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For the past few days, I've been on spring break and on the flight schedule EVERY morning at 0800. Why? Because I've been weathered EVERY time. Yesterday, I called my CFI at his house and gave him the METAR- he didn't even come into work, just cancelled the flight from his house. So this morning, I'm awake at 0600 again, giving him a call while reading aviationweather.com...

"Ya want the good news or the bad news? The good news- it stopped raining, and isn't supposed to for a while. The bad news- ceiling's 600 feet until noon!"

KDAB 101053Z 35008KT 9SM OVC006 15/14 A3000 RMK AO2 CIG 003V009 SLP157 T01500144

ARG!

yep! been there, done that... week before last.

As it turned out, my CFI wanted me to stay ready to go until 1000 just in case it cleared up. I was working on 4 hours of sleep- and now I couldn't go back! I was pretty much waiting by the phone for 4 hours. The weather stayed bad, and he cancelled the day at 10. HERE's the stinker: at 1300, the sky is CLEAR blue with a stratus layer at 12,000, and all that nasty overcast is GONE. Its 70 degrees, air is smooth, winds are light...and no flying for me

Yep, lovely springtime weather.

Ask your CFI this....

How about him using his instrument ticket for a local IFR flight so you can get on top of this WX to do your airwork. Perhaps a few miles over is severe clear and you can bang out some ground ref maneuvers or patterns; chances are that the entire state of florida isn't IMC.

Also if it's spring break, I'm guessing you have full control to whore ,(just an expression in this circumstance), yourself out to other instructors and times and get done. As long as your primary instructor is cool with some other guys knocking out the required items. This is a little harder to do as you approach the signoff and check ride. If I were you I'd have a 7am flight, 12pm flight, and 3pm flight scheduled, and if 2 get cancelled your still ahead of the game.

You think having to hang out at your college for spring break to catch up on flights is bad, try doing it over the entire summer. How's that for motivation

we do ifr to vfr on top with our instructors...

kinda hard to do a ground ref. man. over a cloud layer though... ;)

Ground ref over clouds- especially since you're required 1000 feet vertical clearance, and ground ref is done at 800 feet AGL...

Also, the flight is a cross country- I need VFR all the way. IFR to VFR on Top gets me nothing accomplished as per navigation with a sectional.

Also, the next flight after this is a local area flight- slow flight, stalls, ground ref, steep turns, landings, etc...so the ground would be nice to see.

Thursday's looking good.

ahhhh.... don't worry about seeing the ground - it's overrated!

Think outside the box


"Also, the next flight after this is a local area flight- slow flight, stalls, ground ref, steep turns, landings, etc...so the ground would be nice to see."


Why not have done this lesson first, call it an incomplete due to the ground ref and landings and complete those few maneuvers on your severe clear VFR cross country day by diverting to the practice area (hey you can practice diverting too) on your way back from your $50 cheeseburger.

Not knowing the weather for the the day, I took a guess with >>> "Perhaps a few miles over is severe clear and you can bang out some ground ref maneuvers or patterns; chances are that the entire state of florida isn't IMC."

Just some of the things I've used to finish people up.

Unfortunately Embry-Riddle requires all lessons to be done in order. I'm still waiting to get that second CC done, then after that is a simulator ride, then an oral, then two night flights.

Here's an addition to my story:

I've been on the flights schedule every morning for over three weeks right? Welp, Tuesday and Wednesday were my IP's days off. Guess what the weather was like? Thats right, clear and a million....

So Thursday rolls around, and its overcast at 500 feet.

Today's Friday, and my instructor decided to put me on for the afternoon (1430) as opposed to the morning. Maybe the WX would cooperate....welp....this morning/right now its clear and a million...forecast for 1500 is winds 25G35KT, 2SM, +TSRA..................

Dude,
you need to come to SoCal...

Well at least I can do things in whatever order I/my instructor decide...

SUCCESS! Thunderstorms were scheduled to come through today, but they never developed. Visibility was crappy- but thats good news! Stable air! We finally got up and flew south to Melbourne, and did a HORRIBLE touch-and-go. I made up for it with a couple good ones at a local field on the return trip.

Damn feels good to be flying again