Weather watch

The aspect of suitable weather to fly in is not only a consideration for the newly licensed pilot and the low-hours flyer, but more so for a student pilot and his instructor.

For the instructor, getting a student to the solo stage is a major personal achievement. The instructor will normally brief the student and review the weather before sending the student for that first solo circuit of the local patch. At all times the motto is ‘proceed with caution’.

In an ideal world a mild constant wind straight down the strip would be great. No crosswind and no gusts. After the first solo the idea is that the weather limits are slowly raised so the student is gradually coping with increasingly different weather conditions.

At all times the instructor needs to state the weather limits so there are no misunderstandings in anyone’s mind.

The weather conditions given to me at flight school many years ago are still the limits I use today. A maximum of 8kt of crosswind. The wind a maximum of 20kt with no more than 10 knots of gusts. The visibility to be a minimum of 8 km. The cloud base to be not less than 1500ft AGL in circuit and not less than 2500ft AGL in the training area. Visibility again to be not less than 8km.

Some students are able to cope with higher limits and others you have to wonder about. And worry about.

It is worthwhile getting the student to experience a higher crosswind component when flying dual so in the event of the crosswind increasing while the student is out solo then they have had experience to counter that.

Usually the wind speed decreases towards last light but that is a good time to have the solo student comfortably on the ground, be they a circuit pattern or training area solo student. The area solo student is one to be careful with. Weather changes and if it changes while the student is in the training area the change may be outside their normal experience level when they return to home base.

For the cross-country navigation student I like to see them on the ground a minimum of one hour before last light and add an extra half hour for each 100 miles distance from home. For those reasons alone it is best to get navigation students away as early as possible in the day, weather allowing.

Sending a student cross-country is a serious undertaking. The outcome of the flight should be known before the student steps into the aircraft. Even then the instructor has a certain level of concern until the student has returned and is on the ground.

“Weather changes and if it changes while the student is in the training area the change may be outside their normal experience level…”

The cross-country weather needs to be checked and rechecked.

This instructor is aware of two cases – one in the UK and one local – where the weather was marginal or unflyable but the student was still signed out. In the UK case the student tried to push on and bounced off a hill. End of story. In the local case the foreign student also bounced off a hill. She survived and was rescued the next day. Without doubt there will have been other solo flights with first or low-time students that did not go as planned.

As the student approaches GFPT or PPL test time it is a must to expose them to more weather situations and to raise the solo limits. The instructor is also keen to have the student be able to read the forecast, hear the ATIS and make a sound judgement call. Having a student say no to going flying can be a good decision. As some instructors say, ‘I like a (weather) conservative student’.

Obviously it is not in the best interests of the student to fly in only good weather. They need to get an appreciation of higher crosswind and marginal VFR conditions while flying dual if only to know what they can and cannot fly in.

An ideal flight training airport is one that experiences a variety of weather conditions. This improves pilot decision-making and helps gain additional flight skills.

It may be that sometimes the student wants to fly on a day when the instructor is not present. In this situation a proxy approval may be given. That proxy approval should have written weather limits. The student needs to be briefed by an experienced instructor before the flight, even if the weather is good. For the cross-country student to be briefed by the student’s instructor is better than being briefed by just another instructor.

Remember, if it all goes pear-shaped the first person to be quizzed will be the student’s instructor.

Contact Dave by email at [email protected].