This text thoroughly explains the many U.S. aviation weather products and services available to pilots. Weather product examples and explanations are taken primarily from the Aviation Weather Center’s Aviation Digital Data Service website http://adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov. The AC provides hundreds of weather website addresses for weather resources and definitions, and in addition to this printed book, an electronic copy (.pdf format)* is available as a PDF so readers can access these websites with clickable links — an unprecedented level of convenience and study access for pilots planning flights and researching weather.

Aviation Weather Services is the main resource to use when studying for pilot certification exams and should remain a part of every aviator’s library. Includes weather station location tables, lists of contractions and acronyms, weather symbols, conversion charts, internet links, and more. Soft cover, 400 pages.

Despite quantum leaps in cockpit technology, weather radar and forecasting techniques, flying often boils down to "someone sitting in a cramped cockpit somewhere, trying for all he's worth to figure out what meaning those clouds up ahead have for him." An understanding of how larger climatic forces affect each region's specific patterns can give that lone pilot the edge, and this edge is what Flying America's Weather is all about.

This illuminating book takes us on a pilot's tour of our nation's weather, from the brilliant blue of the Hawaiian Islands to the black and gray monster that is the Nor'Easter — and everything in between. It shows a grand and diverse country, dominated regionally by grand, diverse, and understandable patterns of weather. Flying America's Weather combines decades of climate research with hands-on experience, an awareness of larger weather forces at work on local geography, and critical examples of how weather contributes to aviation accidents. It focuses on what weather we can expect from the areas we fly in, yet provides a deep understanding of why it's there. In doing so, Flying America's Weather becomes an indispensable guide for all pilots, wherever they fly.

Author Richard Collins shares his experience in this guide to the real world of instrument flight, detailing the IFR system, equipment, and exploring the risks and rewards of instrument flying. The invaluable discussions on instrument airmanship, weather analysis, flight planning and decision making, handling equipment glitches, and that critical survival skill — partial panel flying — are all presented for the sole objective of better preparing you to fly on IFR flight plans. This fourth edition takes into account the current IFR environment, and includes chapters dedicated to:

perfecting basic attitude instrument flying for the foundation of a successful IFR flight

light airplane operation in the middle high-altitudes beginning at 18,000 feet

the relationship between systems — including autopilots — and instrument flying

using all resources, including computers, to file flight plans, obtain and interpret weather information, and prepare flight plans for the best preflight readiness

managing stress

IFR flight in and around ice, thunderstorms, and at night

The only tests this book prepares you for are those encountered in flying actual IFR. Where the initial instrument checkride leaves off with the applicant receiving a "dry" instrument ticket, this book provides the information necessary to "get it wet." Soft cover, 230 pages, indexed.

"Weather is what you find, not what you expect to find." — Flying the Weather Map

There is nothing so valuable in aviation as experience. In Flying the Weather Map veteran aviator Richard Collins shares his extensive experience with all pilots, offering proven techniques for weaving preflight forecasts and inflight observations into the fabric of safe and successful flights.

After an in-depth discussion of weather theory, Collins takes us along on 46 actual cross-country flights from his own logbooks: From solid IFR to marginal VFR, we fly with him in his light airplane in all weather and in all seasons. Each flight begins with a depiction of that day's weather maps, general conditions, and charts showing the intended and actual routes. Mile by mile the flight is analyzed in Collins' clear and deliberate style, constantly comparing weather theory and the preflight information with the actual conditions beyond his windscreen. The decisions these comparisons lead him to along the way — diversions to alternates, new route requests, and even returns to his airport of origin — become our own hard-won experiences.

Aviation's most crucial decisions are when to fly, when not to fly, and when to turn tail. Using an understanding of how weather works and details of how weather phenomena affect actual flights, Flying the Weather Map teaches us how to do our own "inflight weather-casting" and make these decisions safely and soundly.

Continued VFR into IFR conditions persists as the most frequent cause of weather-related accidents. This book provides the bare-bones essentials of instrument flying technique and procedures so urgently needed in order to cope with and survive an inadvertent encounter with low-visibility IFR conditions.

For this "IFR survival guide," Richard Taylor has adapted the key lifesaving elements of IFR discipline to the average VFR pilot's capabilities. Here are complete instructions in a simplified "hands-off" flying technique that minimizes the risks of loss of control when outside visual clues are lost. The physiological causes of spatial disorientation are explained, giving valuable insights into IFR's most treacherous aspect. A chapter contributed by noted pscyhologist and flight instructor Dr. Jerald Cockrell tells how to control fear and panic the cockpit.

