Cancellations

February 2, 2011

I am having serious withdrawals today. Winter has been pretty bad the last week or two. I was scheduled to fly Sunday, January 30th, but got to the airport to find that it definitely was not VFR (Visual Flight Rules). In order for me to legally fly, the visibility must be at least 3 statute miles and the cloud ceiling at least 1000ft. But Sunday, the visibility was maybe a mile and the ceiling was around 600ft. It wasn't even good enough to stay in the pattern and practice takeoff and landings. But instead of getting nothing out of the day, I asked Matt if we could do some ground school. So for two hours, we talked about sectional charts, airspace, airplane weight and balance, and went out to the plane and discussed more in depth the preflight inspection and the engine. I'm quite thankful that we did this, I am feeling much more prepared for that final checkride. On another note, that same day I also met a man who owns a gyroplane. We talked for 5-10 minutes and now have an open invitation to fly in his gyroplane! I think I might take him up on that offer once it gets warmer outside. It sounds like a blast!

It's now Wednesday, February 2nd. I was supposed to fly this morning too, and had to cancel. Yesterday, St. Louis was under a Blizzard Warning. A Blizzard Warning?!? I have lived here my whole life and never remember ever being in a Blizzard Warning. The news, NWS, and electric companies were really freaking out. They had televised conferences warning people about the storm, which was something I have never seen them do. With the ice and wind, they expected wide spread power outages. They estimated up to an inch of sleet/freezing rain and up to two feet of snow, with a lot of wind and blackout conditions. People here called it Snowpocalypse 2011 because it was supposed to be a record breaking storm and could've potentially shut down the city. We thankfully lucked out. We ended up getting much more sleet, and less snow. I'm not sure of the totals but I'm guessing at my house, we got around 6" from sleet and snow combined. Farther north and west however, they accumulated 18"+. Everything is covered in ice, and topped with snow. I really wanted to fly today, but it was just too risky to drive out on the back-roads to get to the airport.

I never imagined a day that I felt like I was going to go stir-crazy because I couldn't fly. I'm supposed to go up this weekend and the weather looks like it will cooperate. But by time that day comes, it will be almost two weeks since I've flown. It feels like forever! All I can do is think about flying...