Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS) offers an amazing representation of live weather. That was certainly the case the day I had a simulated flight out of the Mountain Air community (2NC0) in Burnsville, North Carolina, at over 4,000 feet. 

Winds were howling at full windsock speed out of the northwest, featuring great VFR but a scary wind shear potential and more. 

In MSFS, this highly detailed airport is filled with fun and challenge. Even the VFR sectional shown here has a preprinted warning of dangerous turbulence near Mount Mitchell to the east (the highest summit east of the Rocky Mountains). 

• READ MORE: Practicing the Impossible Turn

This airport is enhanced with a small purchase available online in the MSFS built-in store. It’s one of the few scenery areas I have purchased because it’s so darn good. (If you purchase this, don’t forget to get FSRealsitic for added head effects, sounds, and vibrations left out of default aircraft in MSFS.)

With winds howling at an estimated 30 gusting to 45 knots, I decided to test the newly enhanced winds and shear model brought into the simulator a few months ago. In addition, ridge lift, thermals, temperatures, and sky cover all come together to the delight of virtual glider pilots. But anything good for glider pilots is even better for us, as these features have been lacking in flight sims I have previously flown. 

The takeoff at over 4,000 feet msl was noticeably sluggish, but the powerful Beechcraft Bonanza did it well. With the 40-plus-knot headwinds, we were airborne immediately. The joy was short-lived, however, as the uphill runway, close terrain, houses, and trees started in with an immediate stall horn peeping, wind shear on the airspeed gauge, and control sloppiness. Usually takeoffs don’t require a battle or fight. I have found that’s always the case on landings but not on takeoffs. Here’s where the realism kicked in. It was a fight to several hundred feet off the departure end and as the terrain fell out from beneath you. I was all smiles as this was so much fun, but how would the landing be? Even on a calm day, this place looked challenging. 

• READ MORE: Simulated Flight in Real, Uninterrupted Time

A week later, I returned to the mountaintop to see what calm weather might have in store. I chose the default Mooney Ovation for the mission. The winds were northwest at 1 knot according to the in-flight map that displays the live conditions. I figured it would be perfect, but at a simulated time of day, I once again experienced a hellacious downdraft on the departure end of Runway 14—this time more than 2,000 fpm down.

• READ MORE: Safety, Originality on an Even Scale at Unique North Carolina Community

This photo shows the reality of the short final to Runway 14.  

This was certainly one of the most challenging airports I’ve ever seen in flight-sim life. I believe it is even more risky than Aspen, Colorado (KASE). I’d highly recommend it to you MSFSers—just have several aircraft lined up as you’re probably going to wreck quite a few on any given day. It’s a mental and physical workout as well. 

The Honeycomb flight controls offer precision and quality to get you through those crosswinds and wind shear days with ease.

The post A Virtual, Wind-Battled Landing on a Mountaintop Runway appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

It was a warm summer day, and the learner called to cancel his flight about an hour before he was scheduled to show up. His CFI noted the learner canceled two more times that week— this was unusual. During the work week, the learner usually flies in late afternoon. On Saturday, he flew in the morning. The Saturday appointment he kept, saying he was glad to fly and how bummed he was to have missed so many days because of high density altitude.

I was perplexed, as the DA never climbed above 1,600 feet that week, a value easily handled by the school’s fleet of Cessna 172s on the 3,600-foot runway at the airport with the field elevation of 534 feet msl. I asked the learner about it. He replied that he had been calling the airport’s automated weather a few hours before his flight. When he heard the words “density altitude,” he hung up, thinking it was a no-go day. He based this on a video clip he’d seen online that showed a very long takeoff roll of a Stinson 108 in Idaho, followed by a labored takeoff, followed by a stall and impact. His CFI sent him the clip as an illustration of density altitude. The learner took that to mean DA made airplanes go down. Therefore, when it was reported, it was a no-go situation.

• READ MORE: Do I Need Renter’s Insurance?

Not necessarily. Although density altitude does reduce performance of an aircraft, it doesn’t automatically keep you on the ground. But knowing how to determine DA and its effect on the aircraft is part of risk management.

Density Altitude 101

Density altitude is pressure altitude corrected for non-standard temperature and humidity. If it is warmer than standard temperature (15 degrees Celsius or 59 degrees Fahrenheit), an elevated DA is possible.

The warmer the air is, the less dense the air is. When you heat air, it expands, and if there is high humidity, there are more water molecules between the air molecules, and we experience less performance from the aircraft. If the aircraft is operating from a high-elevation field, for example, taking off from an airport in the mountains where there is reduced air pressure, we have the trifecta of density altitude: high field elevation, hot temp, and high humidity.

Student pilots learn the phrase “high, hot, humid” to recall density altitude. You only need one of these factors to create a high DA, which can take some pilots by surprise, as they think all three need to be present, so they are unprepared by the aircraft’s poor performance. You often hear them recount their experience with the phrase: “I didn’t think it would be that bad,” which means they didn’t attempt to calculate density altitude before they flew.

• READ MORE: When Is the Best Time To Take the Test?

The FAA has given us all sorts of tools to use to calculate density altitude as part of our preflight planning. With this information, we can then determine the aircraft performance.

Calculating DA begins by determining pressure altitude. At the airport, pressure altitude is easy to get: It is the attitude displayed on the altimeter when the Kollsman window is set to 29.92 inches of mercury, or 1013.4 millibars, so head out to the airplane and use the altimeter to get the information.

If you don’t have an altimeter, use math to determine pressure altitude:

Take standard pressure of 29.92 and subtract the current pressure setting. Take the result and multiply it by 1,000, then add field elevation. This results in pressure altitude.

For example: Let’s say the current altimeter setting is 29.45 and the field elevation is 500 feet. Plugging these numbers into the pressure altitude formula, you get: (29.92 – 29.45 = .47) (0.47 x 1,000 = 470) (470 + 500 = 970), so the pressure altitude is 970 feet.

Now determine the outside air temperature. You can check the outside air temperature gauge or obtain the information from the automated weather at the airport or an aviation weather briefing.

Using the Flight Computer

Density altitude can be determined using a mechanical E6-B. For this exercise we will say the temperature is 90 degrees Fahrenheit. You must first convert Fahrenheit to Celsius. (There is a conversion scale printed on the manual E6-B to find 90 degrees F = 32 degrees C). Next, find the line that has the values for air temperature in the box labeled air temperature. Locate the box labeled pressure altitude. Put the air temp over the pressure altitude.

Look at the box labeled Density Altitude—there is your answer. So if the pressure altitude is 1,000 feet and the temperature is 30 degrees Celsius, the pointer in the density altitude box is pointing to the two-tick mark, which means the DA is approximately 2,000 feet.

If you are using an electronic E6-B, follow the formula printed on the instrument, press a few buttons, and get the numbers. If using an app, drop in the numbers and see the result.

Using a Density Altitude Chart in the POH

If you don’t have an app or E6-B, the POH provides a density altitude chart, where you can find the ambient DA by adjusting for field elevation using the numbers on the right side of the chart. Either add or subtract as necessary.

• READ MORE: Respect the Prop

Use the table to adjust for the difference between standard pressure and the altimeter setting at the airport.

Now we move to the left side of the graph and locate the adjusted field elevation, followed by finding the temperature on the bottom of the graph. The point where these values intersect is the density altitude.

Web-based Apps

There are also a number of apps and websites you can use. My favorite website to show to learners was created by Richard Shelquist, a pilot from Colorado. Pilots in the Centennial State learn about density altitude from day one.

“Since I had previously spent hundreds of hours flying my super decathlon in the Colorado mountains, the topics of air density and density altitude were near and dear to my heart,” Shelquist told FLYING, “and I felt there was a need for convenient, easy-to-use, freely available (online) calculators to help pilots easily check, or verify, the density altitude at their location. Hence, the calculators were born.”

Go to the page and fill in the numbers in the correct boxes, and you can determine the density altitude at your airport with a few keystrokes.

Determining Aircraft Performance

Density altitude is often referred to as where the aircraft “feels like” it is performing at. DA degrades aircraft performance, and sometimes this comes as a surprise to the pilot. It seems like every airport has a story about a pilot who almost ran out of runway when they had to abort a takeoff on a high density altitude day.

The FAA provides great information on the effects of density altitude. Check out FAA–P–8740–2 • AFS–8 (2008) HQ-08561 and the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge.

These publications warn the pilot to expect an increased takeoff distance, reduced rate of climb, and an increased true airspeed on approach and landing, although the indicated airspeed will remain the same. This can lead to floating and running out of runway options at the same time, as you will also experience a longer landing roll.

Protect yourself by checking the performance charts carefully, noting the weight of the aircraft, fine print, such as “lean mixture above 3,000 feet for maximum rpm,” as well as notes on increasing or decreasing the takeoff roll or landing roll depending on wind and runway surface.

Note the values given for ground roll and total to clear the 50-foot obstacle at the end of the runway. The landing chart should also be reviewed, especially the notes on aircraft configuration, the effect of headwinds versus a tailwind on approach, and the increase in ground roll based on the runway surface. Dry grass, for example, increases the ground roll of a Cessna 172 by 45 percent.

• READ MORE: Why We Say ‘MAYDAY’

Be conservative. If the total distance required for takeoff is 2,790 feet, think about rounding up to 3,000 feet, and you may even want another 500 feet depending on what is on the approach and departure ends of the runway. Remember the POH numbers were calculated with a new airplane. Chances are good the airplane you are flying has a few years on it. Don’t expect POH-level performance as such.

The post Density Altitude: Know Your Enemy appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Question: It seems there have been more significant severe weather events that include tornadoes happening in the Deep South, especially in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama rather than in the traditional location of Tornado Alley. Is this driven by climate change?  

Answer: The short answer is yes. Tornado Alley has had a bad reputation over the last couple of decades, however. Although there has never been an official designation of where Tornado Alley is located, it is the area that is roughly approximated by the central and southern Plains from Nebraska to north-central Texas. 

There has been some debate that Tornado Alley has been shifting to the east over the last couple of decades. But it is more likely that Tornado Alley isn’t shifting but rather expanding to the east. 

From year to year, there may be a stark contrast in where severe weather strikes, especially thunderstorms that produce tornadoes. That is, there may be two or three years in a row where significant tornado events are focused more in Tornado Alley and other years where they are focused in the Ozarks, mid-South, and Tennessee Valley. This year-to-year variation happens for a variety of reasons, but climate change will continue to expand where supercell-type thunderstorms develop and produce significant and destructive tornadoes.  

