Archive for April, 2016

Know when NOT to go flying

Friday, April 29th, 2016 | Permalink

I’d been planned up and had Prior Permission to fly into Marshland, a grass strip 6ft below sea level.

EGSC 291250Z 25022G32KT 220V280 9999 VCSH FEW020 SCT049CB 11/M02 Q1007=

That should be all you need to see to make you stop in your tracks and say “Hmm, no, perhaps not today.”

If you don’t read METAR’s yet, it basically says:

“At Cambridge Airport (EGSC) the surface wind is 22 Knots, from 250 degrees, Gusting to 32 Knots – varying anything from straight down the runway to completely cross-wind.   The cloud base is pretty good except for the Cumulonimbus clouds (i.e. You might get Thunderstorms) and even if you don’t, the turbulence in the area is likely to be interesting.”

A Cessna 172 Pilot Operating Handbook says the demonstrated crosswind performance is 15 knots (it also says this is not strictly a limitation of the aircraft, simply what a test pilot has actually shown possible).

Some days especially if you’ve been looking forward to going flying for a while it can be so tempting to try and push your luck.  Maybe it won’t be so bad when you’re up there.

Hmmm…..  as the saying goes:

Better to be down here, wishing you were up there.  Then up there, wishing you were down here.