Preflight Weather Planning
Perceive – Understanding Weather Information
When you plan a trip in a general aviation (GA) airplane, you might find yourself telling friends and family that you are first going to “see” if weather conditions are suitable. In other words, your first major preflight task is to perceive the flight environment by collecting information about current and forecast conditions along
the route you intend to take, and then using the information to develop a good mental picture of the situation you can expect to encounter during the flight.
Because there are many sources of weather information today, the first challenge is simply knowing where and how to look for the weather information you need.
For many GA pilots, the FAA Flight Service Station (FSS) remains the single most widely used source of comprehensive weather information. Like other weather providers, the FSS bundles, or “packages,” weather products derived from National Weather Service (NWS) data and other flight planning information into a convenient, user-friendly package that is intended to offer the pilot not only specific details, but also a big picture view of the flight environment. In this respect, you might think of the FSS as “one-stop shopping” for GA weather information.
Flight Service offers four basic briefing packages:
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Outlook (for flights more than six hours away),
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Standard (for most flights),
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Abbreviated (to update specific items after a standard briefing); and
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TIBS (telephone information briefing service), which provides recorded weather information.
The specific weather information packaged into a standard briefing includes a weather synopsis, sky conditions (clouds), and visibility and weather conditions at the departure, en route, and destination points. Also included are adverse conditions, altimeter settings, cloud tops, dew point, icing conditions, surface winds, winds aloft, temperature, thunderstorm activity, precipitation, precipitation intensity, visibility obscuration, pilot reports (PIREPs), AIRMETs, SIGMETs, Convective SIGMETS, and Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs), including any temporary flight restrictions (TFRs).
Photo of the Leesburg Automated Flight Service Station
Although a Flight Service weather briefing is still the single most comprehensive source of weather data for GA flying, it can be difficult to absorb all the information conveyed in a telephone briefing. Pictures are priceless when it comes to displaying complex, dynamic information like cloud cover and precipitation. For this reason, you may find it helpful to begin the preflight planning process by looking at weather products from a range of providers. The goal of this self-briefing process is to develop an overall mental picture of current and forecast weather conditions, and to identify areas that require closer investigation with the help of an FSS briefer.
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本文鏈接地址：General Aviation Pilot’s Guide to Preflight Weather Planning, Weather Self-Briefings, and Weather Decision Making(3)
