Flight Training - April 2015 - 46

WEATHER»

Book, eBook, Audiobook

Cumulus Stage
(3-5 mile height)

Mature Stage
(5-10 mile height)

Dissipating Stage
(5-7 mile height)

40,000 ft.

Equilibrium level
30,000 ft.

20,000 ft.
32°F

0°C

10,000 ft.
5,000 ft.

This book will help you:
* Learn all pvt & comm maneuvers
* Reduce the cost of flight training
* Avoid the accidental stall or spin
* Learn "seat of the pants" skills
* Roundout and flare accurately
* Fly complex airplanes
* Understand attitude flying
* Never fear a crosswind again
* Teach more efficiently as a CFI
* And much more!
508 full color pages
1,250 pictures and illustrations
Book - $59.95/eBook - $44.95
Audiobook $89.95/Digital $69.95

Rod's Other Products

Laugh & Learn With Rod

Ordering:

THUNDERSTORMS GO through three stages, but all three stages should be avoided.

ICY UP HIGH. While the temperature
might be in the mid-90s at the ground, air
in an updraft cools well below freezing
so quickly that the cloud drops which
form can remain liquid at temperatures
well below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. These
supercooled drops instantly turn into
ice when they hit something, such as an
airplane's wings or another piece of ice.
Supercooled water drops hitting other
pieces of ice freeze to form hailstones,
which can grow as large as softballs.
Even golf-ball-size or smaller hunks of
hail can crack windshields and make
dents in any forward-facing part of an
airplane.
Just because no hail is reported as
hitting the ground doesn't mean there's
none in a thunderstorm. A great deal
of hail melts into raindrops on the way
down. Hail that does make it all of the
way down often falls in narrow swaths
that can easily miss weather stations.

control to stay clear of thunderstorms,
but sometimes they come too close.
Pilots with experience flying in stormy
weather, such as those who fly into
hurricanes, say you should forget
about trying to hold altitude-let the airplane ride up and down in the updrafts
and downdrafts-and concentrate on
maintaining a level attitude while keeping the airspeed below maneuvering
speed (VA).
Since keeping the wings level is
important, you shouldn't try to turn
around to escape the storm. When you
are sure you have control, contact ATC,
which might be able to offer slight
course changes that would get you out of
the storm quicker.
At higher altitudes, thunderstorms
can create clear air turbulence, much
like that formed when wind flows
over mountains. Close to the ground,
thunderstorm downdrafts can create
especially violent changes in wind speed
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Flying VFR, you and direction-wind shear-that even
know you are required to remain at least large airliners can't handle. Even dis2,000 feet from any clouds if you are
sipating thunderstorms can cause such
more than 1,200 feet above the ground.
conditions. And they can occur anyNever try to fly through a gap in a line of where around a thunderstorm.
thunderstorms. Such gaps can quickly
Jack Williams is an instrument-rated private
close. A better strategy is to avoid all
pilot. His latest book is The AMS Weather Book:
thunderstorms by 20 miles or more.
The Ultimate Guide to America's Weather.
Pilots flying IFR work with air traffic

www.rodmachado.com
46 /

FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

http://www.rodmachado.com http://FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

Flight Training - April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - April 2015