It was very windy today. Adam made me figure the crosswind and headwind components--to be sure I could do it, and also probably so it would be as if I were the one deciding it was too windy to fly. Later on, I noticed that nobody was flying today. There were ground lessons going on in at least two other instructors' cubicles. And when we went back to check the weather computer, I saw two pilots in uniforms sacked out on couches in the lounge, evidently waiting out the weather before flying home, or wherever they wanted to go.
Once, one of the women behind the counter cried out "Oh, look" and pointed out toward the runway. I turned and saw six deer bounding along. They crossed in front of us, heading north in the grass between the runway and the taxiway, and then turned and bounded into the woods north of the hangers. All together, I saw them run probably three or four hundred yards, not bounding as high as antelope, but going very fast.
Adam missed seeing the deer, as he was printing out a combination METAR and TAF. You get that by entering PI RIC. (Print Info Richmond?)
That printout was very interesting to me. There were three METARs and just below them, a TAF. With the reports and the forecast close together I could see for the first time how useful they are (despite the compressed format that requires you to decipher, rather than read).
Later we printed out a winds aloft report (by entering FD RIC), and
Adam helped me figure out how to decipher it, too. I can get most
of it now, but still need to work to get it all. A lot of the abbreviations
are just not intuitive at all. To put it mildly.