Should Air Traffic Control assistance be necessary, IFR for VFR Pilots tells how to communicate effectively and how to use ATC to fly out of a low-visibility predicament. The book guides you step-by-step through the essential procedures of DF steers, radar vectors, and other ATC "assists." VOR and DF fixes, VOR approaches, low-visibility landing technique, even the missed approach, are clearly explained with typical Taylor expertise.

IFR for VFR Pilots is a must for all fair-weather fliers, however proficient and cautious they may be. Its no-nonsense approach has a lot to say to the seasoned instrument-rated pilot as well. Second Edition. Soft cover, illustrated and indexed, 138 pages.

In this unique and instructive book, veteran IFR pilot Richard L. Collins takes the right seat beside Patrick E. Bradley to demonstrate effective ways to grasp and solve IFR problems and eliminate uncertainties that may plague even current IFR airmen. Bradley, a relatively new IFR pilot, discusses the concerns and errors he has shared with most instrument fliers who are new or rusty. Collins then applies his own experiences and methods, including some lessons learned the hard way, and carefully examines airline and general aviation accidents to point out how threatening situations can be avoided or safely confronted.

IFR is a thinking game, and the authors emphasize ways of avoiding mental lapses that can turn simple difficulties into lethal crises:

Making sure you’re fuel-safe when your destination is at minimums.

Recognizing and thinking through the dangers of nighttime and circling approaches.

Shifting strategies and tactics when the winds aloft misbehave.

Avoiding the traps of the missed approach: before, during, and after.

Choosing right when you’re number one for takeoff and a thunderstorm is approaching the field.

Staying on top of equipment needs, quirks, and failures.

It emphasizes the ‘real world’ of modern IFR operations, and its anecdotal style and common sense make it all the more valuable. — Western Flyer

Author Dennis Newton is a meteorologist, weather research pilot, engineering test pilot, ATP, and flight instructor. He speaks pilot to pilot in this valuable guide on how not to fly severe weather. He believes that given the knowledge, pilots can truly lessen their chances of being caught in thunderstorms and other extreme weather conditions. This book was written with that goal in mind: to impart enough meteorological information in a way pilots can best grasp and use it.

While the emphasis is on types of weather that are potentially hazardous to flight, it is not a "cry-wolf" approach -- with each type of weather discussed, the author provides rational answers to a pilot's very sensible question, "And then what? How does this affect me?" He also discusses the capabilities and limitations of airplanes and equipment in avoiding and in dealing with severe weather. Newton believes that, "when weather is presented in the worst possible light and it becomes the common experience of a pilot that there is no wolf, there are no effective words of warning left when the day finally comes that the wolf is really there. Pilots as a group are more than conservative enough to keep themselves safe if they are only given the facts."

Meteorology can be a tough "language" and not always clear to the lay person. Newton translates and brings across the most crucial principles pilots can use to fly more wisely in weather. Covering weather fundamentals, the atmosphere, and the stability of the air, he then digs deeper into the individual aspects of severe weather situations: air mass and nocturnal thunderstorms, downbursts, lightning, icing, turbulence and wind shear. Newton blends in good coverage of detection equipment for the cockpit, and the weather briefing information available to the pilot for decision-making in flight planning, and even the enroute phase. Details on icing certification for the aircraft are also covered, and for the Third Edition chapters on further aircraft icing information have been added.

This book is as valuable for seasoned veterans as for relative newcomers, applicable to VFR, IFR, piston, turbine, low- and high-altitude operations. Foreword to the Third Edition by Scott Crossfield. Soft cover, 190 pages, illustrated and indexed (including some color weather photographs).

Weather forecasters often include the “chance” of thunderstorms to cover every eventuality — not probability —- which leaves pilots virtually on their own to decide whether or not thunderstorms will be a consideration along the flight path.

Richard Collins’ new edition of his book, Thunderstorms and Airplanes, provides in-depth understanding of why, when, and where the most lethal of weather hazards are likely to develop and gives practical advice on flying well clear of them. Chapters are dedicated to weather basics, thunderstorm research, storm forecasting, accidents related to thunderstorms, and more.

Soft cover, illustrated, indexed, 192 pages.