Weatherman coming to talk.

[saracelica]

Okay so weather is one of those topics that I just didn't do well on for the PPL written and a little iffy for the IR. So I suggested we bring in a local weather guy to do a seminar about weather. Fortunately I found one that is actually was going to become a pilot so he's excited to come out and talk to us. He asked me for "topics" other then "everything" can you guys suggest a couple topics he may want to bring up? He usually does talks to little kids (2-4th graders) but not sure those topics are interesting to us. What topics would get you out to a weather seminar? I know Scott D from avwxworkshops.com is awesome but we can't afford that much.

 

[John Baker]

I wonder if all pilots think that they have a tough time with weather? I know that before my PPL check ride I sweated that the most, yet ended up acing every question.

Are we making it tougher than it really is?

Have him concentrate on weather prediction charts. I have had briefings that did not agree with my interpretation of the charts, nor my flight instructors..it turned out the briefer had it wrong.

-John

 

[AggieMike88]

Scott's not as expensive as you think and his value quotient is quite high. With enough planning, Scott is willing to do a remote session if you can arrange the screen projection and voice conference facilities on your end.

For your local guy, it will be a nice challenge for him since aviation weather is a bit deeper than telling folks what temp to expect and if it will be sunny or not.

You might discuss items like convective weather, how to use the GFS and NAM weather models and the forecasts derived from them. How to use the simulated reflectivity products.

There is a member here who is also a TV weatherman: TulsaWeather, James Aydelott. You might reach out to him for some guidance of what could be presented.

 

[comanchepilot]

Ask him to bring his accuracy numbers too -

best forecast is actual weather and persistency.

If you have a season where its been raining all the time - then the chances of a 40% rain chance coming true are much higher than 40% if every time it has a chance, it rains. Same with the 40% chance of rain and it a dry season - then its much less likely - thats the persistency angle. v

Ask them to explain when the weather models tend toward climatology . . . the GFS is 6 days - and the major input becomes a climatology bias instead of model computation. All that is relevant.

Ask them why, in the northeast USA - the models out 5 days are always too fast with progression of systems and why they have never fixed it.

Ask him about LOCAL climatology and LOCAL microclimates - and how they fit into the forecast . . . . thats what is important top pilots-

Its October - if you have a lake at the airport - you are gonna have a lot of fog . . . .

 

[Kiddo's Driver]

Oh, good. It is aviation related. I thought this was going to be a post about Bill Ayres doing a presentation.

Jim