ATPL Meteorology - Class 17: Meteorological Reports

Summary

This video script offers an in-depth look into aviation-specific meteorological reports, focusing on how pilots analyze weather data for safe flying conditions. It covers METARS, TAFs, SIGMETs, and significant weather charts, explaining their formats, common codes, and how to use them in flight planning. The script also discusses in-flight weather updates via VOM and ATIS, emphasizing the importance of staying informed about weather conditions during flights.

Takeaways

• 📚 Aviation meteorological reports are crucial for understanding weather conditions for safe flying and include METARS, TAFs, SIGMETs, and ATIS.
• 🌐 METARS provide real-time weather conditions at aerodromes, issued every 30 minutes, and include information like wind direction, speed, visibility, and cloud coverage.
• 📅 The date and time in METARS are given in UTC (Zulu time) without the need for a month or year, ensuring a standardized format for global aviation.
• 💨 Wind information in METARS is given in true direction, which may differ from magnetic direction, especially important when considering runway orientations.
• 🌫 Visibility in METARS is reported in meters, with '9999' indicating 10 kilometers or more, which is essential for safe takeoff and landing.
• 🌧 Weather phenomena like rain or fog are denoted by specific codes, and their absence in a report can also be informative for pilots.
• 🌡 Temperature and dew point readings in METARS can hint at the likelihood of fog, as very close values may suggest its formation.
• 📉 QNH in METARS indicates aerodrome elevation and helps in pressure adjustments for accurate altitude readings.
• ⏱ Special reports like SPECI are issued for significant weather changes outside the regular 30-minute METARS cycle.
• 🌤 TAFs forecast weather conditions for a specified period, usually 24 hours, and are updated every six hours, providing pilots with forward-looking information.
• 🚫 SIGMETs report severe weather phenomena that could impact flight safety, such as thunderstorms and turbulence, and are valid for about four hours.

Q & A

What is the purpose of the video script?

The purpose of the video script is to educate viewers on aviation-specific meteorological reports, explaining how to interpret and analyze these reports to determine safe flying conditions.

What does the acronym METAR stand for?

METAR stands for Meteorological Aerodrome Report, which provides information about the actual weather conditions currently happening at an aerodrome.

How often are METARs typically issued?

METARs are usually issued every 30 minutes.

What does the 'wind section' in a METAR report indicate?

The 'wind section' in a METAR report indicates the direction and speed of the wind, including gusts, at the aerodrome.

What does the visibility '9999' in a METAR report signify?

In a METAR report, visibility '9999' means there is 10 kilometers or more of visibility.

What is the significance of the 'QNH' in a METAR report?

The 'QNH' in a METAR report is the barometric pressure setting that indicates the aerodrome elevation.

What is a TAF and how does it differ from a METAR?

A TAF is a Terminal Aerodrome Forecast, which predicts weather conditions at an aerodrome for a specific time frame, usually 24 hours. Unlike METAR, TAF does not include temperature, dew point, recent weather, or wind shear predictions.

What does 'SIGMET' refer to in aviation weather reports?

SIGMET refers to a Significant Meteorological Information report, which details weather events and phenomena that might impact flight safety, such as thunderstorms, hail, and severe turbulence.

How long are SIGMET reports typically valid for?

SIGMET reports are typically valid for about four hours.

What is the difference between the wind direction given in a METAR and an ATIS?

In a METAR, the wind direction is given in true direction, while in an ATIS, the wind direction is given in magnetic direction.

What is the purpose of the 'in-flight met reports' and 'atis' mentioned in the script?

In-flight met reports and ATIS provide pilots with real-time weather information for aerodromes and specific flight information regions while they are in the air, as they may not have access to updated METARs or TAFs via the internet.

What is the importance of understanding weather reports for flight planning?

Understanding weather reports is crucial for flight planning as it allows pilots to anticipate and prepare for weather conditions that may affect flight safety, performance, and route planning.

