"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
09/02/2018 at 18:12 • Filed to: None
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"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
09/02/2018 at 18:12 • Filed to: None | 0
| 7 |
It’s not really the weather, it’s interpreting the weather conditions as reported by the weather services. Shorthand is great, but I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around it. Why am I bothering with it? It’s a required skill for getting a pilot’s certificate.
Really, just look at this. KEHC stands for the station. 022135Z is the date and time: second day of the month, 21:35 hours zulu (Greenwich time). AUTO means an automatically generated report. 22027KT means the wind is coming from 220° at 27 knots. 1 1/2sm is the visibility - 1.5 statute miles. BR means that the current weather is “mist”. This comes from a big table of different weather conditions (which we’re supposed to memorize).
SCT is short for scattered clouds. It’s in there three times: 1,400' (014); 2,000' (020); and 2,500' (025), to indicate three levels of clouds at different altitudes. The 25/24 is the temperature and the dew point in celcius. Temps this close together means it’s easy to form clouds. A2987 is the barometric pressure - 29.87" of mercury. RMK is remark, and there’s a long list of those too:
Volcanic Eruptions are in plain english
TORNADO, FUNNEL CLOUD, or WATERSPOUT
Peak Wind (PK_WND)
Wind Shift (WSHFT_time)
BINOVC (Breaks in Overcast)
BINOVC denotes a few, small clear patches in the overcast sky
Tower or Surface Visibility (TWR_VIS SFC_VIS)
CIG (Ceiling=Lowest BKN/OVC layer or height of VV)
V (Variable)
i.e. BKN V SCT, VIS 2V3 [2 variable 3 miles], CIG 025V030 [2500 ft-3000ft])
...
That was partial list of the “important and common” possible remarks. It’ s not even close to all of them!
Thankfully, someone at the College of DuPage built a translator. You paste the METAR, it spits it back at you in plain E nglish. I spent part of my afternoon just grabbing METARs from around the country, translating them myself, then pasting them into the translator to see how I did.
It looks like I’m going to need a lot more practice.
farscythe - makin da cawfee!
> TheRealBicycleBuck
09/02/2018 at 18:25 |
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looks to me like the weather is green
unless its brown... or puprle
dis easy
someassemblyrequired
> TheRealBicycleBuck
09/02/2018 at 18:29 |
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If you haven’t read it yet, grab a copy of Bob Buck’s Weather Flying for a couple of bucks on Amazon . He was chief pilot for TWA back in the 60s and did a lot of weather research flying after WWII. In any case I enjoyed it and it answered a lot of questions about operations in weather that I had even though the only left-seat I’ll ever see is 16A.
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TheRealBicycleBuck
> farscythe - makin da cawfee!
09/02/2018 at 19:08 |
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I guess we won’t be flying the friendly skies together unless you’re sitting in the passenger seat!
:)
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farscythe - makin da cawfee!
> TheRealBicycleBuck
09/02/2018 at 19:11 |
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lol thats for sure.... im a shitty passenger too tho.... best to just strap me to the wing and give me a blowtorch so i can attempt to light my smokes
i dont take well t o heights
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TheRealBicycleBuck
> farscythe - makin da cawfee!
09/02/2018 at 19:29 |
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Funny thing there. Fear of heights is usually associated with standing on a tall structure and looking down. If there isn’t a structure, there’s no connection to the ground and a lot of that fear goes away.
One of the hardest things I’ve had to do is launch a hang glider off a cliff. Once I get off the ramp, all i s well, but finding the gumption to commit to that run is hard .
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farscythe - makin da cawfee!
> TheRealBicycleBuck
09/02/2018 at 19:35 |
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tbh.... my fear of heights aint so bad in a plane.... im only scared when i think a fall will hurt me.... certain death doesnt bother me so much
but between the height, being confined to my seat and other passengers i hate flying
and thats not counting the hassle of getting through an airport
CaptDale - is secretly British
> TheRealBicycleBuck
09/05/2018 at 12:32 |
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Fuck me, I don’t want to deal with that XD