The Daily Parker

I passed my solo cross-country check ride on 18 July 1999. In theory, I could have flown my two required solo cross-country flights the next weekend, and finished up the other required flights and my FAA check ride the following two weekends.

I finished the private pilot certificate requirements on 17 October 1999 but I couldn't take my check ride for weeks because of the friggin' weather. (In fact, my first attempt got scrubbed for weather.)

My flight school had certain minimum standards for weather. It required winds less than 22 km/h for solo flights, and in addition, for local solo flights:

• ceilings must be 3,000 ft (950 m) or higher, and
• visibility must be 5 mi (8 km) or better.

For cross-country solo flights:

• ceilings must be 5,000 ft (1500 m) or higher,
• visibility must be 7 mi (11 km) or better, and
• the flight must leave the ground by 09:00, even if the weather will obviously improve later.

And for any flight with an instructor:

• ceilings must be 2,000 ft (650 m) or higher, and
• visibility must be 3 mi (5 km) or better.

So this shows why I have cancelled so many flights this summer. A  green  box means the weather met the requirement. A  yellow  box means the weather met the requirement for local, but not cross-country, flight. A  red  box means the weather officially sucked.

This table shows exactly how the weather sucked at 09:00—the solo cross-country dispatch time—on the days when I could otherwise have flown since my cross-country check ride. (The weather shown is the weather for Essex County Airport).

* An accident at 7:51 local time at the departure end of Rwy 22 forced the airport to close for most of October 2. The NTSB preliminary report strongly suggests pilot error caused the crash which injured five people, three seriously.

** That's the 9 am weather. By 3 pm, the scheduled start of my FAA practical test, the weather sucked. I postponed the flight portion of the practical test, and instead went up with an instructor to practice difficult crosswind landings.

*** Notice, will you, that until the 27th the weather completely sucked. The examiner went on vacation the morning of the 27th, and returned December 7th. Notice the weather in New York while he vacationed in Florida. Figures.