Outlines

00:00

🌤️ Aviation Meteorology Overview

The video script introduces the topic of aviation-specific meteorological reports, emphasizing the importance of understanding weather conditions for safe flying. The instructor, Grant, explains that these reports, such as METARs (Meteorological Aerodrome Reports), are issued every 30 minutes and contain crucial information about current conditions at an aerodrome. The script details the structure of METARs, including wind direction and speed, visibility, weather phenomena, cloud coverage, temperature and dew point, and pressure. It also mentions the use of aviation weather apps and decoders to familiarize oneself with the codes and meanings.

05:01

📊 Understanding TAFs and SIGMETs

This paragraph delves into Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAFs) and SIGMETs, which are used for predicting weather conditions over a 24-hour period and reporting significant weather phenomena, respectively. TAFs provide forecasts for aerodromes with specific time frames and are updated every six hours. SIGMETs, valid for about four hours, are issued when necessary and contain information about weather events that could impact flight safety, such as thunderstorms and turbulence. The script explains the format of these reports, including time frames, aerodrome identifiers, and weather details, and highlights the importance of understanding the codes and symbols used.

10:03

📡 In-Flight Weather Reports: VOM and ATIS

The script discusses the use of VOM (Volmet) and ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service) for receiving weather reports while in flight. VOM broadcasts METARs and TAFs in plain language for specific flight information regions, allowing pilots to tune into a frequency and receive updates. ATIS, on the other hand, provides local aerodrome weather information, including runway conditions and approach types. The paragraph explains how to interpret the information provided by ATIS, including wind direction in magnetic terms, and how pilots communicate with air traffic control to confirm they are up to date with the weather conditions.

15:03

🛫 Weather Analysis for Flight Planning

The instructor demonstrates how to analyze weather reports for flight planning, using a specific flight from Lanzarote to Edinburgh as an example. The script outlines the process of checking METARs for departure and arrival times, considering wind direction and speed, visibility, and the possibility of weather changes during the flight. It also covers the evaluation of alternate airports in case of unexpected weather conditions and the use of significant weather charts to identify potential hazards along the route, such as turbulence and icing levels.

20:03

🌐 Route and Alternate Weather Assessment

This paragraph focuses on assessing weather conditions for the flight route and alternate airports. The script provides a detailed walkthrough of checking weather reports for the main route and alternate airports, ensuring that there are no significant weather issues such as storms or visibility problems. It also mentions the importance of consulting significant weather charts for any potential hazards that might affect the flight path, and the use of aviation weather apps to stay informed about weather conditions.

Keywords

💡Meteorology

Meteorology is the scientific study of the atmosphere, particularly weather processes. It is central to the video's theme as the entire script revolves around understanding weather phenomena for aviation safety. The video discusses various meteorological reports used by pilots to make informed decisions about flying conditions.

💡METAR

METAR stands for Meteorological Aerodrome Report, which provides current weather information at an aerodrome. It is crucial for pilots to understand METARs to assess the safety of flying conditions. The script explains the structure and components of METARs, such as wind direction, speed, visibility, and cloud coverage.

💡Aerodrome

An aerodrome is an airport or airfield where aircraft take off and land. The term is used in the context of weather reports like METARs and TAFs to specify the location for which the weather information is relevant. The script mentions the aerodrome identifier code as part of the METAR report structure.

💡Zulu Time

Zulu Time, also known as UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), is the primary time standard used by the aviation industry. The script specifies that METAR reports are given in Zulu Time, which is essential for standardized communication and understanding of weather reports globally.

💡Wind

Wind is a significant factor in aviation, affecting flight paths and aircraft performance. The script discusses the wind section in METARs, where pilots can find information about wind direction and speed, which is critical for flight planning and safety.

💡Visibility

Visibility refers to the distance at which objects can be clearly discerned and is a key aspect of weather conditions for pilots. The script mentions visibility in METARs, where it indicates the range of visibility in meters, with '9999' signifying more than 10 kilometers, which is vital for safe flying.

💡Clouds

Clouds can impact flight conditions and are an essential part of weather reports. The script explains how cloud coverage and altitude are reported in METARs, using terms like 'few', 'scattered', 'broken', or 'overcast', which help pilots gauge the weather's impact on their flight.

