Weather conditions remain the top factor likely to result in fatal aviation accidents a century after the first Wright brother’s flight. When planning your general aviation flight, receiving a detailed weather briefing from multiple sources allows you to make informed go/no go decisions. While some pilots study the weather like amateur meteorologists, others begin watching weather patterns a few days ahead of their flight. Either way, it’s important to create a detailed flow for collecting your weather briefing and making a decision on whether it’s safe to fly.
If you’re looking to brush up on your weather briefing process, we’ve curated some official resources to help you plan your flight.
FAA
The FAA released their General Aviation Pilot’s Guide to Preflight Weather Planning, Weather Self-Briefings, and Weather Decision Making. The guide focuses on the framework of Perceive -- Process -- Perform to determine your risk management. It offers practical advice for understanding weather briefings better and how weather affects your flight (primarily to reduce visibility, create turbulence, and reduce aircraft performance). You’ll find great resources for where to curate your weather report and questions to ask before your flight.
AOPA
Who doesn’t love a good check-list? Both new and seasoned pilots rely on pre-flight check-lists to ensure their aircraft and flight plan are prepared for the task ahead. Your weather check-list is one more way to ensure you don’t miss a detail in your upcoming flight. In AOPA’s The Weather Briefing, pilots will find a detailed checklist that explains each piece of your weather briefing and how to best utilize it to make your go/no-go decision.
PIREPs
Pilot weather reports, or PIREPs, offer valuable, time-critical reports of weather conditions and events experienced by pilots in flight. By providing reports to Air Traffic Control, pilots can warn others of potential weather risks. Pilots are encouraged to submit PIREPs even in good weather. The FAA offers guidance about how, when, and what type of information to submit.
Every pilot must make their own informed, rational decisions about whether to proceed with a flight. We don’t offer guidance about whether you should choose to go/no-go on your planned flight, but we do want all our pilots to fly safely. Guidance provided by these resources, plus your own knowledge about your flight skills, training, certifications, and your plane’s abilities should guide your decisions.
Do you have other weather planning resources that assist you in planning your flight? Drop us a note in the comments with links to those resources. We’d love to share them with our readers.
