I’m sitting at my desk looking out the window at the snow and sleet falling. Another storm- only a week after the last one. The forecast is for a complete day of heavy snow today tapering off this evening and resuming as snow, sleet and freezing rain tomorrow. That’s due to be followed with a blast of artic air and high winds. It will be clear cold Thursday and Friday until the next expected storm on Saturday.
What a winter. The last one like this was in 1995-1996. I remember that year clearly as it was the first one in our house. My Chevy K2500 pickup was nearly new and equipped with a shiny yellow 7 foot Fisher plow. I got that truck stuck quite a bit the first year as I worked thru my snow plowing learning curve. Towards the end of that winter mounting the plow on the Chevy and plowing the driveway without burying the truck became routine.
Fast forward to December 2010 and to the Christmas blizzard which dumped 20 inches of snow on us. Once again I was flailing against nature, this time with my now sixteen year old Chevy truck. The past few winters have been mild so I was totally unprepared for the storm. But it wasn’t just me; New York City was shut down with large areas of the outer boroughs left unplowed for several days. Listening in on the radio the next day I was amazed at how everyone got caught with their pants down.
A month later I’m watching the weather and while I am somewhat apprehensive about the icing that is forecast for the next 24 hours; the snow to me is a non-event. As my snow removal tasks have become more frequent and necessary I’ve remembered skills that have gone long unused. My recent experience with snow removal has made me proficient and my mindset has become “Bring it on”.
Yes the storms certainly are a pain in the rear end I don’t enjoy them, however, the discomfort I felt back in December has abated. This is a lot like instrument flying. Getting instrument comfortable is more than just getting current. I fly with a few people a month who need to get some approaches in as they’re nearing the 12 month threshold of requiring an IPC. Some of these folks get visibly frustrated as they struggle to accomplish something that they once did quite well. Similar to my experience with plowing, they remember being able to execute the tasks proficiently, yet they forget about the effort required to get to that point.
What I invariably end up explaining is they have not forgotten how to fly on instruments; rather they need to practice instrument flying more than just satisfying the legal minimum. Polishing off your scan, intercepting and tracking courses holding pattern entries and flying approaches is something we should enjoy doing. Making the time is difficult when life schedules, weather and a limited flying budget is factored in. I would suggest coming in and getting some simulator time. Its schedulable, if you want to fly on Tuesday at 2:00 regardless of the weather you’ll be able to fly. It’s cheaper than the airplane as it is not subject to the vagaries of the 100LL commodity market . It’s more productive than the airplane, as we don’t have to worry about conflicting traffic, TFR’s or Air Traffic Control. And by getting current and comfortable when the weather stinks like today you can concentrate on enjoying a guilt free $100 hamburger flight when the weather finally does improve.
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