💡Temperature and Dew Point

The difference between temperature and dew point is a critical indicator of the likelihood of fog formation. The script points out that if these two values are close, there is a higher chance of fog, which is a significant concern for pilots planning flights.

💡QNH

QNH stands for 'Altimeter Setting' and is used to set the altimeter to the current atmospheric pressure at the aerodrome. The script mentions QNH as part of the METAR report, which helps pilots to accurately determine altitude during flight.

💡TAF

TAF stands for Terminal Aerodrome Forecast, which is a weather forecast for aerodromes. The script describes TAFs as similar in format to METARs but providing forecasted conditions, which are crucial for flight planning and anticipating weather changes.

💡SIGMET

SIGMET refers to Significant Meteorological Information, which is a weather advisory for significant weather phenomena that could impact flight safety. The script explains that SIGMETs are issued for events like thunderstorms or severe turbulence and are vital for pilots to avoid hazardous weather conditions.

💡Wind Shear

Wind shear is a sudden change in wind speed or direction over a short distance, which can be hazardous to aircraft during takeoff and landing. The script mentions the potential indication of wind shear in weather reports, which pilots need to be aware of to ensure flight safety.

💡VOR/DME

VOR/DME stands for VHF Omnidirectional Range/Distance Measuring Equipment, a navigation system used in aviation. While not explicitly detailed in the script, the mention of 'vomits' (a likely typographical error for VOR/DME) suggests the use of such systems for receiving weather information like METARs and TAFs during flight.

💡ATIS

ATIS stands for Automatic Terminal Information Service, which provides pilots with current weather information and other operational details about an aerodrome. The script describes ATIS as a crucial source of local information for pilots, including runway conditions and weather updates.

Highlights

Introduction to aviation-specific meteorological reports and their importance in flight safety.

Explanation of METARs (Meteorological Aerodrome Reports) and their format, including the type of report, aerodrome identifier, date, time, and wind section.

Importance of understanding true direction versus magnetic direction when interpreting runway information.

Visibility reporting in METARs, with 9999 indicating more than 10 kilometers of visibility.

Weather information in METARs, including the absence of weather phenomena and the use of codes like 'RA' for rain.

Cloud coverage reporting in octas and altitude above the aerodrome, with descriptions like 'few', 'scattered', 'broken', or 'overcast'.

Temperature and dew point analysis in METARs, and their significance in predicting fog.

Pressure settings in METARs, with QNH indicating aerodrome elevation.

Recent weather phenomena reported in METARs, such as rain within the past hour.

Introduction to TAFs (Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts) and their 24-hour forecast format.

Differences between METARs and TAFs, including the exclusion of temperature and dew point predictions in TAFs.

Use of leading codes in TAFs to indicate forecast changes, such as 'FM' for rapid change and 'BECMG' for gradual change.

SIGMET reports focus on significant weather events impacting flight safety, such as thunderstorms and severe turbulence.

Format and content of SIGMET reports, including region identification, time frame, and weather phenomena details.

Significant Weather Chart analysis, including symbols for icing, turbulence, jet streams, and cumulonimbus clouds.

In-flight weather updates through VOM (Vol Met) and ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service).

Practical application of weather reports in flight planning, including analyzing METARs, TAFs, and SIGMETs for a flight from Lanzarote to Edinburgh.

Use of weather apps and METAR decoders for familiarization with aviation weather codes and reports.

Transcripts

now we know quite a lot about the way

weather is formed but how do we actually

receive this information and analyze it

to understand if it's safe day to go

flying let's find out

[Music]

