I had already made an appointment with my instructor Piet, and booked the plane in the new booking system for Friday, Janusry 3rd. I had been saving up my leave days at work, so that I can use them for flying lessons as I need them, and this Friday was a day my company was closed, so I decided to start my PPL lessons on that day, to make best use of my "forced" day off.
Now, there's 4 things a student pilot needs for a flying lesson: Daylight (check), Plane (check), Instructor (check), and well enough weather.
The days leading up to Friday the 3rd did not show very good weather. And just as I decided to check the weather forecast Thursday evening, I got an email with the weather forecast from Piet. It's usually not very good news, when an instructor sends you the forecast...
[Translated from Dutch] "... Wind: before the occlusion Southeast to South, along the coast 20-25 knots, Ijsselmeer (near Lelystad, where I fly) 25-30 knots. After the occlusion has passed, South to South-West. Gusts up to 10 knots above the average value".
The clublimit is set for 30 knots, measured in gust speed. If the forecast to exceed 30 knots during the projected flight time, the Pilot In Command must cancel the flight. And so early in the course, we apply bigger margins, of course. The wind alone was reason enough to cancel my lesson. Apart from that, there were isolated thuderstorms, some with hail. These were localised, and temporary in nature, so chances were that we could perhaps avoid them with careful planning and observation, but again, that's not how you want to fly your first lesson.
So, my first flight for 2014 was postponed for a week or so. Next week Sunday, we'll give it another try. I at least have had everything in my flightbag in my hands again, charged the batteries of my camera and remote, put the batteries in my headset again, and fluffed Co Pilot.
I'm ready to fly; bring on the good weather!
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| Co Pilot |
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