AircraftOwner Online

            I’ve been a flight instructor for a long time. Some aspects of flying are easy to teach because the student is keenly interested in the subject material while others are not. Next to judgment, weather is perhaps the hardest subject to teach. When you start talking about Radar Summary Charts and Center Weather Advisories, you can literally watch the students eyes glaze over. Back in the day, (this is going to date me), you could walk into a Flight Service Station with your student and a weather briefer would pull out the actual chart and explain to the fledging aviator how it worked and why it mattered. But that is all ancient history.  In fact, the only place you can actually see a Radar Summary Chart these days is on a written exam.

You are basically left to self briefing from information derived from a source like DUAT or talking with a Flight Service representative who is likely not a meteorologist. This reality left me searching for a better way to teach weather briefings.

            Then I came across this book. Preflight Weather Analysis Made Easy, by Jerry Miller. The only place you can get it is from Find-it Fast Books in Montoursville,, PA. Go to /www.finditfastbooks.com

            The secret to this book is the format. What Jerry did was take all the complexities of weather forecasting and broke it down into segments. He created a page format that is as similar as possible that explains each type of chart or weather report. He diagrams each type of chart like you might diagram an approach plate.  He even addresses the most commonly made mistakes and highlights the “gotcha ya’s” that

most of us learned by accident.

            There is an extensive section on WSR-88D Doppler weather radar, which is a commonly used tool. He explains how it works, and what the difference is between base reflectivity and composite reflectivity is as well as the limitation of the system.  

            The section on Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts, commonly called TAF’s and Aviation Routine weather reports, which we call METARS is very detailed. To illustrate the common mistake, he discusses the METAR code “TSNO”. This code is commonly mistaken to mean no thunderstorms, but actually means thunderstorm information not available.

            If this book wasn’t good enough, he also publishes a separate book on METARS and TAF’s and another on NOTAM’s, Notices to Airmen. Jerry sent these to me as well. Ever wonder what FZRANO means in a metar? How about DRDU?  Well, they are in there, along with hundreds of other little snippets of information that will separate you from the pack when it comes to reading encoded weather.

            If you are the self taught type, then you will love these books. You don’t need an instructor to explain it to you. If you are an instructor, you want this book because it makes a difficult job easier.

            If you do read it, let me know what you think.