hi I'm Grant and welcome to the 17th and

final class in the meteorology Series

today we're going to be taking a look at

Aviation specific meteorological reports

there's quite a few out there but they

all share fairly similar characteristics

so hopefully by the end of the class

you'll be able to break them down

analyze them and extract the important

information that you need

metars or meteorological Aerodrome

reports provide information of the

actual conditions currently happening at

an Aerodrome and they're usually issued

every 30 minutes

this is what one looks like and yes it

looks a bit intimidating and complicated

there's a lot going on here but

thankfully though it's always in the

same order so each section can be broken

down and tackled separately

metars are the foundation of these

weather reports and a lot of other

reports use very similar format with the

same sort of codes

so the first section is the type of

report we can see it's a meta then we

have the aerodromes Iko identifer code

which in this case is Palma de Mallorca

in Spain next we have the date and time

so this is the 14th of the month at 12

50 Zulu we don't need a month

um designator or a year designator we

just need the day

and it's always in Zulu UTC time

then we have the win section

so in this case it's a wind of 320

degrees at 12 knots gusting up to 20

knots in written formats such as meters

the wind is given in the true Direction

in Europe where variation is small it

makes very little difference but in some

places you can get large differences

between magnetic Direction and true

Direction and very usefully runways are

stated in magnetic Direction so you will

need to use the variation of the airport

to convert between the two next up you

have visibility which in this case is

9999 and it's in meters there's only

four digits that is given so 9999 means

there's 10 kilometers or more of

visibility next up you would have

weather information in this example that

I've used there's no weather phenomena

so there's nothing in here but you might

see something like R A for rain for

example next you have clouds and it's

cloud coverage given in octas so few is

one to two

and the altitude is

2500 feet

above the aerodrome

there will either be few scattered

broken or overcast and then it's the

altitude over the eardrum next up you

have the temperature and the dew point

in degrees celsius in fog these numbers

would likely be the same so it's worth

keeping an eye on the temperature and

dew point as if they are very close

together there's a good chance that fog

might be on the way then we have the

pressure setting the qnh that when set

will indicate the aerodrome elevation in

our case it's one zero two one after

that we see any recent weather that

might have happened re standing for

recent and re standing for rain so that

would mean that within the past hour

it's always within the past hour it has

rained we then might see a little WS

this might not be here or it might be

here to indicate if there's any wind

shear and then we see any Trends over

the weather for the next two hour period

it's basically a small forecast and it

can describe anything like wind clowned

or visibility but for our example says

no sick which means no significant

change so there's various codes for the

weather such as the ra for rain or a DZ

for drizzle or a m s n for snow there's

basically too many to list and there's

some that are quite obscure such as PO

for dust devils which are caused by dry

wind over deserts but generally by

looking at weather reports and using a

meta decoder just have a quick Google

and you'll find one then you will be

able to build your familiarity with the

codes and what they mean you see some

that are quite common and significant

like BR is for fog you want to know

about any fog and also Ts for

thunderstorms you won't know about any

thunderstorms it's just a case of

practice and repetition if there's any

significant change to the weather that

occurs in between the normal 30 minute

cycle of metars then airports might

issue a Specky an speci it's basically a

special matter and it's exactly the same

format as this but it will start with

Specky in here to indicate it is outside

of the normal 30 minute cycle a terminal

eardrum forecast is a forecast of the

conditions at the air drone that are

expected commonly they have a time frame

of 24 hours with a new one being issued

every six hours to update the forecast

as we go through the day you can also

get ones that are nine hours issued

every three hours or ones that are 30

hours long you just have to basically

look at the time frame which is

indicated here to figure out how long

the tap is valid for they're very

similar to meters and you'll see a very

similar format so in this example we see

the prefix at the start in this case

it's a TAF we then see the aerodrome

four letter identifier code just like in

The Meta in this case l e c b which is

Barcelona we then see the date and the

time that this TAF was issued in this

case it was on the 14th at 10 Zulu in

the morning up to now exactly the same

format as The Meta but after the first

time follows one of the first major

differences so as is a is a forecast we

talked about earlier we have to know

what period it covers in this case it's

from the 14th at 10 am to the 15th at 10

