Weather products beyond METAR and TAF

The winds aloft forecast, the surface analysis and the charts built on it, the Graphical Forecasts for Aviation, the Convective Outlook, the weather that arrives on the flight deck by data link, and the in-flight sources that decide a diversion.

18 min read · Weather

After this lesson you can

  • Decode a winds and temperatures aloft forecast, including the coded high-speed groups.
  • Read a surface analysis chart and say what the weather depiction and significant weather prognostic charts add to it.
  • Use the Graphical Forecasts for Aviation and the ceiling-and-visibility layer, and name the ways each can mislead.
  • State what the Convective Outlook forecasts, who it is written for, and what it does not tell a pilot.
  • Name the obstructions to visibility and the low-level wind shear sources that a briefing should make you look for.
  • Use data link weather on the flight deck within its stated limitations, and know which in-flight resources answer the question of whether to divert.

The earlier lessons in this module decoded the two products every pilot reads before every flight, the METAR and the TAF. The private pilot standards ask for more: the winds aloft forecast, the surface analysis chart and the ceiling and visibility picture beside it, the Graphical Forecasts for Aviation, the Convective Outlook, and the weather that now arrives on the flight deck by data link. This lesson is those products, in the order a briefing meets them.

It ends where the ACS ends the topic: with the in-flight resources that tell a pilot the forecast has failed, and the circumstances that make a diversion prudent rather than heroic.

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.Winds and temperatures aloft: the FB
  2. 2.The surface analysis chart, and the two charts built on it
  3. 3.Ceiling and visibility, and the Graphical Forecasts for Aviation
  4. 4.The Convective Outlook: a severe-weather product a pilot borrows
  5. 5.The weather you cannot see coming: obstructions to visibility and wind shear
  6. 6.Weather on the flight deck: data link and its limitations
  7. 7.In-flight resources, and the circumstances that make a diversion prudent

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

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

Key terms

Try to recall each definition before turning the card.