Old Dawg Learns New Tricks (Part 7 of 12)

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 "EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT THE WEATHER BUT NOBODY DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT."

 Those famous lines from Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) are amazingly still true  and involves the  topic of our Aviation Ground School class  last Tuesday and Tonight.  Weather (Aviation Weather to be exact).

 Many  moons ago, when I was in sixth grade,  I did a science project where I kept track of all the meteorological conditions for our local area.  The temp, the winds, precipitation, barometric pressure etc.   It got me an E (my grade school didn’t do A, B C grades) and a chance to meet with a real TV weatherman named Harry Volkman from Chicago that came to our school.   So I’ve been a fan of weather for years.   That coupled with a few hockey injuries I can guestimate it pretty well too.  When it comes to flying, you really have to know your weather.

 The fine folks at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the weather Channel folks and even our local radio and TV stations are working round the clock to provide forecasts.  But when we fly, we are using as much data as we can that is up to the minute that will alert us to the potential of dangerous weather conditions.  From frost that can disrupt  the smooth flow of air over the wings and cause us to stall, to ice adding additional weight, to rain, fog, mist, winds all keeping us on our toes, and if it’s too bad keeping us on the ground.

 As I’m learning to fly, VFR (Visual Flight Rules) I am not allowed to fly in clouds until I get an IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) certification.   So I need to know where they are, which way they are going and how I can maneuver around them.  That’s all part of this course.

If you’re a weather geek like me, you’d really dig tonight’s continuation of Aviation Weather.  If you are interested in flying SWIC has a great aviation program. 

Oh BTW, I’m now a full month into the course and I am happy to report I still have an “A” in class.  We had our first test last week and I got an “A”  I’m upset with myself for two questions I knew but didn’t read the freaking question properly.   Oh well, an “A is still an A”.  I’ll take it.

Hope you have a great 4^th of July holiday, and if you do fly be sure to check the latest  METARS, TAFs, Weather Depiction Charts, Radar Summary Charts and the Wind/Temp aloft Forecasts before you do fly.  Stay away from those Convective SIGMETS too.

-Rik Out