Unlike
driving a car, there's a lot more to flying a plane than most people realize. Regulations,
factoring the weight and balance, weather, etc. As a matter of fact, you can't go through a
stage check, FAA exam, or aviation course without talking about weather.
Thankfully, I enjoy learning about it. If my university started a minor in
weather and meteorology, I'd be the first to sign up. I love learning about clouds
and pressure systems, and seeing them change almost on a daily basis. However,
at times, the weather can be the deciding factor if you fly or not. Funny as it
is, this happened to me today!
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Instrument conditions
over St. Augustine |
Today was the day I was finally going to do my long, cross-country
flight. For those of you that don't know, a cross country flight is one in which you land at an airport more than 50 nautical miles away from your start point. For
our commercial license, we have to do a cross country to an airport that's over 250 nautical miles away. Cross country flights are my favorite; flying new to places,
enjoying the sites, new experiences, and not doing maneuvers over and over
again. Today was going to be that day I head up from Jacksonville to Peach Tree,
Georgia. Peach Tree is right under Atlanta's airspace. Training to be a
commercial pilot, it’d be great experience being around the busiest airport in
the world. As I pull up to the airport in Jacksonville, that sinking feeling
set in; low visibility, low clouds, and instrument conditions. I go inside and talk
to my instructor. As I’m doing so, we go and check out the weather.
As long as most of the flight is in
visual conditions, it's ok if we take off using only instruments. The issue
though was getting back into the airport in the evening. As an instrument rated pilot, I would have
loved to go and get the additional experience in the clouds. However, of the
two aircraft available for this flight, we ended up with the older model. The plane
is more than capable of flying in instrument conditions, but with slightly
older equipment and without a GPS, we may or may not have been able to make it
back into Craig Airfield. I really didn't want to divert and spend the night in
Daytona, so we ended up cancelling the flight.
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| Thunderstorms over Jacksonville |
Weather
is the single biggest reason why a flight will get cancelled at an academy. In fact, just the other day I was headed out
to do a night flight to Sanford, FL. The weather was reporting clear, and the
forecast was calling for some scattered clouds. By the time I got to Craig
Airfield, fog had rolled in and the visibility was less than a mile. While we
could have gotten out, there was no way we would have made it back in, especially
with the weather deteriorating. So it got cancelled. Another situation that isn’t
fun is on days when it's nice outside, but it's really bumpy and not that
comfortable to be in, especially after eating. However weather isn't always bad. Sometimes I get done early cause the winds were in our favor flying back. It gets really interesting when you start approaching Jacksonville and there's a storm system right over it (makes for some cool pictures as you can see to the left). Or when it's clear and a million like the image below and I get to go up and do some maneuvers. It's a love/hate relationship.
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| Clear skies over Daytona Beach |
Weather is huge in the aviation world. It decides how smooth your ride is, how far you will go on a tank of gas, and whether or not you have to divert somewhere else. Weather can get your where you're going faster, or be the reason you never take off: it'll be your best friend, or your worst enemy.
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