Download Weather - Stick-n-Rudder Flight Training

Lesson Plan: WX Fundamentals
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Objective
– Learner should have a very basic knowledge of weather effects, reading a surface depiction
chart, and gathering a synoptic picture of the current conditions and forecast.
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Content
– Highs, Lows, Fronts, Wind, Temperature, Precipitation, Visibility
– Weather Map Symbols
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Schedule
– 02: introduction
– 18 slides x 60 seconds (skip stability and visibility slides if necessary)
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Equipment
– Powerpoint, Projector
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Elements
– Basic weather vocabulary, weather chart symbols, strategy for getting The Big Picture
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Instructors Actions
– Tell “there I was…” stories while slamming slide deck
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Students Actions
– Answer overhead questions, take home quiz, pick a hypothetical flight and “try it” each day
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Completion Standards
– No one sleeping
Weather
• Fundamentals
• The Weather Map
• The Weather Synopsis
Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the un-imaginative
Oscar Wilde
Fundamentals
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High and Low Pressure
Fronts
Wind
Temperature
Stability
Visibility
High and Low Pressure
• The Sun heats the earths surface un-evenly. The difference
in temperature upsets any equilibrium in the atmosphere
creating changes in pressure and resulting in air movement.
This movement of air is called circulation.
se
• The air which has been warmed is less dense and will ri
s
• The air which is cooler will ink.
• Air flows from High to Low Pressure
The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
— Edward Gibbon, 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.'
Coriolis Effect
• The rotation of the earth about its axis gives rise to the
coriolis effect.
• Imagine you and your co-pilot are on opposite sides of a
merry-go-round trying to throw a ball back and forth.
• It flies straight as seen from the playground but you both
would think the ball curved.
• The earth is spinning like the merry go-round.
• Circulating air will curl clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere
as it flows from High to Low
Circulation
• Question: if you stand with the wind at your
back and stretch out your arm which hand
points to the low?
Fronts
• Colliding air masses produce Fronts
Cold Northern Air
Advancing
Warm Southern Air
Retreating
Warm Front
• Warm air slides up and over the heavy cold air
• Water vapor condenses as air is forced up and chilled
by the colder altitude
Flight toward a warm front, from the cold side, is
characterized by gradually lowering stratiform clouds then
light continuous precipitation, lowering ceilings and visibility.
Hint: sunshines
Cold Front
• A cold front is the boundary between warm and cool air when the cool air
is advancing to replace the warm air. As a cold front moves into an area,
the heavier, cool air pushes under the lighter, warm air it's replacing.
• If the rising air is humid, water vapor in it will condense into clouds or rain
• Precipitation ahead of a cold front can be continuous, but behind the
front, becomes showery. The visibility outside of showers improves..
Cold fronts are recognized in flight usually by a line of Towering Cumulous,
Cumulo-Nimbus or Alto-Cumulous clouds.
Hint: icicles
Wind
• Isobars are lines of equal pressure
• Wind flows roughly parallel to isobars
• Tight isobars = high wind
Ellsworth AFB reported 87MPH Gusts!
If a person does not know to which port he is steering, no wind is favorable to him.
— Seneca, "ignoranti quem portum petat, nullus suus ventus est."
Temperature
• In the Tropopause (0-10 miles up) the
atmosphere normally gets cooler with altitude
(Question: is there a common exception?)
• Warm air can carry more water vapor
• The dew point is the temperature
at which water vapor will condense
• Temp = dew point = clouds
• At 0 AGL temp = dew point = fog
Stability
– When temperature decreases uniformly and rapidly as you
climb (approaching 3° C per 1,000 feet), you have an indication
of unstable air.
– If temperature remains unchanged or decreases only slightly
with altitude, the air tends to be stable.
– If the temperature increases with altitude through a layer - an
inversion - the layer is stable and convection is suppressed. Air
may be unstable beneath the inversion.
– When air near the surface is warm and moist, suspect
instability. Surface heating, cooling aloft, converging or upslope
winds, or an invading mass of colder air may lead to instability
and cumuliform clouds.
Clouds
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
— Isaiah 14:14
Visibility
Or “what does one thousand and three really buy me …”
• Fair weather cumulus clouds often indicate bumpy turbulence beneath
and in the clouds. The cloud tops indicate the approximate upper limit of
convection; flight above is usually smooth and the air clear
• Stratiform clouds indicate stable air. Flight generally will be smooth, but
low ceiling and visibility might make VFR flight impractical.
• Restricted visibility at or near the surface over large areas usually
indicates stable air. Expect a smooth ride, but poor visibility might make
VFR flight impractical.
"I just whip out my blue card with a hole in it and read what it
says: 'When color of card matches color of sky, FLY!'“
-Gordon Baxter
Surface Depiction Chart
Synoptic Weather Picture
• Synoptic means seen with one eye
• Get the Big Picture:
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Where are the Highs/Lows
Where are the Fronts?
Visibility/Precipitation/Adverse Conditions
Winds
• Flight Planning
– Current conditions at departure?
– Current and Forecast conditions en-route?
– Current and Forecast conditions at the Destination?
ADM/D.E.C.I.D.E.
• Am I flying towards better or worse?
• Which direction is the good weather?
• How confident am I in the forecast?
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How old is the forecast?
How have the previous forecasts held up?
Do winds aloft match what I was expecting?
Red flags: temperature and dew-point are close or converging
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
Mark Twain