Well, it's sunny. The clouds are high up. Can we fly?

I think all those people who have been blown about out there will be aware it could be marginal.

Let's have a look at the current wind

320/30G35.

That means that the wind is coming from the direction 320, and is blowing at 30 knots whilst gusting up to 35 knots. Can we fly a Cessna 172 in this?

Every training organisation has its book of rules, called the 'Pilot's Flying Order Book'. You should be asked to read and sign it wherever you fly and this lays down the rules of the club or organisation. One of the pages will be entitled weather minima, and this lays down as part of that the maximum wind for flight. For example, in the MSH Flight Training PFO Book, a PPL Holder should not fly in a Cessna 152 or Cessna 172 if the maximum wind is in excess of 20 knots. You can go flying with an instructor though, as their maximum is 35 knots.

But what about the crosswind component? In the book, the maximum crosswind component for a Cessna 172 is 15 knots. If we are departing from runway 34, that means that we will have a wind of 40 knots which is 20 degrees off the nose. Does that exceed the crosswing component?

Well, if you would like to know the answer, and more importantly, how to work it out then pop and see us - we would be happy to share it with you! We can show you via graph and give you Mark's handy method for working it out accurately and simply in your head.

In the meantime we suggest concentrating on the Groundschool and getting those pesky PPL written exams out the way so you can concentrate on the flying instead!

There is an old phrase which sprang to mind this morning: "Rain before 7.00, sun before 11.00".

Now on the face of it, this seems quite odd. The idea that it is belting it down at 6am (it was) should lead to sunshine later makes little sense, but here we are now at just gone nine in the morning with sunshine streaming through the windows. It seems to work. Quite a few of these old sayings do work, and, though I am sure the people long ago who thought of these things did not have the detailed meteorology websites we have now, their phrases seem to be at least as accurate.

In this mornings case, the rain was caused by an occluded front moving through. As it has now passed we have a period of at least a little sunshine, though it is very windy. This is shown on the weather chart by the isbars being close together.

There are troughs about, so we will get some pretty unsettled weather too. I don't think it will be sunny for long.

Foreigners wonder why we in this country are so obsessed with the weather. The answer to them is probably because we get so much of it to talk about!

Another day with fog and low cloud so it looks like there will be no flying today. Plenty of opportunity for groundschool so if you would like a ground briefing don't hesitate to call. Though the PPL ground exams do require study, they are not 'rocket science' and so (as long as you have read the books) we can get you through them as long as you spend some briefing time with us first.

For people considering starting training or wanting to find out more about flying as either 'for fun' or as a career, we are holding an MSH Open Day on Sunday 18th April. This will be held at Land's End Airport and will be a chance to ask questions, see a presentation and also look over the aircraft we have. There will also be a chance to book flights too if that's what you would like to do!

Good example of localised weather today. It was not possible to see the top of the wind turbines at Chiverton, near Truro this morning due to low cloud but Mount's Bay was bright and sunny!

Though it may not look too bad there it is not really good enough for training this at Land's End and is forecast to get worse. Never mind!

If you are a PPL, perhaps time to now consider getting the IMC rating if you have not already.

In case I have not made it clear in previous blogs, the new Southern England charts are in (1:500,000). If you have got an old one it is time to update it! ~we have them in stock.

There is also a glaringly bad mistake they have made on the chart; A cup of Christine's lovely hot chocolate to all those who spot it!

Useful day for Ground school today. Rob has been flying with Mark and has spent some time studying Air Law; he will take the exam pretty soon.

Tee-shirts, polo shirts and fleeces are now available with MSH Flight Training, Land's End Airport on them. Give us a shout if you would like to order some!

The weather is still pretty poor at the moment, so not a lot of flying going on.

On the plus side we are meeting tonight as usual at the Queens Hotel. There is opportunity to have one-to-one groundschool if you like, chance to take written exams or just to talk aeroplances all evening. There is also chance to order one of the new MSH Flight Training fleeces, tee-shirts or polo shirts as we have just had samples delivered.