am so it's a 24 hour period and after

this initial line follows the forecast

for the day with any further changes

with some key exclusions from it namely

there's no temperature or dew point

predictions q a predictions or recent

weather or wind shear predictions

so we can see the weather here is

predicted to be in this 24-hour period a

wind of two five zero at 12 knots

visibility of at least 10 kilometers or

more and we're expecting few one to two

octas worth of clouds at 2 000 feet

above the aerodrome

and then you see a few different leading

codes which are given

um the front of some other weather

the key code could be FM which indicates

a rapid change at a specified time it

could be becoming bcmg which means a

gradual change between two specified

times or it could be Tempo which means

temporarily

um in between the period that it states

the weather will be that condition and

temporarily means less than an hour

you might also see prob 30 or probe 40

which indicates a percentage likelihood

of the conditions happening

so in our TAF here we can see that after

the initial conditions

the clouds are becoming slow gradual

change

on the 14th between two and three in the

afternoon there's going to be a gradual

change towards scattered three to four

octas worth of clouds at two thousand

feet and the type of clouds are going to

be towering cumulus which are the

precursor to cumulonimbus and

thunderstorms

then we have a 40 chance that for less

than an hour between four o'clock and

six o'clock there will be thunderstorms

and rain so we see the precluder and the

thunderstorms and Rain themselves then

from

six o'clock on the 14th

everything's going to die down a bit

we're going to get back to variable two

knot wind with few one to two octaves

worth of clouds at 1800 feet above the

eardrum and then there's nothing more so

we assume that the weather conditions

are going to stay like this until the

end of our period in here with this

information and say we have a flight

that's arriving at 1700 hours it might

be a good idea to take extra fuel with

us just in case there is a thunderstorm

overhead Barcelona at the time we arrive

because if we take extra fuel we can

hold hopefully wait for this storm to

pass and land safely before having to

divert somewhere else a segment or

significant meteorological information

report is another weather report which

is all about weather events and a

phenomena that might impact flight

safety such as thunderstorms hail severe

turbulence freezing rain Mountain waves

and tropical revolving storms

they are issued by specific met officers

and when they're needed basically and

they're valid for about four hours

they are similar in format once again to

Metar and tafs it starts with an

identifier code in this case lhcc and

this refers to a region rather than an

airport something that's known as a

flight information region you get them

spread out over countries some countries

will just have one some countries will

have a couple and basically they collate

information for enroute rather than

airport stuff so in this case the region

is Hungary lhcc then follows the sigmet

prefix the sigma itself will have an

identifier code it'll have tango04 in

this case so that when air traffic

controls speak to you they go are you

aware of the Tango zero four Sigma you

could say yes I know what's happening

then we have a time frame so it's valid

on the first at 04 30 in the morning to

the first 0530 morning so it's only an

hour long period first thing in the

morning all weather reports seem to

start this way

who's talking to you what type of

reporter is there might be an ID code

and then sort of time frame before it

gets into the weather itself so that's

the sigma identifier section and then we

get into the actual weather report

itself so again we've got the region

it's hungry it's more specifically The

Budapest fir I can't remember if Hungary

is split into multiple I don't think it

is but it's the lhcc Budapest fir that

flight information region and what the

weather report is is we've got embedded

thunderstorms forecast within and then

there's a whole bunch of coordinates

in here

if you have a map you could then draw

this area out on your map and we can see

that within that region there's going to

be embedded thunderstorms we know that

the tops will be at flight level 300

it's moving Northeast and it's generally

weakening over time again the specific

codes will just come with practice but

in a sigma it's always going to be

something that's a bit nasty like turb

for turbulence turb or gr for Hail Sev

for severe or in the worst case you can

get rdoact

CLD which is a radioactive Cloud which

hopefully nobody ever sees a significant

weather chart shows information normally

in a sigmet but in probably a more

useful format on a map along with

information about any jet streams

there are various symbols that again

come with practice and repetition this

is an example of a flight that I did a

while ago on the

8th of August

from Lanzarote to Edinburgh in the UK

some of the symbols of note are icing

which is given this symbol here it looks

it's quite small there so it's sort of a

semi-circle with two lines that's icing

and you get turbulence which is this

symbol here straight line with a bump

and then another line you'll get used to

these symbols as you just look at more