• READ MORE: Is a Handheld Radio Required for Flying?

Scientists are studying how anthropogenic climate change (ACC) is affecting the location of severe weather. This climate change originating from human activity is causing a change in the location of where many supercell thunderstorms originate. 

Supercells are storms that are distinguished from ordinary pulse-type convection by its deep, long-lived mesocyclone, which has a rotating midlevel vortex with a diameter between 1 and 5 miles and a vertical depth of at least 6,000 to 10,000 feet. While many supercells are individually separate and distinct, others may be embedded within larger complexes of thunderstorms or what are called mesoscale convective systems. Relatively rare, some supercell thunderstorms can persist for four or more hours.

The greatest concern is that as the trend in tornado environments from supercell-type convection expands to the east this will undoubtedly increase the exposure and vulnerability of people in these areas. In other words, with socioeconomic vulnerabilities projected to rise in the Ozarks, mid-South, and Tennessee Valley, the likelihood of more impactful tornado events in these regions is certain for the remaining decades of the twenty-first century.

The best approach is to remain weather aware and to pay close attention to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) convective outlooks. These include a one-, two-, and three-day categorical outlook of severe weather along with a forecast discussion.

In addition, the SPC issues a probabilistic forecast for severe weather specifically for the potential of tornadoes, strong straight-line winds, and large hail. While some of these probabilities can look quite low, don’t be fooled. 

• READ MORE: Can You Select a DPE for Your Check Ride?

According to the SPC, “If you have a 15 percent probability for tornadoes, this means you have a 15 percent chance of a tornado occurring within 25 miles of your location. This may seem like a low number, but a tornado is very uncommon at any one location. Normally, your chances of getting hit by a tornado or other severe weather are small, purely based on statistical average. Let’s say you have a 1 percent statistical (climatology) history of tornadoes within 25 miles on this day, which still is large. Having a 15 percent probability means 15 times the normal odds of a tornado nearby, meaning it should be taken seriously.”

Once severe convection is likely, the SPC will issue a severe thunderstorm or tornado watch for heightened public awareness. Once tornadoes are seen by trained storm spotters or are indicated by the Nexrad Doppler weather radar, tornado warnings are issued for you to seek immediate cover. 

Do you have a question about aviation that’s been bugging you? Ask us anything you’ve ever wanted to know about aviation. Our experts in general aviation, flight training, aircraft, avionics, and more may attempt to answer your question in a future article.

The post Is the Shift in Tornado Alley Related to Climate Change? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The Bahamas are a common international destination for many pilots in the eastern parts of the U.S., especially in the winter months when a little sunshine and warmth are welcome. Nassau is one of the few airports in the Bahamas with radar services and instrument approaches. While much of the cruising between islands might be done VFR, a pilot might shoot an approach if it is the final destination for their stay; if there are weather concerns; or as a way to sequence into the airport to clear customs before venturing further.

A. Transitions From En Route To Approach

HINZY, MAJUR, MELON, and KURAY are all waypoints from which this approach might be started, which then transitions into the MUNIE waypoint. All of these waypoints are also found on low-altitude en route charts and are on victor airways that might be used to transition en route to the ILS Runway14 approach into Nassau. A pilot planning ahead might choose their en route path to transition to one of these points. One of the most commonly used is the MAJUR intersection, which falls on BR22V-54V-57V, a victor airway that transitions off from the Palm Beach (PBI) VOR, taking the pilot from the East Coast of the U.S. into the Bahamas with the help of Miami Approach.

This Article First Appeared in FLYING Magazine

If you’re not already a subscriber, what are you waiting for? Subscribe today to get the issue as soon as it is released in either Print or Digital formats.

Subscribe Now

Featured

B. DME Arc

A pilot choosing to transition onto this approach from either the HINZY or KURAY intersection might find themselves assigned a DME arc. While not as common in many locations as in the past, an arc such as this can be used by ATC to sequence traffic from multiple points onto a final approach path, as in this ILS Runway 14. Remember to use the turn-10, twist-10 (degrees) process to feed onto the approach while flying the 14 DME arc from the ZQA VOR until intercepting the final approach path of 143 degrees inbound on the ILS. For many pilots, an IFR-capable GPS can select the initial fix and help feed the aircraft around the DME arc. Don’t forget to make the ILS frequency active and switch to VLOC when flying this approach, though, if you are using the GPS to feed your aircraft from the initial fixes onto the final approach path.

C. Mixing With Big Aircraft

With many different aircraft of various sizes and speeds using this approach, be ready to mix it up in the airspace. With that said, you may be asked to maintain your aircraft’s best forward speed; to be vectored around a little bit if there are bigger aircraft needing to land; or to get out of the way quickly when landing. With an airport with runways of over 8,000 and 10,000 feet of landing distance, Nassau brings in big aircraft to use the facilities. You might be flying your GA aircraft on the approach between a Gulfstream ahead of you and a Boeing 787 behind you. Be honest if you can’t maintain something assigned to you. It’s certainly better than getting run over by a faster aircraft.

D. DME From the ILS

While a pilot using a traditional DME source will be using the ZQAVOR (112.7) for DME fixes, if using an intersection or the DME arc to feed onto this approach, they will need to transition to using the DME on the ILS frequency (110.1) once they pass the IZQA waypoint (the final approach fix). This can be confusing because prior to this, the pilot would be using the VOR. They need to swap the frequency for the DME source to the ILS (as denoted by the D6.9 IZQA notation at the final approach fix) for the last part of the approach.

E. Correct GPS Database?

GPS systems in aircraft have databases that include approach procedures for selected areas. Make sure if you are going here and planning on using approaches at all—anything beyond basic VFR—that your database subscription is not only current but includes the places you want to go. A subscription for a database that includes “United States” might include Puerto Rico, but not the Bahamas. A subscription for “North America” might be needed to get the right data. Verify this well ahead of your trip or plan on being a VFR-only operator for your time in the Bahamas.

This column was originally published in the December 2022/January 2023 Issue 933 of FLYING.

The post Nassau, Bahamas ILS 14 (MYNN) appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Poor timing and a severe weather event have put a major dent in the operations of ATD Flight Systems LLC at Kansas City’s Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (KMKC) in Kansas City, Missouri. 

The busy part 141 flight school lost 11 of its 13 aircraft the morning of April 20 when strong winds, known as a gustnado, blew through the area. The aircraft, normally kept in a hangar, were parked on the ramp because the hangar was being prepared to host a fashion show fundraiser for cancer survivors.

Following the incident, social media posts circulating throughout the Kansas City aviation community alleged that the aircraft moved out onto the ramp before the storm hit the area were chocked but had not been tied down in spite of the forecast weather conditions.

The ramp is controlled by Signature Flight Support. A company spokesperson from Signature confirmed in a statement to FLYING that there was an incident at Signature’s KMKC airport location that “involved several aircraft that were damaged because of very severe and unusual weather conditions.”

“The safety and security of our customers and employees is our top priority and we followed standard operating procedures to protect the aircraft staged on the ramp. We are working closely with local authorities and the impacted customer to address the immediate situation. The incident remains under investigation.”

Flight training company's air fleet wiped out by 'gustnado' at downtown Kansas City airport https://t.co/ZsAAQJJhRh

— KMBC (@kmbc) April 21, 2023

The statement continued, saying that the aircraft were removed from the hangar to prepare “for a long-standing, annual fundraising event for a local nonprofit organization. The customer was informed in advance that this would take place. It is not true that the aircraft were not chocked. We followed standard operating procedures to protect the aircraft—in this case, aircraft were triple-chocked.” 

The spokesperson did not confirm if the aircraft were tied down.

Although the forecast warned of severe weather, the aircraft were not tied down. Gustnados, according to the National Weather Service, are not considered tornadoes. The peak winds from Thursday’s storm were estimated to have reached 65 mph. Photos of the aftermath flooded social media. They show aircraft, most of them Pipers, flipped over and some up against a fence. At least one was over the fence. The aircraft have crushed tails and bent wings.

According to the flight school’s webpage, they offer flight training from private pilot through Airline Transport Pilot. Officials from the flight school did not respond to FLYING’s request for comment.

The post ‘Gustnado’ Takes Out Kansas City Flight School Fleet appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

A storm dropping more than 25 inches of rain in 24 hours has swamped southern Florida, leading to the closure of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (KFLL). The storm stalled over the Bahamas, creating an unlikely weather event for the region.

By Thursday morning, more than 300 flights had been canceled because of the rising water, according to aviation tracking site FlightAware. Travelers were warned not to try to enter or leave the airport as the roads surrounding it were impassable because of the flooding.

Video posted on social media showed water coming into airport buildings and flooded ramps and taxiways. The roads in and out of the airport as well as parking structures were also flooded, and some were blocked by stalled vehicles.

Airport officials released a statement Thursday morning noting, “We ask for your patience as we wait to safely assess the impacts of this unprecedented rainfall to restore airport operations when it is safe.”

Amazing supercell dynamics involved in this catastrophic flash flooding

Watch as lead supercell sheds a constant chain of occluded circulations which converge over Fort Lauderdale, forming a new (tornadic) supercell. pic.twitter.com/iOx4nuUYK7

— Cameron Nixon (@CameronJNixon) April 13, 2023

According to Airnav.com, the airport sits at an elevation of 65 feet and has two parallel runways, 10L/28R measuring 9,000 x 150 feet, and 10R/28L measuring 8,000 x 150 feet. There are 80 aircraft based at the field, which averages around 759 operations a day and includes commercial carrier operations.

Airnav lists four FBOs on the field: Jetscape, Sheltair, Signature Flight Support  and National Jet. Sheltair, Jetscape and National Jet reported they are closed because the airport was still closed as of noon west coast time, and their employees are either at home or sheltering in place. FLYING was unable to reach Signature Flight Support. 

The airport is served by Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Delta Airlines, and American Airlines.

FLL will be closed until Friday.

"Please don't come to the airport right now," the mayor of Broward County said on Thursday. https://t.co/jokRoQjL2V

— Frommer's (@Frommers) April 13, 2023

All schools in Broward County have been closed for the duration of the event. According to the National Weather Service, a flood watch was in effect across much of South Florida through Thursday evening, prompting city and county officials to issue a warning to residents to stay off roads unless ordered to evacuate or while seeking safety.

