Weather

North Atlantic crossings to London have become such a frequent part of my repertoire that the ocean is now marked with a magenta line dotted with large directional arrows that say, “Les, this way!” Regardless of the routine, each trip has its own unique challenges. A trip this past January was no exception. It was […]

You’ve never seen anything like this. Extremely strong winds at the USAF Academy Airfield in Colorado Springs, Colorado, caused a dangerous emergency situation for pilots of four tow planes sitting on the tarmac as a 55-knot spring gust front swept across the airport recently. Two of the four pilots were forced to take to the […]

Turn on your faucet—any faucet. Start with just a slow stream of water. See how smooth, transparent it is? That’s an example of laminar flow. Now, accelerate it by opening the taps fully. Notice how it roils, as a brook after a rainstorm. What you see is the essence of turbulence.

Got weather? Really? Well, is it the type of weather information you need to make a truly informed go, no-go decision? Maybe not, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is recommending that the FAA and the National Weather Service work together to put better weather information in pilots’ hands. The NTSB action comes […]

It is a Saturday night in Ithaca, New York. The temperature is 7 degrees, and the gusts of 26 knots blow snow across the ramp. The only available evidence of this blowing snow is provided by powerful floodlights attached to the hangar that make for a scene that is both bright white and, just beyond […]

Aviationweather.gov is getting a whole new look and feel today, but don’t worry, the National Weather Service promises that all of the content previously available on the site will still be there — just with updated page layouts and menus. The site underwent a makeover to bring its look in line with sister site weather.gov, […]

The winds have been downright nasty across the UK this winter, giving one local plane watcher the chance to put together an incredible YouTube video of harrowing crosswind takeoffs and landings. We don’t know what the metars reported for these challenging operations, but suffice it to say the winds in all case were strong with […]

In December, Reuters reported that Chinese authorities are requiring pilots flying into Beijing Capital International Airport in the northeastern outskirts of the city to improve their landing capabilities in low visibility conditions. The airport has been suffering chronic flight delays due to poor visibility caused by smog. Now there is word out of China that […]

Since 1997, Cessna has been telling pilots of most of its light twins not to fly in known icing — but not all, as a previous report in Flying‘s eNewsletter suggested. Cessna issued a Mandatory Service Bulletin back then (MEB97-4) requiring that those twins not approved for flight in known icing (FIKI) have placards installed […]

Illustrations by Matthew Laznicka| Clayton, New Mexico — way east of the Rocky Mountains, out on the Great Plains. A humid June afternoon. We had finished up in court and were sitting around in the judge’s office. The phone rang. The judge handed it to me. My friend, the airport weather forecaster, spoke abruptly: “Margaret, […]