Personal Weather Minimums

We require 3000' and five miles visibility for all student solo flights,
with maximum crosswinds of six knots. I recommend that new private pilots
maintain those minimums for some time, preferably until they start their
instrument training.

"C J Campbell" wrote
We require 3000' and five miles visibility for all student solo flights,
with maximum crosswinds of six knots. I recommend that new private pilots
maintain those minimums for some time, preferably until they start their
instrument training.

As a contrasting opinion, I consider those limitations appropriate to
a newly soloed student who is still having problems with crosswind
landings and navigation by pilotage, and that's about all. They are
both overly restrictive for most normal conditions and overly
simplistic. I would consider sending someone to the checkride who
actually needed such limitations for safety to be a gross abdication
of instructor responsibility. Such minimums are absolutely not
appropriate for a certificated pilot. I wouldn't even accept an
instrument student who needed (or felt he needed) such weather
minimums.

Personal minimums are a lot more complex than a simple statement of
ceiling, vis, and crosswind component. What constitutes an acceptable
ceiling greatly depends on terrain, obstructions, and visibility under
the ceiling. It also depends a lot on WHY the ceiling is what it is,
and what it can reasonably be expected to do as the flight progresses.
Over flatlands in good vis and stable weather, 3000 is clearly
excessive. In the mountains in poor vis, it may not be nearly enough.

Adequate visibility is another can of worms. Five miles (or even
three) is plenty in daylight, well above terrain, over land, if
navigation can be assured (either by following a road or
electronically). Try that trick over water or desolate terrain at
night, and your instrument attittude flying skills better be in good
shape.

Crosswinds are similarly complicated. A competent pilot really
shouldn't need ANY crosswind minimum. Obviously this does not mean
that he should be able to handle unlimited crosswinds - nobody can do
that. However, it DOES mean he should be able to reliably asess the
approach and landing he is making, and make the decision to go around
in a timely manner. With experience, most pilots develop a feel for
what they can and can't handle, depending on the airplane, runway, and
other variables.

Michael

On Mon, 1 Dec 2003 08:15:36 -0800, "C J Campbell"
wrote:

We require 3000' and five miles visibility for all student solo flights,
with maximum crosswinds of six knots. I recommend that new private pilots
maintain those minimums for some time, preferably until they start their
instrument training.


That would effectively ground me for most of the summer. Things just
don't get that good visibility wise in the PHL area in the hot months.
Rich Russell

C J Campbell wrote:

We require 3000' and five miles visibility for all student solo flights,
with maximum crosswinds of six knots. I recommend that new private pilots
maintain those minimums for some time, preferably until they start their
instrument training.

If all you're going to be doing is day trips, I suppose this is OK, but you
will never be able to handle anything worse if you don't go up in adverse
conditions. I have no argument with those who have a minimum of 3000' and five
(though you won't fly much around here unless you drop that to 2000' and five),
but a pilot needs to learn to handle strong winds, IMO.

Now, if you're used to six knots max, don't pick a day when it's 15 gusting to
20 to get more experience, but within a year of getting your ticket, you should
be able to handle 15 gusting to 20.

George Patterson
Some people think they hear a call to the priesthood when what they really
hear is a tiny voice whispering "It's indoor work with no heavy lifting".

Hmm, 3k feet. You'd be pushed to find a clutch of weekends
here in the UK where you'd get 3k consistently. And where I
learned in Florida, we seldom had less than a 6kt crosswind.

Paul

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...
We require 3000' and five miles visibility for all student solo flights,
with maximum crosswinds of six knots.

"C J Campbell" wrote in message ...
We require 3000' and five miles visibility for all student solo flights,
with maximum crosswinds of six knots. I recommend that new private pilots
maintain those minimums for some time, preferably until they start their
instrument training.

Just out of curiousity, what do you recommend with regard
to runway length?

Cheers,
Sydney

"Snowbird" wrote in message
om...
| "C J Campbell" wrote in message
...
| We require 3000' and five miles visibility for all student solo flights,
| with maximum crosswinds of six knots. I recommend that new private
pilots
| maintain those minimums for some time, preferably until they start their
| instrument training.
|
| Just out of curiousity, what do you recommend with regard
| to runway length?


Our school requires instructor permission for runways of less than 2000
feet. The FBO does not allow operation of any of its aircraft from unpaved
runways, although I can take my own airplane anywhere I want. We also
require that rented airplanes stay within Washington, Oregon, and Idaho,
although exceptions are made on a case by case basis.

I also will not sign off on a cross country that takes a student pilot over
the Cascades unless I am satisfied with his mountain flying abilities. The
Cascades are very dangerous for inexperienced pilots. You can find extreme
wind shear, turbulence, blind canyons with unforecast pockets of IFR, and
constant mountain obscuration. But the worst danger is the icing, which is
so bad that when the Concorde was being developed it was brought over here
for testing in severe icing conditions.

Among renter pilots at TIW, special VFR is routine. We get a lot of low
clouds that hang right over the field and you can see sunshine out over the
water just off the end of the runway.

C J Campbell wrote:

We require 3000' and five miles visibility for all student solo flights,
with maximum crosswinds of six knots. I recommend that new private pilots
maintain those minimums for some time, preferably until they start their
instrument training.

I think that a little strict. However, it does raise a problem I noticed
towards the end of my PPL training.

Where I flew too had a limit on soloing students with respect to weather.
It was probably something of the sort you're describing, or perhaps even a
little more strict (I seem to recall 5 kts xwind).

But, after taking the checkride, I was immediately permitted to fly in MVFR.
That seems silly to me. I think that there should be a progression to
"lower" weather, with much attention given - as others here have posted -
to *why* and *what comes next* (ie. are clouds dropping or rising).

Of course, I expect that most of us have followed that progression. But why
no "program" to support this? It could be a part of the PPL, or even a
post-PPL course. It doesn't even need to be regulatory, but just a
recommended set of milestones combining weather flying and weather
knowledge.

In a way, the instrument rating covers some of this. But that doesn't help
someone that, for one reason or another, isn't interested in that rating
(at least at that time).

Actually, this would probably make a good book...except it might be useful
to have local knowledge embedded within such a program.

- Andrew

But, after taking the checkride, I was immediately permitted to fly in MVFR.
That seems silly to me.


Just because it's permitted doesn't make it smart. As pilots, we are expected
to excercise judgement, as student pilots that expectation is somewhat less
(that's why we're not signed off yet). I think it's best that we actually
=get= to excercise judgement, rather than have it excerciesd for us.

Jos

--
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Teacherjh wrote:

Just because it's permitted doesn't make it smart. As pilots, we are
expected to excercise judgement, as student pilots that expectation is
somewhat less
(that's why we're not signed off yet). I think it's best that we actually
=get= to excercise judgement, rather than have it excerciesd for us.

That is a reasonable point. But a course in weather flying, be it pre- or
post-PPL, would still be something useful, I think.

- Andrew