The National Weather Service said more rain was expected to continue throughout Thursday, with possible hail and tornadoes.

The post Flooding at Fort Lauderdale Airport Causes Cancellations appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Short of an erroneous forecast or calibration issue with your immersion thermometer, if you can remain below the lowest freezing level during your entire flight, there’s typically no chance for an encounter with airframe ice. Induction ice is certainly possible, but not airframe ice.

If you plan an altitude where the temperature aloft is zero degrees Celsius or less, airframe icing becomes exceedingly more likely while flying in visible moisture. Therefore, the freezing level is one key variable that you need to determine during your preflight analysis to better quantify your risk of airframe ice.

This Article First Appeared in FLYING Magazine

If you’re not already a subscriber, what are you waiting for? Subscribe today to get the issue as soon as it is released in either Print or Digital formats.

Subscribe Now

Featured

Let’s clarify something right from the beginning. The FAA likes to use the term “freezing level” in all of its documentation. This is kind of a misnomer, given that water in the liquid state doesn’t necessarily freeze just because the static air temperature is below freezing. We must be concerned about the presence of supercooled water, which leads to airframe icing. On the contrary, water in the solid state (i.e., snow) must melt even if the static air temperature is a hair warmer than zero degrees Celsius. Meteorologists prefer to use the more accurate term of “melting level.” But pilots are stuck with “freezing level” for the foreseeable future.

A Rarely Standard Lapse Rate

One approach that some instructors teach is to use the standard lapse rate to calculate or estimate the lowest freezing level. That is, they use the current surface temperature at the airport and then subtract 2 degrees Celsius for every 1,000-foot gain in altitude. For example, if the surface temperature is 10 degrees Celsius and you are departing from an airport at sea level elevation, then the freezing level should be 5,000 feet. That method seems easy enough, but it’s a bad idea to do this. The standard lapse rate should only be applied to performance tables in the pilot operating handbook as a method to determine the departure from standard.

When Mother Nature is at her worst behavior, the atmosphere is rarely standard. In fact, during the late morning and afternoon, the environmental lapse rate is more often than not greater than standard near the surface. This is the layer of air that is directly influenced by the presence of the earth’s surface and, therefore, is what meteorologists refer to as the planetary boundary layer (PBL). The lapse rate in the PBL is often closer to the dry adiabatic rate (DALR) of 3 degrees Celsius for every 1,000-foot gain in altitude. Under these more typical conditions, using the standard lapse rate will cause you to calculate a freezing level that is higher than the actual lapse rate suggests. Therefore, if you expected the freezing level to be at 5,000 feet, you might be surprised during your climb to encounter supercooled liquid water beginning at 3,500 feet instead of 5,000 feet.

You might say, “That’s crazy—no sane pilot would do this.” Well, even the FAA fell into this line of thinking. In 2005, a student and a flight instructor ended up with a hard landing at Paine Field (KPAE) in Everett, Washington, after accreting airframe ice in a Cessna 172. They departed a nearby airport, Boeing Field (KBFI), to go out and shoot a few practice approaches in actual instrument conditions. This is certainly a noble effort when it is safe to do so. After the first missed approach, the instructor noticed ice accreting on the airframe and directed the student to return to Paine Field to land. During this landing, the aircraft ran off the runway, which resulted in an accident and subsequent FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation.

The FAA later determined the instructor, who was pilot in command, busted FAR 91.9 (a), which prohibits pilots from operating an aircraft without complying with its operating limitations. In this case, there’s a placard in the aircraft that states: “Flight into known icing conditions is prohibited.” The instructor was also cited with careless or reckless operation under FAR 91.13 (a). So, a certificate action was taken that included a 90-day suspension. The instructor requested an evidentiary hearing and later appealed the ruling to the NTSB. However, the NTSB agreed with the case the FAA presented.

I certainly don’t take issue with the outcome of this judgment, but one thing struck me as being a bit strange. The FAA argued that the instructor should have been aware of the lowest freezing level and, therefore, the potential for airframe ice at higher altitudes. To my chagrin, they suggested the instructor should have been aware of the surface temperature at the airport of 2 degrees Celsius—based on their briefing prior to departure—and then, they should have used the standard lapse rate to determine that the temperature would be at or below freezing in the clouds aloft. Ugh! Well, this just happened to be convenient for the FAA since the lapse rate near the surface was close to standard on that day and time. Therefore, it worked out, coincidentally, to favor the FAA’s case against this instructor. The lapse rate, as stated previously, varies and may not be the accurate measure to use when figuring the altitudes where icing might be likely.

Temperature Inversions

At the other extreme is a common situation when there is a formidable surface-based temperature inversion. In this situation, the surface temperature can be a chilly 7 degrees Celsius (45 degrees Fahrenheit) with a freezing level at more than 12,000 feet msl. This is quite common in regions around a warm front. As warm air overruns cold air at the surface, this creates a negative lapse rate (called an inversion) or a scenario where the temperature increases along with altitude before it begins to resume a more normal positive lapse rate in the free atmosphere aloft. When such an inversion exists, using the standard lapse rate may leave you with the impression that the freezing level is quite low when, in fact, it might be a very reasonable day to fly from an icing perspective if you remain below 12,000 feet.

In this scenario, it is quite common when an aviation accident occurs for the casual observer to quickly conclude that the aircraft encountered icing conditions. If it’s that chilly at the surface, then the freezing level must be just a few thousand feet up, right? That’s what pilots generally thought when a Beechcraft B58 Baron went down after departing the Spirit of St. Louis Airport (KSUS) on the winter evening of January 8, 2022. The flight departed at 7:10 p.m. CST headed westbound toward Denver. They were on an IFR flight plan and were cleared to climb to a cruise altitude of 8,000 feet. Shortly after reaching cruise, the Baron appeared to depart controlled flight with a rapid descent under unknown circumstances. It subsequently impacted the terrain 2.5 miles south of New Melle, Missouri (12 miles west of the Spirit of St. Louis Airport), killing the pilot and another occupant.

The temperature at the surface was 7 degrees Celsius with a dew point temperature of 6 degrees Celsius. There was much speculation and debate within the internet aviation community that airframe icing may have played a role in this fatal accident. This is certainly understandable. The elevation of KSUS is 463 feet msl, and using a standard lapse rate, the altitude of the lowest freezing level should be approximately 4,000 feet as shown here.

• 1,463 feet –> +5 degrees Celsius
• 2,463 feet –> +3 degrees Celsius
• 3,463 feet –> +1 degrees Celsius
• 4,463 feet –> -1 degree Celsius

Using the standard lapse rate in this way leads to an incorrect freezing level. This is echoed in the one-hour forecast (above), which suggests the lowest freezing level west of the Spirit of St. Louis Airport was between 11,000 feet and 13,000 feet. Using the standard lapse rate instead of the low freezing level forecast cre-ates an error of 7,000 to 9,000 feet in this case.

Shortly after the accident, the NTSB was quick to point out in a press conference that the freezing level was 12,000 feet and icing was unlikely since the aircraft remained below this level. But that didn’t make the internet community all that happy. Some still concluded that the NTSB was premature in its comments and that the causal factor would ultimately be associated with airframe icing, citing the standard lapse rate in their argument.

In fact, one YouTube personality suggested this flight likely encountered freezing drizzle, although no precipitation was reported at KSUS at the time of the accident. The NTSB will release its findings very soon, but the temperature profile on that evening included a healthy surface-based inversion and clearly the standard lapse rate would lead to a much lower freezing level.

Warm Air Overrun

With a little weather forensics, it was easy to discover that this was the classic case of warm air overrunning cold air—the result of the northerly movement of a warm front through the accident area as shown above. In fact, the temperature at approximately 5,000 feet msl was 9 degrees Celsius as shown below. It is not possible to accrete ice at those static air temperatures. Yes, there was freezing rain reported at the surface about 100 nm to the north-northeast at the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport (KSPI) in Springfield, Illinois, where it was much colder, and the surface temperature was a chilly 1 degree Celsius.

Even so, there was a massive temperature inversion aloft over Springfield such that the temperature at 3,100 feet msl was 8 degrees Celsius. That’s an increase of 7 degrees Celsius at 2,500 feet above the surface. The temperature didn’t go negative over Springfield until roughly 9,000 feet msl. Whether in St. Louis or Springfield, this would have created a warm-soaked aircraft in the climb.

Where There’s Freezing Rain

In a freezing rain scenario, it is common to have two (or more) freezing levels. One way this occurs is in the presence of deep saturated conditions with cold cloud top temperatures. This allows ice crystal growth and creates snow which falls into a melting layer to create rain. These drops then fall into a subfreezing layer near the surface to create supercooled large droplet (SLD) icing called freezing rain. All of this is courtesy of a surface-based temperature inversion with multiple freezing levels aloft. This is the classical freezing rain temperature profile.

But there’s also a more common case where clouds aloft are dominated by liquid when the cloud top temperature is much warmer. In this non-classical case, there may be two or more freezing levels, or the entire temperature profile may be below zero degrees Celsius. In this non-classical case, the saturated layer has a depth usually less than about 10,000 feet. This places the temperature of the cloud top to be warmer than negative-12 degrees Celsius. Warm-topped precipitation events like this—even when the entire temperature profile is below freezing—are dominated by water in the liquid state and often produce drizzle-sized drops with little or no ice crystals that are needed to develop the growth of snowflakes. This kind of non-classical temperature profile produces most of the cases of freezing rain and freezing drizzle.

If you want to avoid making a bad judgment, understand the big weather picture and then use the lowest freezing level forecast, like the one depicted above, which is found on the Aviation Weather Center’s website. This includes an analysis along with hourly forecasts up to 18 hours from the time they are issued.

This forecast is automated but is updated hourly and is generated from the Rapid Refresh (RAP) numerical weather prediction model. The vertical resolution is quite reasonable at 2,000 feet.

The official freezing level forecast is found on the same website at aviationweather.gov/gairmet. This graphical AIRMET (G-AIRMET) forecast is issued by aviation meteorologists and depicts the freezing level at 4,000-foot intervals. It also indicates where multiple freezing levels may exist, including their height. Its spatial and temporal resolution is not as good as the automated forecast, however.

