Common Weather-Related Pitfalls Pilots Face and How to Navigate Them
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Every time we fly, we have to deal with the weather. There are some days when the weather is so nice that we want to share our flying adventures with everyone that we care about. On other days, we wouldn’t wish the weather conditions on our worst enemy. When we see or expect one of these extremes, the decision to fly or not is pretty clear. One of our responsibilities as a pilot is to determine if the weather will be somewhere in the middle, as it usually is, and if it will be prudent and safe to conduct our flight operations as planned. In this post, we take a look at some of the weather-related pitfalls that you may face and how to navigate them in a safe manner.
Capabilities of the Pilot and the Aircraft
The first question that you need to address is, what are your capabilities as a pilot?
The first question that you need to address is, what are your capabilities as a pilot? The answers that you discover will become a part of your weather decision making.
Take a look at your pilot ratings and your recent experience in the aircraft type. If you have recent experience in the type, take a look at your recent experience in that particular aircraft or one with a similar flight deck configuration.
You should review your personal minimums with regard to the planned flight (you have established personal minimums, correct?). Your personal minimums will provide objective criteria to begin your decision process. More subjective decision making will follow.
The second question that you need to address is, what are the capabilities of the aircraft with you as the pilot?
Your aircraft may be IFR equipped, it may be approved for flight in known icing, or a test pilot may have demonstrated that it can be landed in 20 knot crosswinds. Does that mean that you can take the aircraft into those conditions? Maybe, or maybe not. You need to analyze the aircraft’s capabilities and your capabilities in that aircraft.
Are you and the aircraft rated or approved for the expected flight conditions? If yes, when was the last time that you flew the aircraft in similar conditions? Are you above and beyond the “legal” minimums to the point of proficiency in the expected conditions?
Review the backup systems that are installed on the aircraft and that you may bring along with you. Are you proficient on their use if primary system should fail?
Weather-Related Pitfalls before the Flight
The biggest weather-related pitfall to avoid before the flight is failing to review the available weather information.
The biggest weather-related pitfall to avoid before the flight is failing to review the available weather information. This pitfall is easy to navigate, use the tools available to you and review the available weather information. It is a regulatory requirement for flights not in the vicinity of an airport or under instrument flight rules, but it is a good idea for every flight, even in the traffic pattern.
Closely related is the pitfall of an insufficient review of the available weather information. To navigate this pitfall, you should have a plan for reviewing the weather before every flight. Having and using a thorough plan for each flight will help prevent missed information that may be important for the safety of your flight. Check out the FAA Advisory Circular, Pilot’s Guide to a Preflight Briefing, to develop a roadmap for your weather review and briefings.
With appropriate weather knowledge in hand, compare this to your ratings, capabilities, personal minimums, and proficiency in the planned aircraft for the flight. Avoid the pitfall of over-estimating your capabilities and proficiency while making your go/no go decision for the flight. Navigate this pitfall with the help of a trusted flight instructor during a low-pressure time period.
En Route Weather-Related Pitfalls
You need to remain engaged in the flight and getting updated weather information.
After making a good decision to go fly, the weather-related decisions and potential pitfalls don’t come to a stop. You need to remain engaged in the flight and getting updated weather information even if the auto-pilot is helping out with some of the flying duties.
Failing to stay engaged and get updated weather while en route is a pitfall to avoid.
Getting updated weather while flying used to mean calling a service called “Flight Watch” or reaching out to your closest Flight Service Station for an update. Both of these options meant knowing or looking up the appropriate frequency and making a call on the radio. The briefer would describe the weather that they were seeing based upon your estimated location and your planned destination. There were no weather maps available to you in flight. Expensive and heavy onboard radar systems or small installed lightening detection equipment might have been an option for visualized information.
That started to change with the advent of uplink weather and satellite subscription services that could feed data to installed avionics systems and dedicated portable devices. This added graphical information to the en route weather with own-ship information shown on the GPS fed map.
Today, aircraft with modern avionics are capable of receiving and displaying subscription-free ADS-B weather or much improved (compared to earlier satellite weather) satellite subscription-based weather. Affordable portable units can receive and display these weather sources on compatible tablets, smart phones, and hand-held GPS units. Tech savvy pilots are also starting to use satellite-based internet connections to gather additional weather information while established in cruise flight.
With all of this affordable weather information available, you should have no excuse for not navigating the failure to stay updated pitfall. Even if you don’t have modern connectivity available to you, the old call to flight service or listening to AWOS and ATIS broadcasts along your route should still give you a basic picture of the weather. The FAA is considering eliminating the remote radio communications network for flight service, but so far, it still exists.
One other en route pitfall that bears mentioning and must be navigated. Critical phases of flight are not the times to be reviewing weather on a tablet or other device. Critical phases of flight have specific definitions in the Part 121 and Part 135 worlds. It is not defined for general aviation, but you can look to the 121/135 definitions for guidance. “For the purposes of this section, critical phases of flight includes all ground operations involving taxi, takeoff and landing, and all other flight operations conducted below 10,000 feet, except cruise flight.” Think in terms of priority. If operation of the aircraft or communicating with ATC or other aircraft requires your full attention, this is not the time to bury your face in the latest weather information.
Planning to Succeed
The “success” of a flight can be measured in a number of different ways. The way that I would define success here is that you, your passengers, and your aircraft are safely on the ground and all in good condition to fly another day. That might mean than that you completed your flight mission. It might mean that you abandoned your flying plans for the day. It might also mean that you made a prudent decision to divert to an alternate airport while en route.
Success rarely occurs without a plan. Sure, luck occasionally plays a part in random success. True and reliable success requires good plans that are carried out on a consistent basis. Solid plans include what to do when things go right, along with contingencies for times when the original plans are not working as expected. Your plans should meet the legal requirements for a flight along with your personal and mission requirements.
Learning from Each Flight
After you have arrived at your destination or made the prudent decision to cancel or divert or even if you made some poor decisions but survived the experience, take some time after the event to reflect on the weather conditions that you experienced and the decisions that you made. Think about what went right, what went wrong, and what could have gone better. Was the weather what you expected? If different, did you miss something or did the forecasters get it wrong? Were you and the aircraft up to the task and performing as expected? What are the takeaways from this flight that you can use in planning future flights?
Taking the time to debrief the flight on your own or with other pilots that were on or planned to be on the flight will make you a better pilot. You will be that much better at navigating future pitfalls.
Fly and stay safe!
In his role as VP of Safety, Security, and Compliance for Sporty's Academy, Chief Jurgens develops and maintains the necessary systems to fulfill that role. He also develops material which eventually becomes a part of the courseware used at Sporty's Academy and sold through Sporty's Pilot Shop.
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Very good advice on noing you airplane capability an you own capability very good advice