The initial forecast for tomorrow morning is positive - looks like sunshine at 9.00am. If you can come in tomorrow ring now!

Not flying at the moment, there is a slow moving front off the North Coast which has brought the cloudbase down below limits. It is not expected to clear up today.

In the meantime, it is a good time to consider groundschool. Commonly one of the most frustrating things for pilots undertaking their PPL is their flying being held up because they have not got around to getting the written exams out of the way. For example, if you are ready to go solo it is important that you have passed your Air Law exam first.

Use this time to get all the exams out of the way then you will be able to concentrate on the flying - we are available to help if you need any assistance with ground school!

I have posted a pilot workshop tip on our Facebook page. It is a very useful little discussion article with some feedback from other pilots below. Sadly it won't let me post it here for some reason. Add yourself as a friend on Facebook and you should get the updates.

If you are not on Facebook it is quite simple to set it up, though personally I do not like putting too many personal details like date of birth into it as you could be at risk of someone borrowing your identity without your permission!

As one of our team has been off, we have been a little stretched to keep the blog up to date for the last week.

It was a busy week even with the weather and congratulations are due to those who have taken ground exams. Nearly all have taken their Human Performance now (and passed!) and one or two have now passed the Met exam.

It looks like the weather will be changeable this week; it will be difficult to say whether a flight lesson will be on or off until the due time I am afraid. This morning for example I have encountered fog, rain, high cloud and then sunshine on the way to Land's End! Do ring us if you are unsure what the weather is doing close to your flight lesson time, or you have a distance to travel.

Another fine day today; wind calm and sunny skies. The advice from the met office seems to be to take advantage of it now as later in the week the high pressure system will move to France with a low pressure coming in off the Atlantic to replace it with more unsettled weather. Let's see what happens!



We have been reviewing the Groundschool sessions held on a Thursday night at the Queen's Hotel. Though these have been very successful and the presentations informative and interesting, we realise that we are getting ahead of the studying of the students attending.

This week we were planning to do Navigation, but it is clear that most are still getting their head around the subjects we have already covered, and are yet to take exams in subjects such as Air Law or Communication.

Therefore, we will change the format for this week's Groundschool: instead of Navigation, this week we will revisit Air Law and go through the presentation again and deal with any questions. As before, there will be the opportunity to take the exam if you are ready. We hope that this will help most of our students - apologies to those people who have already taken Air Law - but if you have any comments please do feed back!

Back to the sunshine again - this is most unusual for February and March!

Les is in today at 1.00pm, and we have an aircraft to deliver at 4.00pm but we can fit you in if you would like to fly today.

Currently no wind whatsoever, but it has been blowing NE so we are using runways 34 or 07.

It was a very good day yesterday, but an occluded front to the South has brought the cloudbase down to about 700-800 feet. It is starting to clear and should be flyable for training around lunchtime I am guessing.

If you wish to take a PPL exam come on in if you would like to - someone is available to either help you with groundschool or set you up to sit the exam.

If you are up for some networking, and enjoying a special occasion the Queen's Hotel in Penzance is holding a Charity Ball in aid of The Cornwall Air Ambulance. Tickets are £25 per person and MSH Flight Training is donating a flight lesson voucher as part of the auction they are holding.

More details are available on www.queens-hotel.com under 'Spring Charity Ball'; should be a good night!

Best day of the year so far - no cloud, warming up, gentle breeze to help get off the ground. Wonderful! Well done to Barry who had a great lesson this morning and made great progress with the circuits. If you want to come and fly, we have aircraft available this afternoon so give us a call!

Also we now have the March edition of 'Loop' arrived this morning. Come and get a copy if you would like one. There is usually something interesting in it.

We are not having a teaching night tonight; it is just a chance to come and have social time with like minded people, and talk about aeroplanes. There is an opportunity to take a ground exam or ask questions if you would like; everyone is welcome, the more the merrier!

Layer of cloud today. This feels unusual now as we are getting used to all the sun we have had recently.