of these significant weather charts and

you get other symbols like these solid

black lines or jet streams along with

the speed of the jet streams themselves

and then you get CB standing for

cumulonimbus clouds I think

thunderstorms and it will be the top

level and the XXX means it's off the

bottom of the chart where is the bottom

of this chart we can see that this one

goes up to

flight level 100 to 450. so this is a

cloud that extends from below flight

level 100 up to 300 there's a few of

them embedded in this area of other

clouds and uh yeah might be worth

avoiding that area if you're flying

towards it

you also get these spot levels here

which is the height of the tropopause so

on wind charts you get

a chart that shows the wind

unsurprisingly and also a few

temperatures along our route they're

quite easy to understand if you

understand the concept of the wind Arrow

so think of it like an arrow from a bow

and

the feather at the back of the arrow

is the these lines now indicates the

strength a triangle indicates 50 knots

uh full lines 10 knots and a half line

is five so if you just add them together

so if you pick a random one maybe this

one at advat we can see that the

strength of this wind is about 35 knots

and it's blowing from the southwest we

can also see the general pattern of wind

along our route is Westerly changing

towards Northerly as we reach the UK

so the weather reports we've looked at

so far are what we'd look at when we're

on the ground planning our flight when

but when we're in the air we don't have

access to the internet to look up new

metars for the aerodromes when we're

flying around

so we use something called vomits and

atis vomit means Vol means flight in

French and met means for meteorology

meteorology so you get a vomit in-flight

met reports and basically this is a

frequency that you can tune into and it

broadcasts metars and tafts in plain

language for airports within a specific

flight information region I could tune

into London South's vomit on Whatever

frequency it is and listen to the metars

for a range of airports in London frr

always in the same order

occasionally very frustrating you'll

just miss the airport say I wanted uh I

don't know Birmingham

and I heard Cardiff was on the radio

just as I tuned in I knew I've got to

wait through all these before eventually

I get back to Birmingham for a more

specific report you would tune into the

atis this is an automatic terminal

information service and it's a more

local version of the format that is Air

Force specific every major airport will

have a frequency you can tune into and

receive weather information about an

Aerodrome including any Opera

operational information about the

airport such as Runway and type of

approach

in use it also contains something called

a Runway condition code this is a code

used to describe if there's anything on

the runway like water or snow any

contaminants on the runway depending on

the type and depth of contamination it's

given a rating from one to six for each

third of the runway a dry runway for

example has given six six something very

specific that you get into in

operational procedures

and so I'm not going to cover it now

because depending on the depth and the

type it makes it a a whole thing so when

you listen to an atis it's very local

information and the wind direction is

given in magnetic Direction in contrast

to the Metar which gives true Direction

I always remember it as if it's written

it's true the two T's and true

some airports might have a digital atis

system which sends aircraft direct text

forms of atis which does make this

memory trick a little bit confusing but

think about it if it's normally written

it's true or if it's listened to it's

magnetic so anatis itself might sound

something like this Gatwick information

Romeo issued at time zero nine three

zero Roman use two six left

666 expect an ILS approach

wind two five zero knots uh sorry two

five zero degrees at seven knots caval k

which means cloud and visibility okay

meaning cloud above 5000 feet and

visibility more than 10 kilometers

temperatures 2 6 2.13 Q h1012 on First

Contact report information Romeo

although normally in a very digital

robotic computer voice Gap Wick

information Romeo issued at time it's

very uh yeah very boring like that and

at the start you might have been noticed

it says information Romeo and what we do

is when we speak to air traffic control

for that airport we tell them that we've

received information Romeo and we're all

up to date with the weather conditions

at the airport by saying something like

hello Gatwick flights Alpha Tango Papa

Lima at flight level 80 heading 360

degrees with information Romeo

then they know who we are where we are

and what we know about where we're going

so instead of the classic summary like I

normally do I'm going to show you how I

would analyze a weather report for that

flight that I did from Lanzarote to

Edinburgh a wee while ago and hopefully

there's a few things you can take from

it which you find useful

so I can't remember what time this

flight actually was

but uh let's see it's looking quite

valid so two o'clock let's say we're

leaving at

six o'clock in the evening seems about

reasonable so I'd write that down first

and then I have the validity time that

I'm looking for on our scheduled time of

