of the Thundersley/Benfleet secondary schools.

Also as a coincidence, one of my friends in the Flying CLub is a Chalkwell native and attended Appleton. i didn't expect to move to Lincs and find someone who grew up near to where I did!

[weirdfish]

Also as a coincidence, one of my friends in the Flying CLub is a Chalkwell native and attended Appleton. i didn't expect to move to Lincs and find someone who grew up near to where I did!

Ah Appleton, I also went there. Hated it.

Back on topic for a bit, I had yet another cancellation on Saturday but this time not for weather reasons. I'd been working all night and was in no state to undergo a flying lesson, let alone a pre skills test Needless to say I had the right hump and spent much of the morning cursing my recent luck which turned out to be better than I thought, as my nav was right through Wattisham MATZ and very near the other Hadleigh. After reading about the fatality and the following accounts of conditions by some clearly very experienced pilots, I'm glad I was nowhere near it.