Preface to The Winds of Flight

Preface

Some time back it was my privilege to be associated with a group from the National Weather Service (NWS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the General Aviation Manufacturers' Association, who were putting together a slide-tape show called "On Weather". The slides were excellent and the script well thought out. During the agony of putting the script together, the section on icing was almost dropped. But, after considerable discussion, it was decided to include it because the normal weekend pilot might never, and it was hoped would never, see ice which accumulated on airframes while aloft. During each section of the talk, the script made the statement the pilots knowledge of weather was important for remaining safe. I began to wonder where the pilot gained the knowledge needed to keep them safe.

I tried to figure where the flying student learns about the weather needed to make these decisions. I talked to various instructors and pilots. I soon found out that education in weather was highly variable. The ground schools vary widely in their approach to meteorology. Some of them teach only enough to allow the students to pass the written. With the rapidly changing test questions at the FAA, the instructors who go into more detail are probably doing a better service to their students than the others.

During an aviation safety seminar I once made reference to the available courses in meteorology taught at Montgomery College. During the coffee afterwards, I was chatting with some pilots about the need for instruction in meteorology. It turned out that the courses were good but they were given during the day when most people worked. So, I decided to go over and find out if they would offer a section at night. I wasn't surprised that they didn't have the staff to do so, so I asked if I might teach a course out at the airpark. After some discussion, we reached an agreement that if it didn't cost them anything I could. Of course, the course would have to meet academic standards, so I made up a syllabus, did the other paperwork, and advertised the class at the airpark. We had enough students to break even, so the course began.

We had fun that semester; I taught meteorology and left the teaching of flying to the instructors and the pilots. At that time I had fewer than 20 hours under my belt. I learned a good deal about flying from the students, some of whom were relatively high time pilots. One student was really only interested in how to forecast weather for her windsurfing hobby. She figured that one wing is as good as two. It turned out that she was also one excellent student.

Unfortunately, the FBO redid its training room into many tiny cubicles and when I tried the next one on campus, the class was full but there were no pilots there. So I've tried to capture some of the highlights of the course in this book. Hopefully from reading it, you will be in a much better position to make reasonable go/no-go decisions. It is a comfortable feeling to know that your judgment is based on a consistent body of knowledge rather than the random ideas picked up from here, there and everywhere.