The IFR weather briefing

Sources, reading order, ATIS / ASOS / AWOS, and building the big picture before you fly.

15 min read · IFR weather

After this lesson you can

  • Explain why an instrument pilot depends on a weather briefing more than a VFR pilot does.
  • Call Flight Service and choose the right briefing: standard, abbreviated, or outlook.
  • Read a real METAR field by field.
  • Place ATIS, ASOS, and AWOS correctly in the picture, alongside PIREPs.

A VFR pilot who does not like the weather can turn around, land at the nearest field, or simply not go. An instrument pilot in the clouds has already given up the option of looking outside to check; by the time the airplane is in the weather, the briefing done on the ground is the only picture available. That is why a thorough briefing is not paperwork to get through quickly: it is the flight, planned before the engine starts.

This lesson is about building that picture in the right order, from the right sources, and reading the raw reports the picture is built from. It is also, deliberately, the easiest lesson in this module: everything after it -- IMC, icing, thunderstorms, forecasts -- assumes you already know how a METAR is put together and how to get a briefing on the phone.

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.Why the briefing carries more weight in IFR
  2. 2.Getting a briefing from Flight Service
  3. 3.The ten elements of a standard briefing, in order
  4. 4.Reading a real METAR
  5. 5.ATIS, ASOS, and AWOS: weather at the airport
  6. 6.PIREPs: the picture no model can build
  7. 7.From briefing to decision

These 7 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the IFR track. Paid once, yours for good.

See what the IFR track costsEvery module 1 is free to read, no account, no card.

Key terms

Try to recall each definition before turning the card.