He complained there was something wrong with the airplane. The engine wasn’t producing enough power. He had attempted two takeoffs and wisely chose to abort, as it did not lift off when he expected.

“It pretty much ate up the whole runway!” he said. 

When asked if he had done the performance calculations, specifically accounting for density altitude, he acted like a deer in the headlights. He had not performed the computations because he didn’t think the conditions warranted. The field elevation was approximately 492 feet—certainly not what you would consider high elevation, and the temperature was in the mid-80s Fahrenheit. He was from Arizona, where the temperature routinely topped 100 in the summer, so this was not hot, and it didn’t feel humid out there, at least not by Midwest or Gulf state standards—also places he had been.

“Don’t you need all three to create density altitude?” he asked.

No. No, you don’t.

• READ MORE: The Importance of Embracing Proficiency Culture

He was surprised to learn that a single one of those factors can reduce aircraft performance, which is why those numbers need to be crunched and double-checked before every flight. And I mean every flight.

Of all the skills that go by the wayside after the check ride, determining aircraft performance is right up there next to “obtaining a weather briefing” and “weight and balance.” If you don’t make it a habit to use these skills, they fade—and quickly. I will never forget the private pilot who had her certificate for all of four months yet couldn’t remember how to access a weather report or read a takeoff performance chart and therefore had no idea how long the takeoff roll would be.

Consider what is off the end of the runway as well. If the performance chart says you need 1,120 feet to clear that 50-foot obstacle at the end of the runway, and the runway measures 1,900 feet, ask yourself where could you go if something went wrong? Is there a golf course? An industrial park? A lake? Don’t forget to review the short-field takeoff checklist and review the fine print, especially with regard to leaning the mixture for best power.

Watch the Weight

We can’t control the weather, but we can manage the weight of the aircraft. On warmer days, it is not uncommon to limit the fuel load of an aircraft to adjust for its reduced performance.

Most flight schools that use scheduling software have a place to put notes in the rental reservation where you can leave a remark such as special refueling instructions, such as do not refuel after flight. To be safe you might want to add a Post-it note in the dispatch binder or on it, or a note on a whiteboard in the CFI cubicles can work. This is a belt-and-suspenders and a staple-gun approach, but if your flight school doesn’t have the ability to expediently and safely offload fuel, it can save a flight. 

Don’t forget to note the time to climb in your calculations. It is a bit chilling to have planned for a climb rate of 500 feet per minute to clear a ridgeline but then notice the aircraft is struggling to achieve 300 feet per minute. This is one of those times you will want to fly  a shuttle climb, going back and forth in a confined space.

Protect Pilot Performance

High altitude, heat, and humidity also degrade the performance of a pilot. Most aircraft in the training fleet don’t have the same caliber of environmental controls as modern cars, so pilots, especially flight instructors, have to be creative. (You know it is a hot day at the airport when the CFIs keep the door of the aircraft open during taxi and don’t close it until just before takeoff.)

You can try to work around it by scheduling flights early in the morning or late in the evening but if that is not an option you have to adapt.

• READ MORE: Separation Anxiety: When Your Instructor Moves on, Your Logbook Tells the Story

In the Seattle area, anything over 90 degrees is unusual, and our homes, airplanes, and bodies aren’t used to it. There was one summer where it really got us. I still had to fly, so I scheduled as many of my learners as I could in the cooler part of the day—two before noon and one for when the day began to cool. I had learned that even if I used those products advertised to control sweat and stink and wore a cotton T-shirt under my flight school uniform (a black polo made from a material that nature never knew existed), by midday my shirt was sweat soaked and I felt as though I needed a bath in tomato juice.

I started changing my T-shirt at least twice a day, and when the temperatures reached the 100s, drew upon primacy, drawing upon my days as a teenage girl at slumber parties: I froze my own T-shirt. It’s not quite what we did back in those days, but the principle was sound, and I highly recommend it. Put a clean, dry T-shirt in the freezer overnight. Wear it the next day during the flight. You will be surprised how comfortable it is and how long it stays cool. 

On those hot days, I learned to carry frozen bottles of water in the airplane. Put the bottle in a clean tube sock to absorb the condensation. Sip from the bottle in between maneuvers, and in particular before landing, as dehydration can manifest as fatigue and slow down your reaction time. Also, you can be dehydrated without being thirsty. You may find it useful to take a few sips off water bottles as part of your before-landing checklist, as it increases alertness.