arrival into Edinburgh was midnight I

don't know

okay so I've got 1800 I look at the

METAR for 1800 uh that's about zero one

zero two two runways we've got zero

three and two one that wind is favoring

Runway zero three

we've got good visibility a few clouds

26 degrees one zero one five wind strong

but relatively straight down the wrong

way it's not going to be any crosswind

to think of

for our period we can expect maybe some

30 chance of no more than an hour

of the wind going straight

uh sorry continuing this direction 17

gusting 29 so that reflects what the

weather is actually doing just now

so we're okay to depart Lanzarote

without any issues you've got a nice

strong wind blowing in our head helping

us with any performance issues that we

might have

in Edinburgh we get back at midnight

this is current for now so that's not

going to be relevant but we can see that

between 6 and 6 on the 7th and the

eighth we've got this weather conditions

250 at 12 which means it's going to be

Runway 2 4. temporarily it's going to

change the broken up 1200 40 chance for

an hour that between six and eight eight

thousand light rain broken nine hundred

and then temporarily uh well after we

arrive at three a.m broken 1400 so we're

not expecting this because that's

finished by the time we arrive we're

expecting

these conditions here so two five zero

at 12 visibly 10 kilometers broken close

2500 Runway

2 4. then I can get those charts up have

a look familiarize myself with the

approaches see what I need to do to um

get myself ready for this flight we can

also use

the weather reports for any alternates

so we've got various alternates here our

number one our closest would be Glasgow

and we're expecting to arrive it'll be

just after that let's call it zero zero

twenty or something like that so again

it's going to be quite similar to

Edinburgh because they're quite close

let's see if that's true

we're looking at two five zero

between six and six that's fine until 10

few thousand not significant

less an hour between six and nine eight

thousand light rain broken clouds eight

hundred four percent chance after we

arrive

Okay so

we're defaulting back to

these conditions here two five zero nine

knots that's good wind for Runway two

three

10 kilometers visibility Clarity is one

thousand four hundred feet so our

departure destination and Alternate all

good weather nothing to think about in

terms of storms or visibility issues I

turn over the page look at something

suitable on Route so cork in Ireland

seems to be suitable on Route

um we said we'd arrive back into

Edinburgh about midnight so let's call

cork about

I don't know 10 30 something like that

so we can see between six and six on the

date it's this conditions for not more

than an hour until nine it's going to be

three four zero five that's fine and

then it changes

for an hour between one and seven a.m a

bit of overnight fog that's the BR 3000

meters visibility reflects the fog and

then there's a 30 chance from three so

that's all passed by the time we go on

so

not really interesting that that's much

later in the day the thing that's

important to us

is

we're seeing 210

visit 10 kilometers or more visibility

Sky clouds at 3000 that is good for

Runway

uh what would that be one six oh no

they've got zero seven two five so

Runway two five

and it can be used that's fine

and then you'd see any signets

so the canaries region no signets

Casablanca no sigmets Lisbon no segments

nil nil nil nil nil all good then we

would have a quick look at the

significant weather chart that's the one

we looked at earlier we've got a line

This is issued at

0600 so oh that's the one I actually

Drew on earlier so you can see nothing

on our route that's fine but potentially

this stuff will be blowing in and we'll

have a look at that if it passes our

route so this is the one previously did

it in the wrong order look at the time

it's previously you can see that this

stuff is moving in as it was predicted

to be and there we have the 1800 one

just as we're taking off again this

weather seems to be pretty stable over

this region but out of Interest we'd see

that uh

we've got some turbulence some icing up

to level one six zero we're expecting to

be above that

but uh if we were flying through this

region expecting a lot of jet stream

activity potential for some clear air

turbulence some strong winds and any

clearer turbulence is given a little

dotted line and then a number they can

the numbers can be quite difficult to

find sometimes

and then you reference it over here so

in three we were saying we're expecting

some turbulence

yep that checks out we've got some light

turbulence between 380 and 260.

and in section four wherever that is

five four

I think that's this

a region that's off the map over here

you can see that we get occasional

severe turbulence that's when we get our

extra line on top that means severe

turbulence

and that's what we do I'd look to see if

there's any significant weather look at

the airports themselves and uh yeah

generally just have a look at the

weather information for your region you

might be able to get a Metar aviation

weather app or something like that just

have a scan familiarize yourself with

any codes use a meta decoder if there's

anything you're struggling with

and uh yeah should be all good