CFI-A Lesson 2 (continued)

Today I went to FlightSafety to complete the flying part of Lesson 2: Four Fundamentals of Flight. This morning, I checked the weather reports. The 'general public' reports said rain in the afternoon. The aviation reports specifically showed a two hour block of bad weather between 2:00 and 4:00. Of course, my flight was scheduled exactly during this time window.

I showed up at the flight line at 12:30. The weather at the time was quite nice. I checked the latest weather reports and nothing had changed. I looked at the animated radar reports and clearly saw the line of storms preceding the cold front that was heading southeast passing over Orlando. It was just a matter of time before it reached Vero Beach.

My instructor arrived a little after 1:00 and we talked about a few items from our last lesson regarding turning tendencies while in a stabilized climb. Then we went through the syllabus and discussed everything that I was expected to cover in this lesson.

At 1:30, I got the tin for the airplane - I wasn't committed to cancelling the flight just yet. I finished my weight and balance and performance calculations. We discussed in some detail the progressive maintenance plan that FlightSafety uses to maintain the aircraft. We hypothesized about various equipment failures and whether or not we could legally fly the plane. I highlighted section 91.213 in the Federal Aviation Regulations for further study.

Flying time arrived and it was time to make the go/no go decision. Here's the weather observations from the time window I was supposed to fly:

KVRB 071753Z 22012G23KT 10SM FEW026 SCT034 BKN080 27/20 A2981 RMK AO2 PK WND 20029/1733 SLP093 T02720200 10278 20200 58023

KVRB 071853Z 24020G27KT 10SM SCT038 28/19 A2979 RMK AO2 PK WND 23031/1843 SLP086 T02830189

KVRB 071953Z 29010KT 4SM RA FEW021 SCT038 BKN060 17/13 A2984 RMK AO2 PK WND 30037/1924 WSHFT 1912 RAB10E13B31 SLP102 P0004 T01720133

KVRB 072053Z 27012G20KT 9SM -RA BKN046 OVC060 18/12 A2987 RMK AO2 RAE1954B46 SLP113 P0000 60004 T01830117 53020

Here's the translation:

1:00PM

Winds from 220 degrees (SW) at 12 knots, gusting 23 knots, 80 degrees Fahrenheit

2:00PM

Winds from 240 degrees (SW) at 20 knots, gusting 27 knots, 82 degrees Fahrenheit

3:00PM

Winds from 290 degrees (NW) at 10 knots, visibility 4 miles in rain, 62 degrees Fahrenheit

4:00PM

Winds from 270 degrees (W) at 12 knots, gusting 20 knots, light rain, 64 degrees Fahrenheit

In all cases, the ceilings were not a factor and the visibility was marginal VFR or better, but looking out the window looked much worse than the reports indicated. The sky turned dark purple, the rain poured down, and the wind pushed the rain across the tarmac. It reminded me of seeing light snow blowing, but was heavy rain, instead. It didn't last all that long, but the timing of it washed out my flight lesson. The most amazing thing to me was the 20 degree (F) temperature drop as the front passed.

Hopefully Friday will be a more typical Florida day.