If you are a weather nerd, you might try learning how to use a Skew-T log (p) diagram like the one above. One of the most interactive websites for these is found at rucsoundings.noaa.gov. The Op40 input data source used here is the same RAP model that is used to produce the lowest freezing level chart forecast. With such a diagram, you can precisely pinpoint the forecast freezing level over a particular location at a particular time or determine for yourself if multiple freezing levels exist.

And if you are a bit lazy, you can use a vertical route profile or vertical cross section that depicts the freezing level along your proposed route of flight. Many of the heavyweight apps have such a depiction, including my progressive web app, EZWxBrief. With a profile view, as shown above, it’s painless to see how the freezing level changes across your route of flight so you can quickly compare this to your proposed altitude. In fact, in addition to lines of constant temperature that include the zero-degree isotherm, you can overlay other key elements, such as clouds, icing severity, or even turbulence.

From the December 2022/January 2023 Issue 933 of FLYING

The post Staying on Top of the Freezing Level appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Walking up to my airplane on a warm Saturday in October on Catalina Island off the California coast, and after devouring one of the airport’s famous buffalo burgers, I noticed a beat-up Cessna that I recognized as belonging to one of the flight schools in Santa Monica. The pilot was young, mid-20s, and he had three people with him—two of which looked like they might be his parents. He stopped his preflight and approached me.

“Are you a CFI?”

“No, I’m not. Why? What’s going on?”

This Article First Appeared in FLYING Magazine

If you’re not already a subscriber, what are you waiting for? Subscribe today to get the issue as soon as it is released in either Print or Digital formats.

Subscribe Now

Featured

“I’m trying to figure out which runway to depart from.”

First off, I was flattered that he thought I was a CFI. Quickly moving past that, it occurred to me that it might be because I looked old. Slowly moving past that, I realized I needed to be careful in advising him. Catalina is tricky in that the single runway has a pretty good slope to it. But departing downhill on Runway 4 during a busy weekend when everyone is landing on 22 has its own risks. When winds are calm, it’s worth waiting for a break in traffic. With a 6-knot quartering tailwind, it’s not so clear. His passengers were eagerly watching this exchange as we discussed the pros and cons of both. I found myself smiling widely and trying to sound as casual as possible so as not to worry them. They simply didn’t have the knowledge to weigh in on the decision. They could only hope their pilot made the right one. The balance changed the moment the young pilot asked me for help. I could see it on their faces.

The decision-making process for the layperson who is deciding whether to fly with a friend is a complicated one that reveals a lot about the individual. It illustrates the internal algorithms that take place inside the passengers’ head. It’s a balance of practical need and risk assessment. But the information being used makes me think of the old adage about computer science: Garbage in, garbage out. This refers to the idea that inputs of poor quality will always produce a faulty output.

With people who have little understanding of aviation, these are entirely emotional decisions. I’m not necessarily suggesting they aren’t effective, but they are certainly not based on empirical data. It is a decision largely based on appearances. I present as responsible and confident, and have been flying for a number of years. But they don’t know enough to ask about total hours or currency or maintenance on the aircraft (or the pilot). All of those things get folded into their sense of “me” and their judgment of my capability to keep them safe.

A fellow pilot will have a specific set of criteria that are measurable—data points that they can use to gauge the current faculty of both me and my aircraft. They might drill down and ask how old the oil is, or who did the last annual and when. If we are going to fly IFR, they will likely ask when the last time I flew an instrument approach was. I know I would. 

But how much more effective does that really make the decision? If someone knows you well, and has observed a years-long pattern of decision-making outside of aviation, then perhaps their judgment isn’t quite as arbitrary as it seems. Recently, I read about two professional pilots who were drunk on a commercial flight. They were current and the aircraft was in perfect shape. But there were personal issues at play that only a close friend or family member would be in a position to see. And maybe not even then.

That same day on Catalina was my friend Kelli’s first flight with me. We know each other from work where she is a stunt woman. She’s professional and meticulous in her craft. I trust her on set. She’s seen me work as a director, and there exists a mutual appreciation between us. So, at lunch, when another pilot brought up the incident that totaled my first Bonanza in Telluride three years earlier, I felt a small lump appear in my throat.

Kelli didn’t flinch. She barely asked about the incidentand showed no reticence in her decision to fly with me. She knows me and knows that I learned from the experience, thereby making me an even safer pilot. She’s studying for her private pilot certificate herself and made her decision based on both data and observation. So far, so good.

Sometimes practical needs will supersede fear. My friend Dave recently told me his wife was returning to Los Angeles from Ireland and that he didn’t know how to get her up to Paso Robles—where he would be for a long weekend—when she arrived back with their 11-month-old son. I offered to fly her up, knowing there was no chance he’d take me up on it. Why? Because she won’t let him fly with me since they had their baby. It seemed like an easy offer that I’d never be called on to execute. Wrong. She found out the drive was four hours and very quickly reassessed my ability as a pilot. I flew her and the baby up with no issues. On a side note, breastfeeding helps with pressure-related issues on descent. For the baby. 

I have other friends who would rather eat a glass casserole than get into an airplane with me. And some of them don’t even know about Telluride. It matters not how good I am. The math simply doesn’t work out for them. I use the term loosely because in reality there’s no math at all. Fear is the ultimate decision-maker, and it cares not for data sets.

My ex-girlfriend was the complete opposite. Her appetite for risk was substantial. She was far more confident in my ability than I was myself. It was confidence-boosting at times, scary at others. When telling her I was concerned about a weather system I was looking at on Nexrad, she said it was fine and that I could easily navigate through it.

The kid on Catalina made the right decision. I saw him lift off below me as I made my way back toward the mainland. Was it close? Could it have gone another way? Who knows? But I’d like to think the people flying with him had a better read than I did. They know him. I don’t.

From the December 2022/January 2023 Issue 933 of FLYING

The post Trust But Verify appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

It’s rare to find a pilot these days who doesn’t rely on a digital service for their flight planning, management, or debriefing. Often that means using multiple platforms—until now. 

ForeFlight, a Boeing Company, has announced its acquisition of CloudAhoy, a debriefing software provider.

According to a post on the ForeFlight blog, the acquisition was completed in response to “customer desire for more integrated digital solutions.”

• READ MORE: Did You Know ForeFlight Did This?

ForeFlight, established in 2007, is one of the most widely used weather briefing and flight planning and management tools.

CloudAhoy, created in 2011, provides post-flight debriefing, analytics, and flight operations quality assurance software products. CloudAhoy allows pilots to digitally record their flight and play it back to review their performance. The software is particularly useful in the training environment where the emphasis is on meeting and exceeding the minimum standards for certification.

The details of the merger have not been announced.

The post ForeFlight Acquires CloudAhoy appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Question: As a skier in Virginia and West Virginia, we are frequently impacted by inversions at the mountain-top height. What do pilots need to know about temperature inversions? I have yet to find a good discussion of them.

Answer: Before we can discuss temperature inversions, we need to explore the more generic concept of atmospheric lapse rates. A lapse rate is simply the change in temperature over a given change in altitude. 

Pilots are taught during their primary training that the standard lapse rate is 2 degrees Celsius for every 1,000-foot gain in altitude. That means, on an average day, the atmosphere “cools” at this rate. In other words, the higher you ascend in the troposphere, the colder it gets. We refer to this as a “positive” lapse rate. 

If you open your Pilot Operating Handbook (POH) you will likely see tables that are based on the departure from the standard. These tables can be used to determine how your airplane may perform when the conditions are not standard, which is often the case throughout most of the year.

• READ MORE: Can a CFI Applicant Teach Ground School?

While you can calculate a lapse rate over the entire vertical extent of the troposphere, it’s usually something that is referenced more often in shallow layers of the atmosphere. In some cases, the lapse rate may be what meteorologists call isothermal. That is, the temperature remains the same through a shallow layer of the atmosphere. In some cases, the temperature may actually increase with increasing altitude. That’s called a negative lapse rate, or more commonly, a temperature inversion. A negative lapse rate adds stability that ultimately inhibits vertical mixing.

Inversions are actually quite common in the lower troposphere. They are created by several different atmospheric processes. One of the most common is called a nocturnal inversion. In the overnight hours with clear skies and calm or light winds near the surface, radiative cooling can produce a very pronounced and often shallow temperature inversion hugging the surface. Essentially after sunset, the ground radiates the heat it absorbed during the daytime hours toward outer space in the form of long-wave radiation. This sets the stage for significant cooling at the ground level to produce a surface-based nocturnal temperature inversion.

Such inversions can set the stage for what is referred to as a radiation-fog event, often called ground fog, and non-convective low-level wind shear (LLWS). Radiation fog routinely develops in various regions of the U.S. and Canada throughout the year and can be some of the densest fog you will ever encounter. When a nocturnal temperature inversion is coupled with a favorable hydrolapse and little or no turbulent mixing exists in the potential fog layer, radiation fog is usually the result. A favorable hydrolapse is when the dewpoint temperature increases with increasing altitude. It is common for it to lower the ceiling and/or visibility into the very low instrument flight rules (VLIFR) flight category.

• READ MORE: Can You Select a DPE for Your Check Ride?

Nocturnal temperature inversions also create an environment favorable for what meteorologists refer to as non-convective low-level wind shear (LLWS). This is a forecast you may see in a TAF such as WS020/09045KT. It also is an advisory issued by meteorologists at the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) as a Graphical AIRMET (G-AIRMET).

First and foremost, this is not low-level wind shear associated with deep, moist convection or thunderstorms, hence the term non-convective LLWS. The extreme stability courtesy of the surface-based temperature inversion eliminates vertical mixing and promotes a laminar flow immediately above the surface. This allows the flow of air a few hundred feet above the ground to be insulated and decouple from surface friction, allowing the wind immediately above the surface to freely accelerate and create a low-level jet maximum.

In the early morning hours, when the sky is generally clear and the surface winds are light, a surface-based inversion sets up once the sun sets due to the radiative cooling mentioned earlier. The inversion deepens in the overnight hours, and the wind just above the surface freely accelerates to produce a low-level jet maximum within the first 2,000 feet of the surface. The wind at the surface can be calm, but the air at 2,000 feet AGL may be screaming along at 50+ knots. This would seem like a classic scenario for clear air turbulence. In fact, the air is often glassy smooth in this layer due to the extreme stability courtesy of the surface-based inversion.  

