Practical Weather Flying To Be Unveiled At Next AOPA Expo

If you have some practical, pilot-to-pilot tips on coping with weather, the AOPA Air Safety Foundation needs your help to put together its next major safety seminar, "Practical Weather Flying." ASF is looking for actual weather experience of real pilots, both VFR and IFR, as opposed to the "theory only" versions of weather often taught in ground school.

"Practical Weather Flying" will be unveiled at the 2004 AOPA Expo, October 21-23 in Long Beach (CA).

Examples of practical tips might include:

• Climbing to top a haze layer almost always ensures smoother air.
• Look at METARs just west of your destination for an idea of what the weather will be when you arrive.
• In possible icing conditions, monitor the temperature on the way up so you'll know how far you'll have to descend to get out of ice.
• On a low instrument approach, you can usually tell when to start visually looking for the runway, because the clouds usually get noticeably darker just before you break out.

  

Please keep your contributions brief and indicate the section of the country in which you fly to help us account for regional differences in weather. To contribute, just e-mail your tip(s) to the Air Safety Foundation.

FMI: www.aopa.org/asf