Kathleen O'Brien, LGB SPM

Instrument flying will bring you near or into weather. Especially when a trip is outside familiar territory, how you prepare for the weather environment could mean a successful journey or a disaster.

Begin flight planning by looking at what is happening now. Use reports of actual weather such as satellite images, (they’re are usually updated hourly with a 12-hour animated sequence showing weather motion, large area radar reports.)

Surface maps are the next stop. They define fronts and pressure patterns and areas of instrument conditions or visual conditions.

Now, go to the big picture of what is predicted. Here winds aloft become significant. You want to know winds at several flight levels. They provide the rails on which the weather train rides. What kind of a ride can be deduced by looking closely at the winds both for velocity and direction.

Significant weather prognostics show what is expected over time. Combine these with wind and the surface data, and you have a moving picture of the forecast weather.

Next comes the briefing. Here you are collaborating with weather professionals who can refine and clarify what you have learned. Ask for significant weather bulletins, SIGMETS and AIRMETS. Ask for Notices to Airmen that could affect your flight. Here, be alert to any navigation aids anywhere near your route that may not be in service. Were you to have to change plans mid-flight, it’s important that any navigation aid you use for the change be up and functioning properly.

While enroute, you can monitor weather by listening over VORs that have hazardous in-flight weather advisory service (HIWAS), listening to the Automated Weather observation System (AWOS) or Automated surface observation system (ASOS) or the ATIS (automatic terminal information service) at airports you are overflying, and Flight Watch on 122.0. Flight watch is the place to ask for and to submit pilot reports (PIREPS).

By going to our web page (www.awp.faa.gov/flightstandards, then to non-FAA Sites, then to AvWeb, then Brainteasers, Quiz #16 will give you a great review of making and receiving pilot reports.

Kathleen O’Brien, LGB SPM

Torrance Airport - Zamperini Field
Class D Airspace Change

Web Magic at
www.awp.faa.gov/flightstandards

SUPER SAFETY DAY

San Diego’s 9^th Annual Super Safety Seminar will be Saturday, June 9^th from 9 to 5 at the San Diego Aerospace Museum Annex on Gillespie Field. You can fly in for all or just some of this great day. Seminar topics include:

• Tower and Traffic Pattern Safety
• Student CFI Responsibilities and Relationships
• Tips for Check-Rides-Local Pilot Examiners Round Table Discussion
• Avionics/GPS Demonstration
• Helicopter Safety
• Surviving Water Emergencies.

The local Confederate Airforce will be open for tours. The museum has many US Navy aircraft on display, free of charge. Check out the web site at: www.sandiego-online.com/forums/aviation/ss99/

New Telephone System
for Hawthorne, Riverside,
and San Diego AFSS

For better service and ease of use, the Automated Flight Service Stations in Hawthorne, Riverside and San Diego have a new telephone system. Call, 1 800 Wx Brief ( 1800 992-7433). Then:

Press 1 –talk to a Specialist,
Press 2 –access weather and information recordings then a 2-digit code for specific recordings,
Press 3 –Fast File
Press 8 –for system instructions.

Check our web site under Letters to Airmen for greater details: www.awp.faa.gov/flightstandards

• The New and Easy Way to Register for the Physiological Training
• What Instruments Do You Really Care About When IFR?
• The NALL Report-What We Have Learned or Not Learned