Touring Machine Company

Significant Meteorological Information (SIGMET) SIGMETs provide aircraft operators and aircrews notice of potentially hazardous en route phenomena such as thunderstorms and hail, turbulence, icing, sand and dust storms, tropical cyclones, and volcanic ash. SIGMET Criteria (Non-Convective) A SIGMET may be issued when any of the following conditions occur or is expected to occur in an [...]

Aviation Routine Weather Report (METAR) Aviation Routine Weather Report (METAR) is the primary observation code used in the U. S. to satisfy World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requirements for reporting surface meteorological data. A METAR report includes the airport identifier, time of observation, wind, visibility, runway visual range, present weather [...]

There are lots of sources for aviation weather and I cover them in some detail in this post. The National Weather Service publishes weather observations for aviators and publishes most of them at the Standard Briefing page. Most of them are covered in the FAA publication Aviation Weather Services AC 00-45F. The 2007 version of [...]

There are lots of questions on the FAA Knowledge Tests about altimeter readings at non-standard temperature and pressure settings. The non-standard pressure questions are fairly intuitive. We all know that pressure decreases as altitude increases. Therefore, if the pressure is lower than what the altimeter expects, the altimeter is fooled into thinking it is higher [...]

The knowledge tests have lots of questions of METARs and TAFs and rather than copy this information into every question, I’ve posted it here. AVIATION ROUTINE WEATHER REPORT (METAR) Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge p 11-4, 11-5, 11-6 An aviation routine weather report, or METAR, is an observation of current surface weather reported in a standard [...]

You probably have your favorite weather sites for flight planning, but I’m guessing you haven’t been using these. Here is a great place to start—the Standard Briefing page of the National Weather service. However, this has got to be used to be the coolest weather site around. ADDS is Beta testing HEMS, a Java-based tool [...]

The winds along the Central Coast of California are sometimes strong, but usually onshore so runways are pretty much lined up with the wind. When they vary in direction it is usually because of thermal activity so they are fairly light. In the fall the Santa Ana’s can be very strong and from directions where [...]

The Detroit/Pontiac branch of NOAA’s National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office has a glossary of weather terms. It includes common terms that every airman should know like Air Mass Thunderstorm as well as less common terms like Alberta Clipper that apply to certain areas of the country. I especially like the odd-ball terms like Achluophobia: [...]