Temperature inversions just above the mountain ridges create the opportunity for what meteorologists call gravity waves. A mountain wave is the most common form of a gravity wave in the atmosphere. As somewhat unstable air near the surface is forced into this layer of stable air, it expands and becomes cooler and denser than the surrounding air, thanks to the inversion aloft. This causes the air to sink back down on the lee side of the mountain range. 

As the air subsides, it compresses, and the temperature increases as it descends back down into the unstable air below the ridgelines which allows this air to ascend once again. This creates that up-and-down oscillation of air downwind of the mountain range. Flying into these waves can be felt as an upwash or downwash, causing the airplane to increase or decrease altitude, respectively.    

Frontal inversions are common in association with warm fronts. Essentially, the cold, dense air just north of the warm front settles in, and the warm air to the south of the warm front rides up and over that cold, dense air. This creates a surface-based temperature inversion that has a greater depth than what you usually see with a nocturnal inversion. 

In the winter, this kind of frontal inversion is often a key element in producing a freezing rain scenario. Skiers in the Appalachian Mountains can be in the warm air aloft, making for a cold rain event, while at the base of the mountain, it can be near or slightly below freezing with accumulating ice. Either way, this makes for a horrible skiing experience.

Lastly, radiative cooling and a nocturnal temperature inversion can also wreak havoc on ground-based Doppler weather radars, causing an unwelcomed phenomenon called anomalous propagation (AP). AP can occur whenever there is a strong temperature inversion near the surface.

The sidelobe of the radar beam is bent down or ducted back toward the earth, causing it to strike objects on the surface farther in the distance. The reflected energy follows the same path back to the radar, where it is received and interpreted as a reflectivity value. This nocturnal inversion created a large area of AP with intense reflectivity that is indicative of deep, moist convection. Even though the returns depicted on this radar image from the Indianapolis NEXRAD Doppler radar look very real, most of them are due to AP. There were a few cells on the northwest side of Indianapolis, shown in the white oval, that are actual areas of real precipitation validated using satellite imagery.

• READ MORE: What Impact Does Time Change Have on Aviation?

Do you have a question about aviation that’s been bugging you? Ask us anything you’ve ever wanted to know about aviation. Our experts in general aviation, flight training, aircraft, avionics, and more may attempt to answer your question in a future article.

The post What Do Pilots Need to Know About Temperature Inversions? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Question: I am a relatively new pilot. I recently read about something called a forecast discussion that could be useful for preflight planning. Can you tell me more about this and how I can access it online?

Answer: Since I introduced the area forecast discussions (AFDs) to the general aviation community a couple of decades ago, this has become a common resource for pilots to review before making operational decisions as it relates to weather. Just to clear up any initial confusion, the area forecast discussion is not a discussion describing the legacy aviation area forecast (FA) that was retired back in October 2017. The AFD is written by forecasters located at each of the local weather forecast offices (WFOs) scattered throughout the U.S. The same forecaster at the WFO that issues the terminal aerodrome forecast (TAFs) for their county warning area (CWA) is also responsible, in part, for issuing the corresponding AFD. The CWA defines the geographic “area” they are discussing. Shown below are the boundaries of the CWAs for the U.S. and its territories. 

The AFD is not a two-way conversation. However, it is a vehicle that the forecaster can use to document the technical reasoning behind the forecast they just issued. In other words, it’s a way for a pilot to know what the forecaster is thinking about the current trends in the forecast. Most important, this is the method the forecaster can use to quantify their uncertainty. It allows them to let the reader know what could go wrong or describe alternate scenarios. I’ve read dozens of errant terminal forecasts over the years; however, there have been very few forecast discussions that didn’t somehow confront the potential of a busted forecast before it happened. I tell all of my one-on-one online students that if you are not reading the AFDs and only looking at the TAFs, you are potentially missing out on half the forecast guidance. 

Each AFD has two primary parts of interest to pilots. The first consists of a synoptic overview and a review of the forecast weather over the next few days for the CWA. The good news is AFDs are written in plain English. The bad news is a lot of jargon is used in this part of the discussion. This is because the AFD is designed as a forecaster-to-forecaster memorandum, so it might be quite technical at times. Be prepared for dozens of terms that may be unfamiliar. For example, here’s a small excerpt from a past discussion outlining the long-term forecast. 

.LONG TERM /MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY/…

Mid-level ridging will take place across the local area Monday into Monday evening. Mid-level transitions to a zonal pattern thereafter through Tuesday and then more SW Tuesday night through midweek with shortwave approaching. Mid-level ridging shown in forecast models thereafter through Thursday.

If you are a bit perplexed after reading an AFD, the National Weather Service glossary may help unravel some of the mystery. 

The second part is the aviation section, where the forecaster will discuss pertinent information about the TAFs they issue for their CWA. This section is generally written so that it is easily understood by any certificated pilot or other stakeholder in aviation (e.g., air traffic controller). How much information they put into this section often depends on the specific WFO, the current weather, and the individual meteorologist writing the discussion. In some cases, a forecaster can pack a lot of information into that aviation section, and some will offer few details.

For example, in the aviation section below issued by the Greenville-Spartanburg WFO in Greer, South Carolina, it’s clear that thunderstorms are expected across the area, but it’s not certain if they will impact the Charlotte Douglas International Airport (KCLT) terminal area. So, the forecaster is adding a placeholder for showers in the vicinity (VCSH) in the KCLT TAF to cover the convective threat. In most cases, the AFD may also provide an aviation outlook beyond the typical 24- or 30-hour forecast period. 

.AVIATION /16Z TUESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY/…

At KCLT…Little change from 06 UTC package as a west wind less than 8 kts under mostly clear skies will continue thru mid-morning. Expect increasing WSW winds with low amplitude gust potential by midday and perhaps periods of VFR ceilings thru the afternoon. Scattered showers and perhaps at tstm…are expected across the NC Piedmont from the afternoon until early evening and will carry VCSH for now to cover that threat. Deep convective activity will diminish by mid-evening when a wind shift to NW is expected.

There are several ways to view the latest AFDs. A few heavyweight apps provide access to the full AFD, including my progressive web app, EZWxBrief. By the way, you may see the AFD referred to as the “TAF Discussion,” or more simply, “Forecast Discussion,” leaving out the word “area.” You can also visit the National Weather Service and enter the city and state or airport identifier of interest in the location field at the top-left of the main webpage and click Go. This will send you to the local WFO’s page, where you will look for a map that says, “Click a location below for detailed forecast,” similar to the one below. 

That will take you to the correct page where you’ll find a link to the forecast discussion below the map, located further down the page on the right side. By visiting this forecast discussion link you’ll also be able to view previous versions of the AFD issued by this WFO.

However, don’t just skip to the Aviation section. Read the synopsis and then focus on the part of the discussion that is pertinent to your proposed departure time. The Aviation section only may be viewed at the Aviation Weather Center (AWC). Selecting the CWA here on the map searches the latest AFD and pulls out only the text associated with the aviation section (if any). 

Here’s my suggestion: Before you spend any time sifting through the TAFs along your route or at your departure and destination airports, take a few minutes to peruse the AFDs to get a good overview of the weather before examining the “fine print” that represents the TAFs. In some instances, your final decision might actually hinge on the forecaster’s comments in the AFD. 

The post Why Is Area Forecast Discussion Important for Preflight Planning? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Cleanup is underway at David Jay Perry Airport in Goldsby, Oklahoma (1K4) after a tornado touched down at the airport Sunday night. 

The airport, located approximately 1 mile NE of Goldsby and 9 miles southwest of Norman, sustained heavy damage from the fierce storm that spawned at least nine tornados. As this story was going to press there were reports of approximately 12 injuries in the city of Goldsby, but no reports of deaths.

The airport covers 342 acres and is located near the interchange of Interstate 35 and state highway 74. According to airnav.com the airport has two runways: 13/31 measuring 3,004 feet by 60 feet, and 17/35 measuring 1,801 feet by 60 feet. There are 45 aircraft based at the field.

Photographs of the airport demonstrate the capriciousness of tornados——some hangars appear to be undamaged, others are flattened, and others have sheet metal on top of them that was torn from other structures.

“It looks like the tornado came down right on the airport,” says Barbara McClurkin, a general aviation pilot based at the airport. McClurkin and her husband David have a 1978 Cessna 172. The aircraft was unharmed and their hangar had minimal damage from the storm.

Others were not so lucky. One of three quonset-hut style hangars was flattened, and several T-hangars were smashed or their walls and ceilings ripped away. In some cases, the airplanes inside appear to be undamaged. In other cases, the owners of the aircraft haven’t been able to get into the hangars because the force of the winds damaged the doors.

“The doors were forced off their tracks by the wind and the owners can’t get the doors open,” said McClurkin. “Several of the hangars had the siding ripped off—there is sheet metal all over the airport.”

A notice to air missions (NOTAM) was posted this morning advising of the airport’s closure until next week.

McClurkin told FLYING that she tracked the storm, saying it left a trail several miles long. The streets of Goldsby are impassable in parts as they are littered with the debris from damaged homes and businesses.

The airport was built by the U.S. Navy in 1943 as an outlying landing field for Naval Air Station Norman Oklahoma. After the war it became a general aviation facility. Neither the FBO or airport services such as fuel were apparently damaged by the storm.

The post Tornado Flattens Hangars at Airport in Eastern Oklahoma appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

QUESTION: Let’s face it, technology has advanced in the last decade or two, so why do we have to know how to read all that goofy textual weather?

Answer: There’s a great divide in our aviation community that’s been going on for decades with no end in sight. That is, why are we in the 21st century and still decoding the cryptic language of surface observations, terminal aerodrome forecasts (TAFs), and pilot weather reports (PIREPs), just to name a few? After all, they coded these reports or forecasts more than a half-century ago because of the limited bandwidth in the days of 1,200 baud rates, right? Well, yes and no. There’s no harm blaming this on these data limitations, especially if it makes you feel better, but that’s not the real reason they were coded in the first place. And no, the coded form wasn’t preserved over the years as a hazing ritual for student pilots.

The primary goal of the coded form was to allow forecasters, observers, or other stakeholders in the aviation or weather industry to key in observations and forecasts quickly. One could argue otherwise, but it wasn’t as much about the consumers of this data or the bandwidth of the teletype connection used as it was about the data entry time and opportunity to make mistakes. 

Typing more characters likely means a greater chance to make a mistake or two. Multiply that by thousands of observations (or forecasts) every hour, and that adds up to a lot of potential mistakes.   

