Windy

It appears that my streak of flights without a cancellation is now turning into a streak of bookings without any flying at all. They say that on average 1 in 6 bookings will likely be scrubbed due to a variety of possible factors; weather, the last student late returning with aircraft, etc.

As I got closer to the airport I started to expect that the flight would be dicey at best. The winds were absolutely howling on the highway. I sat in the parking lot reviewing my notes about the circuit for about 30 minutes and watched the other traffic in the pattern. Two helicopters, two Skyhawks, and a fast low wing that I couldn't identify. On the go - both the C172's were rolling constantly while attempting to climb into the wind. It was obvious that the pilots were having a great time fighting everything.

I turned my attention to the ramp and watched an older gent doing a pre-flight on a Skyhawk. The papers in his kneeboard were flapping in the wind, his hair was all over the place, and although the aircraft was positioned into the wind and tied down - the wings were constantly moving. The windsock was absolutely horizontal, and every 10-15 seconds it would move 5-10 degrees in one direction or the other. Flying probably wasn't in my future on this day.

I moved into the club and sat near the dispatch desk so I could hear everyone chatting. The first conversation I heard was an instructor with a student (the older gent I saw doing his pre-flight) who was being told that the winds probably were too strong for them to work on slow flight today (no kidding!). The icing on the cake was when the chief instructor returned from a training flight with another instructor who was doing some multi engine work. Apparently they were both not pleased with the winds.

When I4 showed up he immediately said we weren't going to fly if the winds didn't change. He thought about calling me but wanted to wait to see if they died down - especially based on the last flight getting canned. He made a quick call to his next student who was planning a cross country to tell him the flight was canned. Now we decided to sit and wait. Rather than sit around doing nothing we sat down at one of the briefing stations and did a weather overview.

I'll admit that I haven't really got to the point in my online ground school where I learn something about weather. In fact I was so clueless that I didn't understand most of what I4 was telling me about. Two good things did come out of the 30 minutes we spent together:

1) I need to start learning about the weather. I know how important it is to understand the weather as a pilot, but I didn't realize how little I actually knew. Being able to read a METAR doesn't make you a weather specialist!

2) The NavCanada Flight Planning site is a fantastic resource for weather. In fact one of the coolest things I4 showed me was the live RVR report. Updated every minute, it shows the current winds and gust for every major airport in Canada. The photo attached to this entry shows what the winds were for this day at CYBW (though I did take the screenshot a few days later and had to modify it). Almost straight down the pipe - but 25 knots gusting 41. Hmmmm.... I'm thinking I'll wait for another day.

I'm somewhat down in the dumps since I still haven't had a chance to fly in the circuit, but I know the day will come soon. The weather forecast for this Friday is again showing signs of a Chinook and thus crazy winds. Let's all keep our fingers crossed!