The slow moving cold front was still west of State College but due to arrive in our area about 2:00pm. I decided that we could go if I altered our lesson plan and skipped ahead to introduce landings. I thought we could stay at the airport and do 3 or 4 landings before the bad weather arrived. There was no defined ceiling but there were layers of scattered clouds at 2000' and above. Visibility was good. When the student arrived he mentioned that he was surprised I said "Go".
The preflight went well and as we finished the Run-Up it started to rain. Just a local shower. A small cell. We launched.
 |
| Rain |
During the crosswind leg I looked over my left shoulder toward Quakertown. The rain shower was beautiful, but we weren't going to practice landings there for awhile. Instead we headed for the relatively clear air out east toward Lake Nockamixon. I took advantage of the situation by describing the weather functions on the 696, pressed the nearest button to display the closest alternate airports and discussed the dangers of getting too close to rain showers that you can't see through.
Eventually the cell moved to the south and provided a window for us to get back in. We didn't follow the lesson plan but hopefully the student gained much more from the real life experience.
Video Notes:
Rain
#pipersport
Nothing beats the real thing. A great teaching moment and the student can tie the avionics to the what the eyeballs are looking at.
ReplyDelete