The Difficult Conversation

Using deodorant and daily bathing is not a universal thing. This was explained to me by a colleague who had some bad experiences with learners from other cultures, to the point her flight school added a page on hygiene information to its welcome-to-our-school packets. The CFIs told stories of using air fresheners in the cockpits and classrooms and using lemon-scented polish on the aircraft windows to try to mask the odor.

It is particularly awkward when it is a co-worker who needs the talk. I was forced to do a Redbird training session with a CFI who was a heavy smoker, and frankly smelled like a cross between an ashtray, a latrine, and a skunk. I’d been warned, but that did not do the situation justice. My eyes were watering, and I cut the lesson short—then promptly went to the gym around the corner, showered, and changed my uniform.

I had two more learners that day, and I wanted the focus to be on flying—not fragrance.

This column first appeared in the July/August Issue 949 of the FLYING print edition.

The post How to Beat the Summer Heat When Flying appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

• READ MORE: NOAA Changing Weather Site

Overview

A majority of the weather data will appear on the graphical forecasts for aviation (GFA) webpage. This is the heart and soul of the new site. Here’s a brief description of the purpose of this page as posted in the GFA help on aviationweather.gov.  

“The GFA webpage is intended to provide the necessary aviation weather information to give users a complete picture of the weather that may impact flight in the United States (including Alaska & Hawaii), Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and portions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The webpage includes observational data, forecasts, and warnings that can be viewed from 18 hours in the past to 18 hours in the future. Hourly model data and forecasts, including information on clouds, flight category, precipitation, icing, turbulence, wind, and graphical output from the National Weather Service’s National Digital Forecast Data (NDFD), are available.”

What’s a Progressive Web App?

Let’s begin with the good news. Like my website, EZWxBrief, the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) decided to build its website  as a progressive web app (PWA). The aviationweather.gov legacy site was very clumsy and nearly impossible to use on a mobile device such as an iPhone. Developing this as a PWA offers a very responsive design, and that means it works reasonably well on those smaller hand-held devices in both portrait and landscape orientations. 

No, you won’t find this “app” in the App Store or Google Play Store. Instead, you should install the PWA on your device to have the best user experience. Not to worry, it literally takes just a few seconds and applies to any device, not just handhelds. 

Here’s the installation process. Simply open a browser that supports a PWA such as Chrome, Safari, or Brave and enter “https://aviationweather.gov” into the browser’s address bar. On your hand-held device, locate the “Share” icon (sometimes called a “Bookmark” or “Send to” icon). This is an icon that’s shaped like a square with an upward pointing arrow in the center. Please note that not all browsers support progressive web apps. A tap on that icon and you have finished step one of three to install the app. 

Next, you’ll be shown the “Share” menu. Scan down that menu using Chrome or Safari and tap on the “Add to Home Screen” selection.

During the third and final step, you’ll be able to name your PWA icon. You are free to change the long default name from “AviationWeather.gov” to AWC or whatever you like. When you’ve chosen the name, tap on the “Add” button in the upper-right corner. This will add an Aviation Weather Center icon to your home screen with the name you chose. Even better, when the Aviation Weather Center makes future updates, they will be available the next time you restart the app. It’s actually easier than installing and updating native apps.

Just like any native app, tap on that home screen icon and the aviationweather.gov site will open up. You’ll notice that it doesn’t have any browser bar or other browser controls, which frees up valuable screen real estate on smaller devices. Essentially, it will have the same look and feel as a native app without the overhead of Apple or Google. 

You can do the same installation on your desktop or laptop computer, but the process is a bit different. Once again, open up your browser and type “https://aviationweather.gov” into the address bar, and you will see an Install button appear at the end of the address bar for any website (and browser) that supports a PWA.

Clicking on the “Install” button will provide the prompt below to install the app.  Once done, you’ll see an Aviation Weather Center icon on your desktop. By the way, you can also always uninstall the app at any time for any of your devices.

One of the issues that is apparent with the site on some hand-held devices is that the app will crash or reset when using a rapid, pinch-and-zoom gesture on the interactive GFA map. This is evidently an issue with Leaflet (the software it uses to render the maps), and the workaround is to avoid any rapid, pinch-and-zoom gestures. Just slow your roll and you’ll be fine.  

Cross Section Tool

To replace the Java Flight Path Tool that required you to download Java onto your computer (Java isn’t permitted on iOS devices), the AWC added a cross-section tool that now runs on any platform. You will see an icon on the right to start this tool. It’s the icon just under the settings icon (cog wheel).

You simply define a route, such as KMCI.KMEM.KAVL (note the periods in between the identifiers), and you can plot this path on the GFA map as a great circle route or view it as a cross section. Currently, the only variables you can plot on the vertical cross section are temperature, wind speed, turbulence, and icing.