It is still 'stable' weather though; we still have a high pressure over us and the wind is still from an Easterly direction (080 at 10 knots as we write). This is opposed to the usual Westerly we have that sweeps moist air off the Atlantic giving us wetter weather. Apparently Easterlies are not good for fishermen, but we aviators have no complaints!

Andrew is in this morning flying G-EOLX with Tim flying this afternoon - we do still have G-OCPC if anyone feels the urge to aviate. Give us a call!

Another sunny day - totally cloudless here at the moment. The wind has also dropped too; currently 5 knots so ideal for training. G-EOLX is available late morning so give us a call if you would like to fly.

In case you have not seen them, there are some interesting tips on flying available. We have put them on the MSH facebook page as we don't seem to be able to put them on the blog here; we won't post all of them as they come from the USA and they do some things (such as the radio) differently but the advice they have on taxying, for example, is the same whether you are in West Cornwall or Western Australia!

On another note, if you are a reader of LOOP aviation magazine, it is normally £2.75 per issue according to the cover. We have a stock sent to us when they come out so if you would like to take a copy from us feel free (If you decide then to leave it in your local golf club, dentist surgery or wine bar to attract future pilots to take up flying then all the better!)

Beautiful, beautiful cloudless sunny day today. Andrew took advantage of it this morning for a flight in G-EOLX, which was a good move as now the wind has picked up and is gusting 28 knots.

G-EOLX has now gone in to workshops for the rest of the day for its 50 hour check. This is a bit like an aircraft MOT, except it is dictated by usage rather than a measurement of time. It is a chance also to rectify any little niggles noticed along the way and do a service. It has to be conducted by properly licensed and regulated workshops - fortunately this means 'the hangar next door' for us with G-EOLX which also means she should be back tomorrow morning barring any unforeseen problems.

G-OCPC is also available and flying well, though we are hampered by the wind somewhat at the moment.

An interesting point came up this week at the school. One of our students was looking to improve radio work by listening to the frequencies on a scanner but hadn't got around to buying one yet.

Being helpful, we pointed out that there is a web-site called www.liveatc.net. This is a fascinating site; it allows you to listen to live transmissions from control towers from all over the world often in live real-time.

Sadly, though, this is all over the world but NOT the UK. Apparently the Wireless and Telegraphy Act prohibits listening to air traffic control transmissions in this country (even if on the web) so there is no prospect at the moment of going on the web to listen to Culdrose Approach or Newquay radar. Though 'liveatc' is an interesting site, don't be tempted to try and learn from what you hear as radio procedures are very different in other parts of the world (especially the US).

There are CDs available giving radio procedure training; if anyone is interested we will look into them for you.

Wow - what a day yesterday was! Apart from the coolness when you were out of the aeroplance it was like a summers' day. The runways are now in great condition but still a little shorter than normal in the summer.

We have a layer of cloud this morning but it is relatively high and will not affect training.

Wonderful day weatherwise so lots of flying going on; not a lot of time to blog but quickly: don't forget the groundschool tonight - Meteorology (should be very good!) and, if you would like to fly call us if you can. The weather doesn't often come as sunny as it is going to be for the next few days!

Overcast today at Land's End, but the cloud base is high and so is fine for our purposes doing flight training. It is a little breezy for operation in the circuit.

Trial lessons are booked this morning and PPL training this afternoon but there are slots available if you would like to join us to aviate!

Cessna 172 G-EOLX on the tarmac at Lands End

We think we are getting the weather we should have had last August now. There is a high pressure system over the country and with not many isobars it is not only sunny but pretty calm too.

Come down to Lands End and take advantage of it if you can!

Great day today - Tim had a really good flight! Not looking bad for tomorrow - give us a call if you would like to go up.

Just as an aside we have just spoken to the chart suppliers and a new chart is now available for Southern England. If you would like us to order one for you drop us an email or call.

Beautiful here for flight training; weather is great with little wind to test students. This is good unless you are intending to practice approaches in wind/crosswind. Looks like we missed the worst of that low pressure system; it headed off East instead and hit continental Europe. It should be quite stable for the next few days weatherwise.

Both aircraft are up and ready today. Check the calendar and that should be up to date with who is coming in.