Weather Page:

IMPORTANT - New students, please scroll down to the 'Weather Suitable For Teaching' section. You must understand what kind of weather we're looking for when teaching. What you may see as a nice flying day DOES NOT necessarily mean it will be safe for teaching beginners - your safety is far more important to us than your money.

Weather Links

The following weather links give a whole cross section for you to choose from. You will eventually find your own favourites. We've divided them into categories to try and make life a little easier for you.

If you're a new pilot, start with the Met Office local charts to get to grips with the basics, then as your knowledge increases you'll naturally start looking for more information. Weatherjack's tutorials would be a good place to start with. Learning about soundings is a good way to help you understand stability (which is very important to us for safety) and what is happening in the place we want to play (the sky).

If you're still learning to fly, please don't baffle yourself with all this information - you only need to know the basics to get you to Club Pilot and your instructor will help you to learn these.

IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ AND UNDERSTAND THE FOLLOWING:

Weather Suitable for Teaching

One of the most frustrating things for the new pilot to get to grips with is the weather; especially when we cancel a day's flying and as far as the new student is concerned it's a glorious day and you don't understand why it's been cancelled.  Here are a few pointers to help you understand why some days are suitable for teaching and others are not:

Firstly, We Want Smooth Air

To fly as a beginner (especially for the first few days) you want conditions that are going to make life easier for you.  You will want nice smooth air that isn't too gusty and preferably with a slight breeze.  Strong or gusty wind is the new pilot's enemy and if you were to fly on such days it will eventually cause you serious injury or kill you.

When you fly a paraglider, the wing is over twenty feet above you. Because of this, a gust of wind will 'nose up' the glider and push it back behind you. Gravity will then swing you back underneath the wing and it will dive forward (and occasionally collapse) in an attempt to regain its airspeed. If at this point you are close to the ground, you will hit it very hard. Once you have gained some experience you will have learnt how to deal with this 'pitching moment'. It is this reason alone why on some days you will see experienced pilots flying in conditions that the beginner should most definitely NOT be flying in.

Ideally, for your EP course we will want wind that is less than 7mph and with no more than a ten per cent gust factor. This is difficult to forecast without detailed knowledge of the weather and our local topography. As a rough guide; if the BBC or Met Office local forecast says it will be 5mph or less we'll be in with a chance.

When you start your CP course you will be able to cope with stronger conditions of up to 10mph with no more than a fifteen per cent gust factor. Again, a TV forecast should be typically 7-8mph.

Easterly wind is always stronger than forecast and is nearly always turbulent and gusty, so if there is an easterly element in the direction i.e. NE, E or SE - a good rule would be to double the forecast wind strength.

What Are Thermals?

When the ground is heated by the sun, it in turn heats the air that is in contact with it.  Once this 'bubble' of warm air is buoyant enough it will detach itself from the ground and climb skywards. The glider pilot uses his skill to stay within this 'bubble' and fly up to the clouds and off on 'cross-country' flights.  The colder the air and the warmer the sun, the stronger the thermals will be.  As a thermal leaves the ground it pulls in air from all around it to fill the void that has been left.  This is why it is often very gusty on sunny days.

Spring

Believe it or not, spring can be our worst season of the year.  This is why: In springtime (especially on cloudless nights); the overnight temperature drops very low - often to only a couple of degrees or lower.  The following day we end up with lovely warm sunshine and the sky fills with nice fat cumulus clouds.  This is fantastic news for experienced and 'current' pilots looking to fly cross country because it will mean great flying (although very turbulent).

However, for newer pilots or those under training it is VERY bad news.  This makes the air very turbulent and thermic (because of that big difference in overnight and daytime temperatures), which means your wing is much more likely to have a big collapse.  Low level collapses are rarely recoverable in time and you'll probably be too low to have a successful reserve parachute deployment (students don't fly with these for the first few days anyway).  This is why there are more injuries in flying clubs in springtime than there are in the other nine months of the year put together. 

Summer

Summer in the UK is very variable; some years are brilliant for teaching and others are not.  The reasons are the same as for spring if we have a colder airmass (northerly winds), but it can also be like the autumn if we have southerly or south westerly winds. 

Autumn

Normally the better time of year for beginners - the thermals tend not to be as strong, so conditions are calmer and the days are still long enough to get a good day's flying in. Winds tend to be a little warmer and come in from a southerly or south westerly direction.

Winter

Although in winter our days are shorter, more often than not we get good teaching weather.  Although it can be a little chilly, a pair of gloves and a woolly hat is all that's needed to make a good day.

The reason is very simple; as there is very little difference between overnight and daytime temperatures there is very little thermic activity.  It's still there, but a lot weaker so it doesn't bother us.

Wet Weather

We can't fly when it's raining or snowing. The reason is because water changes the way a wing flies (you'll learn more about this under training). Basically, a wing (especially a paraglider) is much more likely to stall (stop flying and fall out of the sky) when it is wet.

Of course, this follows if the ground is soaking wet too because the paraglider wing will pick up moisture from the ground. It also takes a long time to dry them and putting them away wet will destroy the fabric.

Visibility

The CAA rule that we can only fly at our airfields when it is 'clear of cloud with an inflight visibility of 3km throughout and at completion of launch'.

Controlled Airspace

Our main training airfield and soaring slope is within Salisbury Danger Area and it is up to the military as to when we can and can't use them (this airspace is closed to all other civil aviation - we're very lucky to be able to use it).

We must seek permission from Salisbury Operations every time we fly - the last thing we want to do is get hit by a fast jet on a bombing run at over 1000mph. Because of this there are times when we can't fly even if the weather forecast is good.

There are also a couple of weekends per year when the owner of the airfield uses it as a meeting place for a squadron of Tiger Moths. Needless to say we would be in their way so we can't fly then either.

Summary

Once you've completed a day or two's days training, it will soon become clear to you why the right weather is so important for your safety and you'll also begin to understand our frustration (yes, all of us) with it.  You must remember; that it is in our best interest to get you flying - the last thing we want to do is cancel a day. We want you to complete your training as soon as possible so that we can move you on to the next course and hopefully sell you some equipment too. Only a fool would think we would cancel a day's flying for any reason other than unsuitable weather. If we're not out teaching; we're simply not earning.

We know it's frustrating when you're learning and you can't always understand why the flying has been cancelled, but rest assured it is for your safety.  It is well known that some schools will teach in quite strong conditions and put your life and limbs at risk for their profit, but our CFI has one of the best school safety records in the UK (he's often accused of being overcautious) and he will not risk your life or limbs for profit - you'll just have to be patient and wait for the right weather conditions - you will get there eventually; it just takes some commitment on your part.

A Final Point

It is very annoying when the occasional student questions our judgement with the weather. You are after all paying us for our expertise so that you can learn safely - why would you ever question it? We will only take you out to fly when it is SAFE to do so.

It may be nice in your back garden or looking out of your office window, but that's not where we will be flying. It's the weather conditions on our airfields and training sites that are important. Often a really nice looking day will be completely unsuitable on our sites.  Flying conditions are affected by local topography, barometric pressure, wind direction, proximity to frontal systems, type of airmass, atmospheric stability, temperature and local turbulence etc.

This is all taken into consideration when we make the decision to fly or not. We don't just look at the TV weather arrows and approximate wind strength; it takes a lot more than that to make the decision.  Our Chief Flying Instructor has been watching the weather and making decisions about when to fly since 1985, so he’s no novice.

For the foolish amongst us who choose to fly paragliders in stronger weather conditions, we'd just like to remind them of this well-known aviation saying:

"There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots."