I’m not sure I want to fly in this

First break in the crappy weather so I arranged to meet Bob down at the airport to hopefully get some flying in. Situation was a tad complicated due to JES being confined to dual circuits at the moment. She’s had some new parts as a result of this, it meant I’d have to swap planes if I wanted to solo.

Well I woke up and could feel the wind shaking the apartment. I was tempted to roll over, go back to sleep and forget all about this flying nonsense. Knowing that wasn’t really an option RTH* and I dutifully trundled down to the airport. All the time looking at the seemingly lowering clouds, gusty winds, with worse predicted and a hint of snow in the air.

On the ferry over I admitted to RTH that “I’m not sure I want to fly in this” but as I explained to him I kept asking myself “what’s the worst that can happen?” I’m with an instructor, I’m staying local and if the weather comes in I’m 2 minutes from a runway, maximum. I was less than reassured when RTH admitted that he wasn’t sure he wanted to fly in it either!

As usual I admitted to Bob that we were at the limits of my comfort zone and as usual Bob listened sympathetically and then marched me off to the plane anyways! We did agree though that the winds were outside the school’s limits for soloing.

As it turned out I’m getting better than I realised at dealing with this stuff. Circuit was square, landings were better (centreline needed some work, but I’ve got an idea of what I’m doing wrong now. I’ll have that sorted next time) and I wasn’t overly stressed. Even when dealing with my old nemesis in ATC, he was reasonably ok with me  because my radio work is awesome**but I reckon there was at least one overshoot caused by him taking so bloody long to issue a takeoff clearance.

 I did feel sorry for him at one point. There was traffic kicking around that was obviously unfamiliar with the area and were having a bit of trouble responding to ATC’s requests to stay clear of a certain area. The back and forth went on for a while. The traffic requested a bearing rather than a geographical point. ATC told them to remain north of the CN Tower. There was a brief pause, I resisted the urge to hold down the radio trigger whilst I said “it’s the big pointy thing, you can’t miss it!”

I’m glad I flew today but I’m still not sure I’d fly in those winds for fun.

 

 

 

*RTH has let his currency at the flight school expire. He was meant to got up for an instructor sign off with Bob but the cloud base was too low for anything other than circuits. He didn't get to fly.


** It's one of the few things that Bob never seems to have any "feedback" about so I figure I'm doing something right.