I’m happy to report that after two days of aviation weather classes I passed the exam yesterday afternoon. It’s reassuring to know that if this flying thing doesn’t pan out I can always fall back on my awesome meteorology skills! All joking aside, the weather is a very important aspect of learning to pilot an aircraft safely. That being said, you might think this an odd time to learn about weather and its impact on flight operations. Fear not! These past two days were actually just a review of the weather theory I had already learned during Aviation Preflight Indoctrination (API)…which was essentially a review of the weather theory I had previously learned during Introductory Flight Screening (IFS)! By now you’d probably expect me to be an expert at determining the current weather conditions (via something called a METAR), forecast weather conditions (called a TAF), and how to use the plethora of other information available (satellite and radar images, prognostic charts, winds aloft forecasts, etc.) to make informed and intelligent decisions about going flying. I hope you can appreciate that interpreting all of this data takes a bit of practice and experience! I went ahead and put a copy of the most recent (as of this posting…not to be used for flight planning!) METAR (highlighted in yellow) and TAF (highlighted in pink) from NAS Whiting Field at the top of this post for your viewing pleasure. I suspect that most people will find them an assortment of odd abbreviations and code with no discernable meaning. A bit of history…this information was originally coded in this manner because it used to be disseminated by “teletype” machines…the machines have changed, but the code remains the same. Here’s hoping that with continued advances in global communications (thanks to Al Gore’s recent invention of the “internet”) someday pilots will be able to read a weather report and forecast without having to break out their “secret decoder ring!” Of course, I’m just being facetious now! In case you’re wondering, the METAR says that at NAS Whiting Field on the 26th day of the month at 8:56 PM Central Standard Time the winds were from the southwest (220 degrees) at four knots. Visibility was ten statue miles. There was a broken cloud layer at 3,000 feet, and another at 10,000 feet. The temperature was 27 degrees Celsius, and the dew point was 22 degrees Celsius. The altimeter setting was 30.18 inches of mercury. Sea level pressure was 1021.5 millibars, and there was continuous lightning in the clouds, cloud to cloud, and cloud to ground in the distance to the north and northeast. Additionally, there were cumulonimbus clouds in the distance to the north and northeast, and thunderstorm condition one was set (which means thunderstorm conditions are possible within one hour or ten nautical miles of the field). Lots of important information in that short strip of code, huh?! Well, its time for me to finish my homework for class in the morning. Have a good one!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
How's the weather?
I’m happy to report that after two days of aviation weather classes I passed the exam yesterday afternoon. It’s reassuring to know that if this flying thing doesn’t pan out I can always fall back on my awesome meteorology skills! All joking aside, the weather is a very important aspect of learning to pilot an aircraft safely. That being said, you might think this an odd time to learn about weather and its impact on flight operations. Fear not! These past two days were actually just a review of the weather theory I had already learned during Aviation Preflight Indoctrination (API)…which was essentially a review of the weather theory I had previously learned during Introductory Flight Screening (IFS)! By now you’d probably expect me to be an expert at determining the current weather conditions (via something called a METAR), forecast weather conditions (called a TAF), and how to use the plethora of other information available (satellite and radar images, prognostic charts, winds aloft forecasts, etc.) to make informed and intelligent decisions about going flying. I hope you can appreciate that interpreting all of this data takes a bit of practice and experience! I went ahead and put a copy of the most recent (as of this posting…not to be used for flight planning!) METAR (highlighted in yellow) and TAF (highlighted in pink) from NAS Whiting Field at the top of this post for your viewing pleasure. I suspect that most people will find them an assortment of odd abbreviations and code with no discernable meaning. A bit of history…this information was originally coded in this manner because it used to be disseminated by “teletype” machines…the machines have changed, but the code remains the same. Here’s hoping that with continued advances in global communications (thanks to Al Gore’s recent invention of the “internet”) someday pilots will be able to read a weather report and forecast without having to break out their “secret decoder ring!” Of course, I’m just being facetious now! In case you’re wondering, the METAR says that at NAS Whiting Field on the 26th day of the month at 8:56 PM Central Standard Time the winds were from the southwest (220 degrees) at four knots. Visibility was ten statue miles. There was a broken cloud layer at 3,000 feet, and another at 10,000 feet. The temperature was 27 degrees Celsius, and the dew point was 22 degrees Celsius. The altimeter setting was 30.18 inches of mercury. Sea level pressure was 1021.5 millibars, and there was continuous lightning in the clouds, cloud to cloud, and cloud to ground in the distance to the north and northeast. Additionally, there were cumulonimbus clouds in the distance to the north and northeast, and thunderstorm condition one was set (which means thunderstorm conditions are possible within one hour or ten nautical miles of the field). Lots of important information in that short strip of code, huh?! Well, its time for me to finish my homework for class in the morning. Have a good one!