Reduction in Static Imagery

The overall new design of the website is radically different from its legacy counterpart. Perhaps the most significant long-term effect is that the AWC decided to terminate the generation of dozens of static images that were available on the legacy site. Many flight planning websites, and even some of the heavyweight EFB apps referenced, scraped many of these images off of the AWC site. Consequently, you may have noticed back in the middle of October that these apps had to scramble to delete those from their own static imagery collections. The imagery collections that were depreciated included: 

• Lowest freezing level forecast from the Rapid Refresh (RAP) model
• TCF, eTCF, ECFP convective forecasts
• RAP/NAM Wind/Temperature graphics
• PIREP plots
• Satellite regional plots

Although you can still find access to prog charts, G-AIRMETs, as well as icing and turbulence static imagery within the decision support imagery page (https://aviationweather.gov/graphics), the AWC has a goal to eventually eliminate all static imagery.

Missed Opportunities

Your opinion  may differ, but I find the user interface for the decision support imagery to be very antiquated and clumsy. Even on large screens, you have to constantly scroll up and down, and it requires an immense amount of button clicks or taps to get what you want. It’s very exhausting and tedious to use. In fairness, that page suggests it was “designed for Center Weather Service Unit meteorologists who build information packages on desktop computers.” Instead, AWC suggests that pilots utilize the interactive map page (https://aviationweather.gov/gfa).

The issue here is that the DSS page gives you a vertical resolution of 2,000 feet for icing and turbulence forecasts. If you use its interactive map, you only get a 3,000-foot or even 6,000-foot vertical resolution despite the fact that the native vertical resolution of the icing and turbulence products is 1,000 feet. It is understandable that browsers have hard limitations, and this was likely a tradeoff to providing something that has a reasonable performance. 

While the Aviation Weather Center removed the regional satellite imagery from the site, it has been incorporated as a separate layer into the graphical forecasts for aviation (GFA) tool. Currently there isn’t a replacement for the color infrared satellite imagery. That is something it will be adding in the future.

Another deficiency is that the site doesn’t acknowledge when the layer you are viewing is void of data. For example, if you pull up the center weather advisories (CWAs) on the GFA tool, you may get a blank map. Is the map blank because there are no CWAs active, which happens more often than not? Or perhaps it’s because your browser or internet connection is being finicky? The lack of any data or advisories is just as critical as the presence of them. AWC doesn’t provide any acknowledgement or banner to alert you when this occurs.  

If you are looking to travel outside of the U.S., some of the weather guidance on the GFA tool, such as icing and turbulence, stops at the border. While this was also true with the legacy GFA tool, it still represents a shortcoming given that much of this guidance is available over a good portion of Canada and northern Mexico. The National Weather Service (NWS) has a directive that it can’t show forecasts outside of the U.S., especially over Canada and Mexico. Pilots are supposed to go to the respective website/services for those countries to receive that forecast information.

This is inconsistent since some decision support graphics (i.e., static imagery) clearly show forecasts for icing and turbulence in Canada and Mexico. Moreover, if you plot a route from International Falls, Minnesota, to Caribou, Maine (through southern Ontario and Quebec, Canada), the cross-section view shows this guidance.

Finding HEMS

If you are looking for the helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) tool, it has been integrated into the interactive GFA and rebranded as the GFA-LA tool (with “LA” for “low altitude”). When viewing the GFA, click on the helicopter button in the upper-right part of the map to switch the GFA from general aviation mode into low-altitude mode, which offers expanded capability from the HEMS tool.

Final Thoughts

There’s no doubt that there are winners and losers with this update. I’ve read hundreds of comments on social media posts and other aviation forums that despise the new site and those that simply love it. The biggest advantage is that the site is very responsive on hand-held devices with the occasional glitch that I’m sure will be resolved in time. The dismantling of nearly half of the static imagery is truly a loss and will likely be felt for months, if not years, to come. As a matter of fact, I am in the process of finding replacements of these image collections for my own website, EZWxBrief. 

Lastly, if you are still hanging onto a glimmer of hope that AWC will bring back the legacy site, don’t hold your breath. While there are still some growing pains with this new version, the Aviation Weather Center is fully committed to this new release—so just get used to it. 

The post Aviation Weather Center Website Upgrade—the Good, Bad, and Ugly appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Do you remember getting this admonishment before your private pilot check ride? I do. It meant picking up the appropriate text—more often than not the FAR/AIM—and going to the back of the book to the index. The index was pretty easy to use as the words are arranged alphabetically. Sometimes it took a few tries to find what you were looking for—would the airspeed indicator be listed under airspeed or required instruments for VFR flight?—but with a little patience you could find it and follow the page number to the appropriate section.

