That's right, the weather royally screwed up my hopes and plans of doing my first solo flight tomorrow afternoon. I got to the OFC a little early in order to study and write my final pre-solo exam, and the weather didn't look good. Still, it didn't look as though the apocalypse was on its way in, but My Instructor said no flying. I tried not to have a temper tantrum, and wrote my test instead. Sure enough, just as I finished up, an insane thunderstorm popped up, seemingly out of nowhere, and attempted to steal the OFC's picnic table and umbrella. The fence caught it though, so that was fine...
The storm was a real whopper, and put paid to a small private hangar around the corner from the club. Luckily no one was hurt and no planes were damaged, although from what I understand, a car got the short straw, and ended up right underneath the hangar's new location.
Thanks to the Tall Estonian for the picture, because once again something interesting happened and I didn't have a camera. The storm lasted for maybe twenty minutes, although it rained for a long time after. I haven't seen so much rain in a long time - most of the taxiways and part of the field were completely covered in a few centimeters of water. I suppose in hindsight it was a good job we didn't go flying. It would have been seriously bad news to get caught up in all of that.
The good news was that I passed my pre-solo exam, although there were a few questions that had me a little stumped. I recalled the practice I learned in university of making something up if you don't know the answer - you are never going to get points for a blank space, after all. I was more than a little amused to watch My Instructor trying to mark it. I could tell what question he was at, based upon the level of WTF readable on his face. But in the end everything was marked up, and we determined that I had made the grade, so we set about getting me a delightful piece of paper which declares that I am, officially, a Student Pilot!
The bad news is that I was going to have another crack at a lesson today in the hopes of still being ready for a solo tomorrow, but once again the weather has other ideas, and we've got another terrific thunderstorm rolling through right now. Schedules for the weekend are not what you could call relaxed, and so now I am looking at my lesson on Tuesday next week, and then my solo on August 12th! I am trying not to be too disappointed, but I had really been looking forward to doing it tomorrow. It feels like I have been waiting for this for ages.
Still, at least the tests are finally out of the way, so I don't have to feel like I need to spend every waking moment studying my face off anymore.
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