Airborne Weather Sensors

Monday, September 25, 2023 at 07:10 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) and most in-cockpit weather tools (like Nexrad) provide strategic, delayed weather information, making them unsuitable for real-time, tactical thunderstorm avoidance.
Airborne weather radar is the only true tactical tool for close-proximity storm navigation, but it's heavy, power-intensive, often lacks formal single-pilot training, and should be used with a thorough understanding of its operation and limitations.
Pilots should prioritize staying in visual conditions for thunderstorm avoidance, augmenting this with strategic tools (like sferic devices) to plan routes, and understanding that Air Traffic Control's weather guidance is primarily for separation, not tactical routing.

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(Editor’s Note: This is the final contribution to a three-part series on going beyond the standard preflight weather briefing on your EFB.)

The contemporary electronic flight bag (EFB) is truly a “how did we ever live without this?” kind of tool. It can put just about any text or imagery on its display at the tap of an icon, tell us where to look for traffic and display the observations from ground-based Nexrad weather radar sites. One thing an EFB can’t do, though, is respond to questions you may have about your briefing.