As we have progressed to a digital society, fewer and fewer learners and even instructors know how to use the index in a paper book. In an e-book, it’s easy. An algorithm does the work for you.

In a paper book, it is a little more involved, starting with the introduction of the user and the concept of an index. I have added this to the list of things I teach my clients, and occasionally, my coworkers.

I use the paper version with learners that are tactile and kinetic and learn better by holding a book in their hands and turning the pages. When the new versions come out, we make a game of making tabs to make it easier to find certain things—such as FAR 61.87 requirements for solo. You can buy the books pre-tabbed, but many learners find the task of making tabs and placing them in the book aids in the learning process.

That is not to say I don’t also use the digital version: I do. Frankly, it doesn’t matter if you get the information from paper or digitally. The important thing is you know where to find it.

Analog Clock

Can you tell time from an analog clock? The ability to read one is becoming a lost skill. I recently met a freshly retired high school teacher who told me that most of the kids in her classes cannot tell time from an analog clock. “They use their phones,” she said.

This is concerning, because in aviation the analog clock is used as a reference to determine position, i.e. “traffic at your 3 o’clock.” It is getting more difficult to convey this concept to learners, so much so that one CFI I know has taken to having learners set their smartwatches to an analog display or obtain a cheap analog watch to help them learn the directions that correspond to the numbers.

Aviation Weather.gov Gets a Makeover

Flight instructors have learning curves too. As I write this, I am learning how to use the redesigned version of NOAA’s weather page, AviationWeather.gov. I have relied on the webpage for years for supplemental weather information.

• READ MORE: NOAA Changing Weather Site

For years, my day began by tapping on the icon on my smartphone, putting in “@WA” and clicking on TAFs and METARs, and in an instant the weather from every available airport in the state of Washington was displayed. That told me if the day was going to be spent in the air or on the ground. When it was an air day, Leidos briefings followed before each flight and ForeFlight followed us into the cockpit. Weather is a hobby of mine, going back to my fledgling television career where I figured if I was going to report the weather, I needed to know something about it.

The new AviationWeather.gov site offers a great deal of information on climate, severe weather, fisheries, etc. I can imagine it being a good resource for studying these topics. But it’s an awful lot to wade through for a supplemental weather briefing.

Learning Takes Place

I watched the video tutorials. Because the new one has so much information, you need to go on a scavenger hunt to find what you want. The TAFs and METARs are buried under layers labeled “Tools and Resources.” A few times, I got the NOAA version of the “spinning beach ball of death” as I searched for things. There are more colored graphics on the new site, and if that is how you like your weather information presented, you’re going to be a happy camper. If you prefer black and white text, the graphics are a lot of noise. The Terminal Weather Dashboard is confusing and hard to read, and although the redesign was supposed to make it easier to use on smartphones, I have not found this to be so.

I am not the only person having a challenge. The day the site went live hundreds of pilots, including many instructors, voiced their displeasure. A colleague noted that the weather is presented in the decoded form and predicted that this would “throw a monkey wrench into the knowledge tests” as learners are asked to decode weather reports.

There is no such thing as an FAA-approved weather briefing, but some products are better than others. I am partial to those that require a discreet login and can be customized so that a few keystrokes take you to the place you need to be. Some pilots find the app-based subscription products not worth the investment when they only fly a few times a year. Same goes for the budget-minded learner who’d rather spend the money on flight lessons.

I am still compelled to show the learners how to use 1800WXBRIEF.com to get a briefing and file flight plans since it does not require a paid subscription.

When was the last time you called 1-800-WX-BRIEF for a weather briefing? With the development of online applications, calling for weather has fallen out of favor. But until that option goes away, I want my learners to know how to get a weather briefing by phone, just in case their iPad, tablet or smartphone fails or goes missing. If the internet crashes or cell towers are jammed, you’ll know how to use pay phones as well—granted, the most challenging aspect is likely finding one. You may end up borrowing the phone of the FBO in some cases.

Don’t be intimidated. Follow the voice prompts and when you get the person, explain you are a student pilot, and they will walk you through the process. It is not that difficult, and you can check that off your “have to try it at least once” list, treating it like it is the aviation version of going to the L.L. Bean store in Maine and getting your picture taken in front of the giant boot. If you have the opportunity, make it happen. 

