Spring Weather...

Mother Nature, like all women... is a very fickle creature :)

The weather today was marginal, certainly no good for the TA, but some solo circuit work looked possible...

So i jumped in JFY and headed up... wind was up a little 15, gusting 20knots... but only about 20 degrees off the runway, so the crosswind component was nothing too scary...

until it became 25knots, gusting 30 and veering all over the place...

I prudently decided to fullstop after 4 circuits (which only took 0.5hours due to the phenomenal tail wind on the downwind legs ;) as JFY was bouncing all over the place and the weather was starting to look nasty...

As I was tying the aircraft down, it started to shower and the wind really picked up... Heading in the clubrooms and one of the instructors informed me there was a 17hectopascal pressure gradient between Christchurch and Auckland... its usually probably closer to around 3 or 4! The bigger the pressure gradient, the higher the winds... not a day for light planes to be in the air!

Lessons learned? Be prepared to change your plans!

This flight: 0.5 Solo
Total Hours: 63.8 (52.5 Dual, 11.3 Solo, 3.0 IFR)