Online Course Will Show You How

The AOPA Air Safety Foundation is calling on all pilots to help reduce the number of weather-related accidents by giving a pilot report (pirep) on every flight. The Foundation tells ANN it has completely redesigned its online course -- "SkySpotter: Pireps Made Easy" -- which the group says makes it fun to learn how to give, get, and use pireps effectively.

"Most pilots have been faced with a questionable weather forecast and wished there were more real-time weather reports available to help with their go/no-go decision," said Bruce Landsberg, executive director of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation. "The pirep is the best possible solution to this need yet they are all too rare."

AOPA states the new and improved SkySpotter program encourages pilots to report when the weather is better than, worse than, or the same as forecast -- in other words, on every flight. By doing so, pilots help each other to make an educated go/no-go decision, by either confirming the weather reports or describing what the weather conditions really are.

The leading cause of general aviation weather-related accidents is flying visual flight rules (VFR) into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). Weather briefers sometimes tell pilots that VFR is not recommended, if marginal weather is being reported in the area. Pireps help to debunk those forecasts or validate them, which in turn helps to lower the number of accidents due to VFR into IMC.

Pireps provide critical weather information, such as cloud layers, icing, and turbulence that cannot be accurately obtained from other sources. They also fill in the gaps between ground-based weather reporting stations. Pireps offer real-time in-flight weather information that is invaluable to pilots and weather forecasters.

The goal of the "SkySpotter: Pireps Made Easy" course is to improve the quality and quantity of pireps across the country. The course qualifies for AOPA Accident Forgiveness and FAA WINGS.

FMI: www.asf.org/skyspotter/