03.09.11
Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. 
Hmmm don't I know it! It has been the bane of my flying life to date. it has held back my solo flights for almost 15 hrs worth of flying meaning I have to squeeze them in now at the end. I have found a useful site though that shows weather RADAR over the UK (Sorry for my non UK followers). Its called 'Raintoday?'. 
So the day went like this, rain rain rain, low clouds rain, no rain, but still low clouds. But what the heck, I'm neither sugar nor salt, I won't dissolve! at least that is what my Mum told me for many years to get me out of the house and out of her hair. With only 900 feet to Cloud Base and only 7 knots of wind the only thing we could do was 'play on the airfield'. We had a good go at Double angle approaches which does exactly what it says on the tin. you approach from two angles the initial being high and shallow then transferring into a steeper angle to the area of landing. This is a key skill for confined space landing. The next was the HOGE approach (High Out of Ground Effect). Essentially what it says, you start High above the Landing zone (LZ) and slowly reduce your height till you eventually, and gently, land. The assosiated risks with this are you may not have enough power to abort the approach depending on weight, atmospherics, altitude or even the way your downdraft is affected by the surrounding obstacles. Always a good idea to mind out how much power you need to hover and also how high you can hover before not being able to climb anymore, bearing in mind not to go above the maximum power limitations for your aircraft. In this case my Instructor Dave got me to limit my power to 27 inches manifold pressure and we climbed till we stopped at about 100 foot above the ground. this we conducted on the airfield before going slightly off the airfield to the neighboring woods to nestle ourselves in a small space. because we had done this check we were confident  that should we have to abort the approach from HOGE without any issues. The hardest part of this maneuver is not being able to see exactly what is below and only using reference points ahead and to either side. Having said that before making any confined area approach it is prudent (stupid not to do) to do a couple orbits of the area at around 500 feet and then again at 300 before making your approach. This enables you time to spot anyone or anything (cows, cars, crows, cables, cabbages etc (not just things that begin with 'C')) moving into the area which would require a go around or to abort the approach. As we did our orbit I could just make out a trailer through the trees so we did an extra couple 'laps of honor' to make sure it was not being used and no one near before going in. Once in and having done practice on the airfield first, we did a towering take off out of the area and round for another go. All in all a very useful and enjoyable exersize. It pulled together consolodated my real world flying and also my Sim flying skills. 
Also on the airfield we did some more Zero-Zero and Run-on landings which all went really well. The finnal thing we did prior to doing confined space was limited power take offs. Apart from the weather it was a very enjoyable flight. Cheers Dave! 


33.5hrs flying at this point, 1hr of which is solo

Pictures and videos to follow