We have a lot of great flying weather in Arizona, but not a lot of good weather for IFR practice. In the
late summer, the "monsoon" season brings a convective afternoon thunderstorm pattern. The winter
storms are usually no good for IFR because of the cold temperatures and icing potential. Most of the
MEA's are up around 10,000 ft., so it's hard to stay below the icing level. We did have a low overcast
for several days earlier this month, which was very unusual. The best solution: enjoy the good weather
for what it is, and fly over to southern California for some actual IMC.

Mike

"C Kingsbury" wrote:

Well, I'm from Boston so that's my frame of reference. The way I
understand it, out in those parts you get two kinds of weather: VMC,
and Don't Even Think About It, at least not in a 172.

"XMnushaL8y" wrote in message
...
"C Kingsbury" cwkingsbury wrote:
Another angle on this might be that most of the
accelerated ab-initio programs are in places like
Florida or Arizona that basically don't have
weather

I don't know about Florida, but AZ basically doesn't have weather?? I
missed
the first part of this thread, but this sentence caught my eye. Ever
been
to AZ
June-Sept? or more recently, during the first part of this month? It
isn't
like
Seattle, and it's a common *mis*conception, but assuming AZ even
*basically*
doesn't have weather could get ya into a heap-a-trouble.