The post Teaching Analog Skills in a Digital World appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

My fellow instructors, how many times have you asked this question? How many times has someone asked you that? The ability to access weather information and more importantly, correctly interpret it, is critical to the aviation process. Without this skill, the ability to make a go/no-go decision becomes suspect at best. Sadly, the task of obtaining a weather briefing and the ability to interpret the briefing is one of those skills that often wanes dramatically after the acquisition of a private pilot certificate because so many pilots ‘only fly on nice days’.

When there is an accident or incident, the investigating authorities look at the weather. An NTSB investigator told me that when there is no record of the accident pilot obtaining a weather briefing, the question begs what else did the pilot skip? I believe him. I have spent 16 years writing accident reports culled from NTSB reports, and noted that most of them started with the phrase, “There was no record of the pilot obtaining a weather briefing before the accident flight.”

Looking out the window does not constitute a weather briefing. There’s a lot more to it, and your CFI wants you to know how to obtain weather information from an FAA-approved source. 

As of this writing, the FAA has not defined what constitutes a “legal or official” weather briefing, but many CFIs teach their learners to use a weather product that requires a discreet log in, 1800WX BRIEF.com for example. Why? Because if the worst happens and there is an accident or incident, there will be a record to show that the pilot checked the weather. 

When you get a weather briefing, note the ceilings, visibility, possible icing, winds aloft and at surface, and note the VFR and IFR weather near us if appropriate, density altitude, AIRMETS, NOTAMs, etc.

Note which direction the weather is coming from. Either print it out, download it, or write it down and have it with you in the cockpit. My U.S. Air Force Academy-trained instructor drilled this level of detail into me—always have a plan to divert if the weather surprises you—and use the information gathered during the briefing to identify where you will go.

Sometimes this level of detail is off-putting. I have worked at flight schools that required the renters to sign off that they have checked the weather prior to flight, checked NOTAMs, and computed the aircraft’s performance given the current weather conditions before they were given the aircraft dispatch book. A renter once remarked that was an awful lot of work to do when he just wanted to do a few laps in the pattern. The dispatcher, who was not a pilot, told the client the rules “were an insurance thing.” Later, I heard from another employee that the rules came to be after two CFIs, a commercial candidate, and another client did a spur-of-the-moment cross country flight in the school’s twin and flew into deteriorating conditions. The aircraft iced up. The CFIs diverted to the nearest airport—they broke out of the clouds too far down the runway to execute a safe landing and crashed. One of the pilots was killed. When accidents like this happen, it’s not uncommon to look at the business procedures to determine if there is a weak link in the accident chain and develop procedures to eliminate it. 

Making the clients do “homework” before a flight and sign off that they did this homework can help defend the flight school when someone tries to take legal action against the FBO or school claiming the school should not have allowed the client to take the airplane on that particular day or night. 

I’m a big believer in metrics for weather. The phrase ‘it looks pretty good’ makes me cringe—what is the ceiling in a “looks pretty good?” What is the visibility? The position of fronts? The outlook? 

The metrics for MVFR and IFR, etc., can be found in the AIM, in Chapter 7. Nowhere in that chapter will you find the words “pretty good.” Many CFIs make a point of taking the learners up on MVFR days, if for no other reason they will develop a greater respect for weather and often it drives them to acquire an instrument rating—just in case the MVFR goes really marginal or drops to IFR. 

CFIs, keep your instrument skills sharp in case you have to use them on these days.

It’s wonderful when learners are able to apply their life experience to the weather briefing. One of my learners went out to do their preflight inspection. He obtained a weather briefing earlier in the day and had noted the remark PRESFR, which stands for “pressure falling rapidly.” PRESFR usually means a storm is approaching—maybe even one with potentially hazardous weather. The learner wanted to get a few laps in the pattern before the weather deteriorated. 

• LEARN MORE: Previous editions of “What a CFI Wants You to Know”

A moment later, he was back inside, beckoning me to come outside to see the clouds. An ominous dark wall of clouds were approaching the airport from the southwest. The learner had grown up on a farm in Iowa, and informed me that when they saw clouds like that it usually meant it was time to get into the basement because a twister was on the way, so he decided to stay on the ground. 

We rarely get tornadoes on the west side of Washington state, but on this day we did. The wall moved quickly. In less than ten minutes those black cumulonimbus clouds were over the airport dropping sheets of hail. The wind shook the building. Later we learned a water spout and a few tornadoes were spawned. One touched down about a mile from the airport creating minor damage at the Boeing plant, and another destroyed a barn belonging to the family of one of my ground-school learners.

The following day in ground school all the learners took greater interest in weather.

The post Checking the Weather Is More Than Looking Out the Window appeared first on FLYING Magazine.