My wife says I have too much time on my hands and I surf the net too much. Maybe, but I am in search of a true understanding of WEATHER.
The actual problem is whether weather is withering.
There seem to be dozens of sites with hundreds of charts, or radars or some other new or old format, experiments which are available on the net.
They say what GOES around blows around, but I, for one, am confused by all these sites, and all of the options provided by all these sites. It just makes flight planning a neurotic event.
Have I missed something? Did I check the right map? How many winds alofts charts are there?
When checking several “winds aloft” charts, I sometimes find the winds blowing in different directions. Which should I rely on?
Does anybody have a top 10 list of sites or charts?
Which are the best sites?
Which are the most comprehensive sites?
Which are the simplist to understand?
Which provide the best educational and training tools.
Has Avweb or some other “consumer reports” type site ever done an objective evaluation?
Have you attended a CPPP? We’ve put together a weather page on the COPA site (see the “Weather” button on the main COPA page) that contains a bunch of charts and other resources from a variety of sources… and in the CPPP many of the links and how to use them are explained.
I think also Scott Dennstaedt is planning to put together some additional weather-only seminars that will go into even more depth…
Unfortuately Dennis, just like everything else in life there’s no silver lining in this dark cloud. Weather is one of those disciplines that is poorly taught all through the general aviation community. Instructors gain a “sense” of what’s right and what’s wrong, but have a poor understanding of the basics of meteorology to properly teach the subject to their students. Many pilots adapt over time. Some take risks without really knowing what they are up against. Some become very conservative and get very little utility from their aircraft. Perhaps, just perhaps, some pilots get lucky!
Most pilots are weather-wise, but some are otherwise!
Yes; I attended the CPPP in Sarrasota. A great help, yet I am perplexed with the variety of web sites. I recently came across http://weathertap.com which seems to be a cut above the others. There are so many new sites coming on line that its hard to keep up. The overwhelming feeling is that the weather info that I miss may be the weather that gets me.
Dennis:
WeatherTap is a terrific $6.95/mo. investment in realtime weather analysis.The radar is superb. I access it through my PDA for inflight help. Internet access aloft can be dicey, however, BUT SINCE THERE IS NO DATALINK WEATHER ON THE CIRRUS AVIDYNE YET [:@], it is not a bad fallback option.
Jeffrey Cardenas