Now that we’re in the 21st century, is there any reason to keep the coded form around? Certainly. For the same reasons as before? Not exactly. 

Although the code today is different than what you see above, automated systems are programmed to generate the text. You may use some heavyweight apps and other web applications to ingest that coded text and translate it into something a little more readable. Sometimes the translation is near perfect, and sometimes it is not. This often depends on the translator’s assumptions—and hundreds of them are out there. Even if the automated system follows the exact standard, exceptional cases pop up from time to time which may cause a poor translation…sometimes really poor.

For example, in this coded surface observation, the remarks include FZRANO:

KPVU 011356Z 15005KT 10SM CLR M14/M19 A3018 RMK AO2 SLP281 T11441194 FZRANO

The Federal Meteorological Handbook No 1 under 12.7.2 (j) Station Status Indicators states, “…when automated stations are equipped with a freezing rain sensor and that sensor is not operating, the remark FZRANO shall be coded.”

Therefore, this just indicates the freezing rain sensor at KPVU is not operational. However, some translators (including the one at aviationweather.gov) will often pick up on this as a freezing rain event (FZRA) which gets added to the translated observation present weather as “freezing rain” when in fact, there isn’t any current precipitation observed, freezing rain or otherwise–the sky is clear.

Most heavyweight apps that aviators use today have a feature to translate the coded version into plain English. If that floats your boat, then so be it. If you are more like me and enjoy the compressed version or tabular form, then there’s no reason the coded text should be abolished or minimized in any way as “outdated.” Let’s face it, translators make poor translations. It could be owing to a flawed assumption or software design, or malformed coded text from the source. All of these occur regularly. That’s the underlying issue.

For example, look at the translation below. This is from the WxWorx XM satellite weather broadcast, which translated +TSRA into a “heavy thunderstorm” instead of a thunderstorm with heavy rain. In fact, WxWorx translated TSRA to “moderate thunderstorm,” and -TSRA was translated to “light thunderstorm”—as if there’s such a thing as a “light” thunderstorm.

KCLE 102323Z 36015G22KT 1/4SM +TSRA FG SCT007 BKN021CB OVC033 23/22 A2981 RMK AO2

Perhaps today there’s a better approach; why not have the automated systems generate the observation or forecast in a plain English fashion? First, that would require the software of all of these automated systems worldwide to be modified to generate plain English text. 

Then, of course, the applications that consume this data would need to be modified to ingest the new form of text. Easy to say but costly to implement. But it could be done. For example:

• MODERATE RAIN vs. RA
• LIGHT SNOW vs. -SN
• Moderate rain and thunderstorm vs. TSRA (if you don’t like caps)
• WIND 250 DEGREES AT 10 KNOTS AND NO GUSTS vs. 25010KT
• VISIBILITY 5 STATUTE MILES vs. 5SM
• OVERCAST 2,500 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL vs. OVC025
• INDEFINITE CEILING 300 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL vs. VV003.

I am all in for plain English as long as the coded version is preserved or it gets translated correctly back into coded form. But that places us right back into the same issue of poor translations or mismatches between plain English and coded forms. So, the problem isn’t completely solved, but at least we’ll get to argue about a different issue.

The post Decoding the Weather appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

We often hear that preparation is the key to traveling successfully in a GA aircraft. This is true, as long as your preparation includes making sure there is gas in the car.

I returned home Monday night after dropping our son off at school in New Hampshire following a long weekend at home. I had hoped to fly him back, saving time and boosting the trip’s fun factor, but alas, the weather forecast was just sketchy enough to convince me that driving was the better option.

This was a frustrating outcome as I had tracked the weather for days, and for a time Monday looked like it would work. I had also recently logged the last of 15 hours that my insurance company required before I could carry passengers in the Commander 114B my wife and I bought in November. I was itching to give Sam his first ride in the new airplane.

• READ MORE: Finding Your Ideal Aircraft: Take Time to Get Acquainted

By Monday morning, though, the forecast had taken an unfavorable turn, with stronger gusts than I would have liked at our home airport in Sussex, New Jersey (KFWN), and a low overcast at our destination, Lebanon Municipal (KLEB). I would not say the clouds were too low, and the reported winds were not ridiculous. Overall the conditions certainly were flyable, but I have found over time that whenever I use the word “flyable,” it is a hint that I should drive instead or just stay home.

This is one of those trips that is circuitous by car, so flying direct in 75 minutes instead of spending between four and five hours on the road feels especially efficient and is always tempting. Shaving so much time off the transit also helps make the case for having an airplane. And of course, flying is more fun than driving—to a point.

We pilots have to remind ourselves that passengers often have lower thresholds for discomfort than we do. Turbulence makes them sick, clouds make them worry, and precipitation, well, can you actually fly in that? Sam is not impressed when I tell him that I flew through a snow squall during my private pilot check ride (“Keep going. It won’t last,” the DPE said calmly). Besides, my rule for many years has been to take family members flying only in the best weather, with the hope that they will keep coming back. So far, it has worked.

• READ MORE: Bringing the New Baby Home

As Sam and I began the 300-statute-mile drive, I noted the clear sky and wind of, at most, 10 knots. I started to think we could have flown after all and that I had missed a great opportunity. Passing through Hartford, Connecticut, two hours later, we saw clouds mixing in, gradually progressing into an overcast at 5,000 feet or so. Still a go, maybe.

The telling moment came in Northampton, Massachusetts. We were on Interstate 91 North, which passes the edge of Northampton Airport (7B2). A Beechcraft Duchess was just taking off, headed in our direction. We watched as it caught up and passed directly overhead. I don’t think it had reached 500 feet when it began to disappear into the clouds.

I recognized the Duchess as one belonging to the flight school at Northampton and realized it probably was heading up for an instrument training flight. It felt like a message. At that point, I was able to sit back, enjoy the ride, and think about going for an instrument rating this spring.

The post When Planning an Airplane Trip, Make Sure the Car Is Ready appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Question: Can you tell me if there are any amendment criteria for a TAF (terminal aerodrome forecast)?  If so, what are they and how are they applied?

A. Most of the official aviation weather forecasts you will get on a standard briefing or via your favorite heavyweight aviation app or website are issued by aviation meteorologists located at the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) in Kansas City, Missouri. This includes graphical AIRMETs (G-AIRMETs), SIGMETs (WS) and convective SIGMETs (WST). Terminal aerodrome forecasts or TAFs, however, are not issued by the AWC nor are they issued by Flight Service; they are issued by forecasters physically located at your local NWS Weather Forecast Offices (WFO) throughout the United States and its territories shown below. The meteorologists at the local WFOs are very familiar with any local weather effects and have the best opportunity to produce a quality forecast for aviation. 

Your local WFO typically has the responsibility for issuing the TAFs for six or seven terminal areas on average. At the Greenville-Spartanburg WFO, for example, they issue the terminal forecasts for six airports to include KAND, KGSP, KGMU, KCLT, KHKY, and KAVL.

• READ MORE: Ask FLYING: Why Are Windsocks the Color They Are?

Scheduled TAFs are issued routinely four times a day at 00Z, 06Z, 12Z and 18Z. They are typically transmitted 20 to 40 minutes prior to these times. Once the TAFs hit the wire, the forecaster must continue to compare the forecast to the actual observations for the airport to be sure it accurately depicts the ceiling, visibility, wind, and weather occurring at the airport. When there is a discrepancy or the forecaster feels that the TAF isn’t representative of the weather that may occur in the terminal area within the TAF’s valid period, they will issue what is called an unscheduled TAF, better known as an amendment.   

The forecaster doesn’t literally have to watch the observations minute by minute. In fact, they have a program called Aviation Forecast Prep Software (AvnFPS) that monitors the observations at the respective airports. Based on programmed criteria, the software compares the terminal forecast to the latest observations for each TAF site issued by that forecaster and flags the forecast element as green when they match. When the program highlights a forecast element as yellow or red, this means the difference is near or has exceeded the amendment criteria. As can be seen above, the forecast for the most part matches the current observations for those airports in the Greenville-Spartanburg WFO (most elements are green). However, there are three terminal areas (KAVL, KHKY, and KAND) that show yellow for wind (speed or direction) implying that the forecast is not quite in line with the current observations. This allows the forecaster to quickly scan the display to determine if there is an immediate need for an amendment to one or more of the TAFs they issue. 

Amendments are the absolute best way to provide the highest quality forecast. In general, a forecaster will issue an amendment when it meets specific criteria that are imminent or have occurred and those conditions will, in the forecaster’s estimation, persist for 30 minutes or longer, or new guidance/information indicates future conditions are expected to be in a different flight category than originally forecast, especially in the next one to six hours.

• READ MORE: How to Fly Into a Big Airshow With Confidence

Just like instrument students are taught by their instructors not to “chase the needles,” forecasters are similarly encouraged not to chase the observations. For example, an unexpected, but brief rain shower may quickly develop and pass by the terminal area temporarily lowering visibility below the visibility in the TAF. The forecaster may be tempted to issue a quick amendment, but if the condition is expected to be brief, there’s no value to issuing an amendment—especially if it doesn’t alter the flight category (i.e., VFR, MVFR, IFR, LIFR) for the airport.  

The following categorical amendment criteria table below defines the thresholds of importance. 

In addition to the categorical amendment criteria above, below are other criteria where an amendment may be necessary. 

Weather

The TAF should be amended if thunderstorms, freezing precipitation, or ice pellets occur and are not forecasted, or, if forecasted, do not occur.

Wind Direction, Speed, and Gusts

The forecast mean refers to the mean wind direction or speed expected for the specified forecast group time period.

• The TAF should be amended if the forecast mean wind speed differs by ≥ 10 knots, while original or newly expected mean wind speed is ≥ 12 knots.
• The TAF should be amended if the forecast wind gust (or forecast of no gust) differs from observed wind gust by ≥ 10 knots (or above the observed mean wind speed if no gusts are forecast).

Non-convective Low-level Wind Shear (LLWS)

The TAF should be amended if non-convective LLWS is forecasted and does not occur, or if LLWS occurs and is not forecast.

• READ MORE: How Do I Report Braking Action?

The forecaster that issues the TAFs is assigned to the “short term desk” and has other duties to include the area forecast discussion (AFD) and may also include the issuance of severe thunderstorm or tornado warnings for their county warning area (CWA). The forecaster shown below is located at the Greenville-Spartanburg WFO and has recently transmitted the 1800 UTC scheduled TAFs and is now working on the gridded forecasts for the GSP region. The national gridded forecasts can be found here. The AvnFPS software compares the current observations to the gridded forecasts looking for differences as well.

As mentioned earlier, TAFs are issued at prescribed times every six hours. For the Chicago, Atlanta, and New York City terminal areas, however, TAFs are now issued every two or three hours. The NWS began this about a decade ago as part of an enhanced aviation project for the FAA…and it went over so well that they adopted it permanently. For the Chicago O’Hare airport (KORD), for example, you might even see 2-hourly updates at certain times during the day. The 2-hourly issuance times match the times of the FAA planning conference calls. Unlike other WFOs where forecasters that issue TAFs have multiple duties, these WFOs have a dedicated aviation forecaster. 

Here’s the ugly side of this improvement. The two- or three-hourly forecast is treated as an amended forecast, not a newly constructed TAF. In fact, these non-standard scheduled TAFs will carry the AMD tag when viewed online or via a standard briefing. So, there’s no way to tell if the forecast was changed because the amendment criteria was reached or because it was time for a new forecast. Moreover, you won’t see a new forecast if an amendment has been issued within 90 minutes prior to the next 2- or 3-hour non-standard scheduled forecast. For many pilots, this subtle change won’t cause any significant impact to your current flight planning regiment. If you happen to fly into or out of a busy airspace such as Chicago, Atlanta, or New York, just keep in mind that forecasts will be updated much more frequently even on those not-so-challenging weather days. In the end, if you see a terminal forecast tagged with AMD, it may not be because the previous forecast was misaligned with reality. It simply may be a new and improved forecast for you to ponder.

• READ MORE: How Can I Get a Special VFR?

Do you have a question about aviation that’s been bugging you? Ask us anything you’ve ever wanted to know about aviation. Our experts in general aviation, flight training, aircraft, avionics, and more may attempt to answer your question in a future article.

The post Are There Any Amendment Criteria for a TAF? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

At some point during my formative years, a friend of mine once said, “The only New Year’s resolution I ever make is to drink more water.” Anything else was deemed either too complicated or too unachievable—or of dubious merit in the long run.

So, like every year, that’s mine too.

On second thought, there’s more. The year that’s quickly slipping under our wings flew by, and we made considerable progress on the new FLYING. I also took steps forward on a few key aspects of my aviation life that are worth it for you to consider adding to your plan for 2023.

1: I Flew More. I Want to Fly More.

Weather put a hold on the flying I’d planned for our winter holidays. But I still managed to squeak in 30 percent more hours in 2022 than the year before. That’s a great start—but it’s just the beginning.

Flying is a sport in that it takes practice and exercise to continue to perform well. Or—on the flip side, what happens when you try to run a 5K on a Sunday morning and you haven’t put in the miles during the weeks before? You pull some muscle you didn’t know existed—and it hurts.

Going flying when you haven’t been practicing exposes you to pain. So while I’m happy with my progress, I know I will fly better and feel better the more I am able to put in the miles.

2: I Made an IFR Proficiency Plan.

A close corollary to the “fly more, fly better” mantra has to do with instrument flying. For those of you who earned an instrument rating at some time in your life, you know the work that went into getting that ticket. Few pilots call it “easy” and most consider it the most critical phase in their training. I know I do.

So all that work will quickly go to waste if you don’t keep your skills up. A good friend who recently earned her rating sets up a plan to fly every week under the hood—or in actual. That’s great. She may not make it every week, but it’s on the calendar so those hours add up to the required approaches and procedures as she needs them to stay current.

I know how important this is because I let my IFR proficiency lapse. I laughed out loud—and somewhat ruefully—when I was proofreading Martha Lunken’s latest column about regaining her instrument ticket, for our next issue. It was difficult enough to regain the skills when we were flying with a six-pack of analog gauges and a BendixKing KX 155 nav/com—now the levels of complexity resident in the standard G1000 NXi fill a tome literally two inches thick.

Make a plan for your flying—whether it’s VFR or IFR or both.

3: I Renewed My CFI.

In April, I’ll celebrate a milestone: 30 years since I earned my initial flight instructor certificate. After the instrument rating, it was by far the most challenging credential to achieve—and if you let it lapse, you’ll need to take a check ride with an FAA inspector to get it back, whether for a new instructor rating or just to reinstate the old one.

I don’t ever want to be in this position, so every two years, by hook or by crook, I make the time to renew. I have used a variety of courses to do so over the past three decades—at one point, I was on the development team for Jeppesen’s CFI Renewal program, so I like to see what all the providers are doing. But I never take it for granted. I always end up missing a couple of questions that I thought I knew cold. And I’m inevitably humbled by accepting the responsibility each time to recommit myself to teaching this craft we love so much.

4: I’m Looking for Unleaded.

I live in the Mid-Atlantic U.S., not California. So a year ago, when the specter of airport shutdowns in the Bay Area loomed large, it might have felt like the potential sunsetting of 100LL avgas remained a faraway problem.

But as 2022 wore on, more pressure developed on the quest to field an unleaded aviation gasoline solution—and a lot of progress was made. However, the fact that we’re sitting here a good 18 months after GAMI first obtained an STC for its unleaded solution—and six months after a broader acceptance of the fuel was granted—without unleaded fuel coming into our local airport is no surprise. Even with a drop-in solution and a mandate from the EPA closing in, it still takes a lot of work to build the infrastructure and supply chain to get the new juice into our engines.

The same is true of sustainable aviation fuel. We get press releases every week of new loads of SAF delivered to airports across the country. I read news from colleagues in Europe who feel significant pressure to switch over their fleets as soon as they can get their hands on a supply of SAF—lest the court of public opinion start to move on banning operations that don’t use it.

We have a lot of smart people working on those supply and distribution issues—but you can still feel helpless. But instead of sitting around and waiting for better fuel to arrive at my home base, I’m looking for ways to fly more efficiently now. This has two benefits—any less avgas I use is a little less that flows through the system. And with the price of 100LL still at elevated levels, every penny I save turns into more hours I can fly.

5: I’m Working on Some Good News.

I’m excited for 2023…there are a lot of airplanes out there to fly, and places to go, and pilots to visit—with the opportunity to tell their stories. My only resolution here is to help bring to you more where this is concerned, and we have great plans in the works to do just that.

So, perhaps you can gather some inspiration from my year to propel your own.

Or maybe just drink more water. I guarantee you’ll fly better when you’re properly hydrated.

The post Wait, Is 2022 Over Already? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Advisory circulars from the FAA used to be sent to pilots via the U.S. mail. They were printed on blue paper and sometimes arrived with such frequency you felt like you were on Hogan’s Heroes—every message that the characters on that classic TV show got from London came on blue paper.

A great many of those ACs focused on weather—how to get a good weather briefing, mountain flying, thunderstorms, etc. Now all that information is available in FAA-H-8083-28, the newly updated version of the Aviation Weather Handbook.

The 532-page handbook is subdivided into three parts:

• Part 1: Overview of the United States Aviation Weather Service Program and Information.
• Part 2: Weather Theory and Aviation Hazards.
• Part 3: Technical Details Relating to Weather Products and Aviation Weather Tools.

The handbook features color illustrations and bullet point presentations that make the sometimes complex nature of weather easier to understand.

A Few Highlights

Chapter 2 provides an overview of aviation weather information. A few things that will jump out to instructors and savvy pilots include a detailed account of what to expect in a standard briefing, the order in which the information is delivered, the color coding used for METARs (spoiler alert: purple and red mean no VFR flight today).

Chapter 16 on Mountain Weather should be a must read by all pilots, as lack of knowledge in these areas in particular can lead to accidents. You have probably heard about a pilot who chose to fly close to those ‘really cool looking clouds’ to get a photograph and ended up in a bad situation.

Chapter 18, Obstructions to Visibility does an excellent job of explaining fog, mist, and haze.

Note the message: “mist may be considered an intermediate between fog and haze,” which is an excellent way to explain the phenomenon to aviators who are visual learners.

Chapter 22, Thunderstorms, goes into greater detail than in previous FAA publications, in particular on what to do if you inadvertently enter a thunderstorm—read it and then file it under “Things You Hope You Never Have to Know.”

The Aviation Weather Handbook is available in both e-format and hardcopy.

The post FAA Releases New Weather Handbook appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

I remember saying to my student, “It’s finally August, Kevin, we’re almost there.” I was upbeat about our training progress and beaming with optimism that we’d be able to meet our goal. Kevin and I met for the first time in June. We were paired together for his initial commercial pilot training course.

Doing my typical spiel, I told Kevin it was possible to earn his entire certificate before the end of summer. I would do my best to make it happen if he was up for the challenge, but I warned him: “This will be very demanding.” The fact that we had to complete the entire training course was the easy part—the Florida summertime heat and humidity would push us to our limits. “At least your training block is at 6 a.m. It’ll be cooler in the mornings, but we have to watch for the early morning fog followed by the cloud build-up,” I reasoned out loud insearch of some reprieve in light of our aggressive training agreement.

Fast forward—it’s now August. Kevin and I could see the end in sight. We needed just one more flight to complete a mock checkride. We’d put all the things we’d been working on together in an entire sequence, and I told Kevin that if we found anything deficient, we would fix it on the spot. This meant we went on a flight much longer than usual—for three hours this time—hoping we’d have the endurance to match.

On Saturday morning, when we set out to complete our flight, I had the first indication that maybe I was unflinchingly optimistic about getting things done amid typical fuel and traffic delays. That should’ve been my cue to adjust our plans. Still, to a fault, I was bent on getting Kevin’s course complete.

We made it through the first series of procedures fine, but as the day grew hotter, both Kevin’s and the airplane’s performance waned. The Cessna 172 in which we were training was no longer climbing sharply as Kevin tried to complete his lazy eights, so his technique was off. I also failed to adjust the performance standards, instead insisting that Kevin make another attempt to fix the procedure as we dodged the clouds building up around us.

As the student, Kevin’s optimism rode on mine, but as the flight went on longer and longer, his energy and focus began to deplete, despite his best efforts to push through. As an instructor, I should’ve anticipated this and understood that Kevin would’ve gone along with anything I said. In the end, it turned out to be an exhaustingly futile—if not altogether foolish—exercise, and Kevin and I later admitted that we were shortsighted about the demands of summer flying.

