Weather Grounded Flight 2: High Winds
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Grounded @ PAO
Aircraft: N/A
Flight hours: N/A
CFI: Garrett Krosse
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Flight and Lesson Summary
Flight grounded due to high winds.
Flight Notes
Two flight cancellations in three days. I may never fly again.
Things aren’t really that bad, but this is certainly great conditioning for coping with disappointment for the rest of my flying years.
I can see how pilots can put themselves in unsafe flying situations by getting a case of “get-there-itis” and taking off even when they’re not equipped to handle the conditions.
Garrett and I opted for a ground lesson to review weather in aviation. I definitely regret dropping that weather and meteorology class in college. I start using two new resources to get raw weather data: AviationWeather.gov and an app called AeroWeather.
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Another aviation club located next to West Valley Flying Club, Max G Aviation, is having an open house with some demo flights going up. Garrett and I walk around looking at planes and talking to other pilots.
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I was still considering taking Garrett up on his constant offer to “go up anyway” until I saw a green-faced demo flight passenger launch himself out of his seat as soon as the fuel to the engine was cut.
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One of the coolest planes out of the hangar is an Extra-300L (Tail# N38XT; pictured above) that can withstand 10 Gs — far exceeding my body’s perceived load limit (and certainly that of the Cessna 172’s I’ve been flying).