Thursday 28 February 2013

Well that was an easy decision

Unlike yesterday when Bob and I went back and forward trying to make a decision about whether to fly or not, today was easy. RTH and I had booked a plane earlier in the week when it looked like Sunday was going to be the best day weather wise. Unfortunately as the day got closer, the forecast got worse.

Still we went to bed with a mild degree of optimism on Saturday night, deciding to make the call in the morning. I woke up briefly at about 6:30am; saw the snow passing by the window and rolled back over to go to sleep. The plane was booked from 12:00 and the weather can change in a blink at the moment.
Yesterday Bob spent a reasonable amount of time giving me a valuable lesson in weather interpretation. We looked at METARs and TAFs, not just the ones for the local area, but east and west too. He showed me how to look for trends, how to judge what is heading your way and how to tell if the TAF matches the METAR and so if you should trust it or not. We looked at GFAs and talked about how to interpret them as well. We also discussed the time honoured method of walking out onto the apron and taking a look around, the CN tower provides a pretty good indication of the cloud base, I still think it should be marked in 100ft intervals though to make the job easier! I admitted to Bob that my preflight weather analysis usually involves stepping out onto my balcony and seeing if there are any other planes in the circuit! I’m spoiled though because I can actually see the windsock at the airport from my bed!

At about 10:00 RTH and I made the no go call. When flight services agree that it’s a “sucky day to be up there” then you know to call it a day, despite dispatch trying to persuade us otherwise*. We got on with our day and the weather continued to drop the white stuff. At around 12:00, when we should have been taking off RTH asked me from his den “ what’s it looking like out there?”I popped my head around to the window and said “I dunno, I can’t see an out there.” It was a solid wall of falling snow. Visibility less than a couple of hundred metres.

Yeah we made the right call

 

* this would be the same person who jokingly tried to persuade me to fly the day before, “ah you’ve only got gusty winds, turbulence, snow and potential icing to worry about , I don’t know why you are cancelling!”

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