Ultimately, Kevin made it through. We’d figured out that it was wiser to split the flight sequence up, and that it was in our best interest to stick to a shorter time limit for each flight, even though we originally thought otherwise.

While I’ve had other memorable summer flights, this one has been most instructive to me. As you navigate the summertime, you’ll realize there are multiple challenges to address. Even on the best days, your airplane will be sluggish—longer takeoff and landing rolls; slower climbrates; and, worse, never enough ventilation.

Weatherwise, pilots have to contend with morning fog, thunderstorms, microbursts, high winds, clear air turbulence, and humidity. The worst scenarios might find you hoping that your airplane can withstand whatever nature has thrown at you.

However, those aren’t the only hazards. As I discovered in my flight with Kevin, pilots tend to think about summer performance only in terms of the airplane and the weather, but more is at play. Indeed, the effect the environment has on our bodies might pose a more significant threat than we tend to acknowledge. This could be costly.

The FAA has described the challenge pilots and their passengers face in the heat as “thermal stress.” With extreme heat as the stimulus, thermal stress is an important factor in fatigue, and it impairs performance. Occupants of low-flying, piston-powered airplanes are the ones who typically have to deal with airplanes that don’t have the best air-conditioning systems, and most onboard cooling systems are deficient on the ground and at low altitudes.

Pilots need to anticipate this to take care of themselves and their students and passengers, especially since everyone reacts differently. Some human needs aren’t immediately obvious until you’re in a bind. As I learned with Kevin, it can be costly to push a fellow pilot along or expect a student to comply with your demands.

Whether you’re going on a long cross-country trip or doing a training flight, it’s in your best interest to consider the potential impact of heat exposure. This means planning shorter trip legs, diversion airports, and enough hydration. As usual, dress for the environment, understanding that your body cools down when you sweat, which means breathable fabric might be more comfortable. Flying with another pilot will always be a hedge against your own limitations, allowing you to reduce your workload and potential stress. Ultimately, planning your trips earlier in the morning and later in the evening will reduce your heat exposure.

While it may seem that these external elements threaten a good experience in the airplane, pilots who take the time to plan accordingly for the demands of summertime flying can ensure instead that the memories end up being pleasant.

The post Hot Weather Takes a Toll appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Many of my non-pilot friends and acquaintances assume that four decades of professional aviation experience includes a doctorate level of expertise in weather. I chuckle. Perhaps my knowledge exceeds that of the average local TV news viewer because of experience and tutelage by an admired college professor with an actual Ph.D. in meteorology. But I’ll never claim to have anything remotely resembling a weather crystal ball. One recent trip in our Piper Arrow proved my lack of forecasting skills. But in this circumstance, my error cost only time and money.

The trip began with a flight to Vero Beach, an easy hour and change from our home base. Although the late morning departure allowed for a VFR operation and a scenic coastal route, I preferred an IFR operation. An instrument flight plan eliminated the need to avoid and/or communicate with Class D and Class C airspace that dot the coastline, flight following notwithstanding.

Now that Part 121 no longer provides for my currency,filing an IFR flight plan offers an opportunity to log an approach procedure for my instrument proficiency. Although the expected GPS “T-route” clearance to KVRB was more inland, it was relatively direct. And we could climb above the scattered to broken cloud layer into my wife’s preferred smooth and cooler air.

I had coordinated a myriad of activities: A Piper factory visit; a reunion with a CNN aviation analyst friend and documentary producer; and two nights of Passover seders with friends in South Florida.

The Piper factory tour was an open invitation from Mike Melachrinos, senior manager of structural analysis, and a 16-year employee. After the experience with my Arrow wing because of the spar AD, Mike offered a personalized nickel tour.

When the tour is conducted by a structural engineer, the perspective provides a more intimate understanding. As you might expect, the facility itself is immaculate and well-organized. I had some trepidations on witnessing the process of how the sausage is made, concerned that the recipe would spoil my appetite. But I gained a greater appreciation for the ingenuity, design, and safety incorporated into the airplane-building process. Even though the newer Piper models are constructed with more emphasis on bonding rather than rivets, my wife walked away with an improved comfort level and appreciation for our 50-year-old, traditionally built airplane.

Having toured Boeing’s Everett, Washington, plant a few years back, Piper is on par, with its capital investments in tooling and the use of 3-D printing. One efficiency: A proposed modification to an interior part can be available for testing in a matter of days rather than weeks.

As with many professions these days, Piper is having difficulty finding and retaining qualified engineers. Regardless of the salary, it seems the attraction of working for Elon Musk or NASA offers more glamor than the oc-cupation of designing a really cool GA airplane.

My producer friend, Miles O’Brien, accompanied my wife and I on the tour. He has been considering a partnership in a Piper Meridian 350 turboprop conversion, so the tour piqued his curiosity. As a structural engineer, Mike Melachrinos had trepidations with the conversion since it was not a Piper-ordained modification. Mike pitched the M500 as a better alternative, a project with which he is intimately familiar.

Miles had owned a Cirrus in his previous life, but because of a freak accident that left him absent a left arm, he was no longer able to fly without an FAA disability waiver. Although personal affairs interfered for a period of time, Miles has rekindled his desire to fly and hopes to pursue efforts in obtaining the requisite waiver.

A surprise dividend of the Vero Beach visit was reconnecting with an old colleague from my days employed by Chautauqua Airlines when the carrier was an Allegheny commuter. While calling FBOs to check on ramp fees, I spoke with Rodger Pridgeon, a senior A&P who worked on the Beech 99s I flew out of Lakeland and Vero Beach. It turns out, Rodger owns Corporate Air Inc. He has made incredible infrastructure investments that compete hands down with the Signature FBOs of the world.

As an endorsement of Rodger’s business model, NetJets’ and FlexJet’s airplanes populated the ramp directly outside the FBO. Beyond the comfort of a first-class facility, I found the historic aviation photos that adorned the walls to be an enjoyable time machine of Vero Beach Airport’s past. Corporate Air is also a family affair, with Rodger’s wife, son, and daughter participating directly. All employees were professional and accommodating.

On the morning of our departure from Vero Beach to Palm Beach County Park Airport (KLNA), aka Lantana, my ForeFlight app was already beginning to display hues of green, yellow, and red. Although the convection was located off the coastline, it was beginning to blossom with signs that it would expand inland. The forecast indicated that it wouldn’t be until after 1300 local that thunderstorms would develop on the route. I thought differently.

Not wanting to suffer the consequences for nudging my wife along with her morning routine, and knowing that the flight was only 31 minutes, we moved at a leisurely pace. The unfortunate consequence was shutting down the airplane after a before-taxi review of the Nexrad picture. I scare easily in an airplane that is void of jet engines and a professional copilot.

A further study of the weather picture and forecast said forget about flying for the day. I saw no reason to wait for a window of opportunity. Rodger was kind enough to produce the last rental car key, and soon we joined the Passover and Easter traffic on I-95 via Kia rather than Piper.

After our unceremonious arrival to our friend’s drive-way, it was apparent over the course of a few hours that the weather would have cooperated enough to have completed the flight from Vero Beach. As expected, my wife dismissed the second guessing, instructing me to have a beer and be quiet.

Beyond the expense of a rental car, one positive was that my friend and I began the next day with a superb greasy spoon breakfast, a guys’ road trip back to VeroBeach, and a scenic tour of the coastline at 500 feet, as per Palm Beach Approach Control’s request through Class C airspace. The KLNA airport proved a little quirky compared to KVRB. But an inquiry to a handful of local pilots in a meeting at a flight school produced an answer to tie-down availability. First come. First served. No worries.

Did I make the wrong decision about the weather? Kinda. Would I make the wrong forecast decision again? Probably…but maybe next time I’d have more patience to wait out Mother Nature.

The post When Being Wrong is Right appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

At 2:34 a.m. on December 20, a 6.4 earthquake struck Humboldt County, California, knocking out the power to more than 70,000 customers. 

One place that did not lose power, however, is California Redwood Coast Humboldt County Airport (KACV), which has power owing to its microgrid.

The airport is located in McKinleyville, north of Arcata. Arcata is home to Cal Poly Humboldt, the most northern school in the California State University system. School officials noted that the campus is closed because of the power outage, but thus far no damage has been found.

• READ MORE: Pilots Accuse California County of Neglecting Airport While Asking for Massive Rent Increase

There were no reports of damage at KACV either, as airport officials were quick to post on the Fly ACV Facebook page.

The Facebook post continues to advise people to check with their airlines for the most up to date information.

The airport was built in the 1940s to support the U.S. Navy, which took advantage of the heavy fog on the coast to develop defogging systems. The airport has two runways: Runway 14/32, measuring 6,046 feet by 150 feet and Runway 1/19, measuring 4,501 feet by 150 feet.

About the Quake

The epicenter was reported to be in Ferndale, a city with a population of approximately 1,400, known for its gingerbread Victorian homes and its appeal to movie producers—”Outbreak,” “The Majestic,” “Kingdom Come,” “Joe Dirt,” and “Salem’s Lot” were filmed there.

Ferndale is approximately 210 miles north of San Francisco. This part of northern California is remote, which is a polite way of saying there is limited ground access. Highway 101 runs north to south, and as the quake hit in the middle of the night there were several tense hours while the authorities waited for the light of day to determine the extent of the damage to both persons and property. There have been reports of two deaths attributed to medical emergencies that happened during or just after the temblor, along with a handful of injuries. There have been in excess of 50 aftershocks. Damage reported thus far includes houses off their foundations, broken water mains, buckled roads and bridges, shattered windows, and fallen household objects.

Pacific Gas and Electric, which provides electricity to most of Humboldt County reported in excess of 70,000 customers without power and there is no estimation on when service will be restored.

Humboldt County has a total of six airports, the only one handling commercial service is KACV.

The others are used primarily by general aviation pilots; they are Dinsmore (D63), Gaberville (O16), Kneeland (O19), Rohnerville (KFOT) near Fortuna, and Murray Field (KEKA) north of Eureka.

According to airnav.com, all the airports are operated by the county and have the same manager, Cody Roggatz. FLYING made several attempts to reach Roggatz but was unsuccessful as of press time.

The post Microgrid Keeps Airport Up and Running After Earthquake appeared first on FLYING Magazine.