FLYING Magazine News Pilot Proficiency Weather

Take Advantage of Personalized Weather Training

It's available anytime, anywhere for pilots, so don't waste the opportunity.

Wednesday, January 22, 2025 at 08:44 AM ET

Verified

Given that weather is the single biggest physical factor that affects your flying activity, it’s worth every penny that you invest in formal training to feel more confident in your preflight weather planning. [Getty Images]

Key Takeaways:

General aviation pilots often lack sufficient weather knowledge and formal training beyond initial certification, leading to difficulties in interpreting complex forecasts and contributing to preventable weather-related accidents.
Despite weather being the most critical physical factor affecting flight, there are no ongoing regulatory requirements for formal weather education, and experience alone is insufficient for most pilots to acquire necessary expertise.
Personalized online training is presented as a highly effective and accessible solution to equip pilots with the skills to comprehensively integrate and interpret diverse weather guidance, fostering confidence in preflight planning, alternate selection, and in-flight decision-making.

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It’s often suggested in the pilot community that as you add more hours to your logbook, all that weather knowledge you forgot or were never taught during your primary training will magically take root.

While some experience is absolutely necessary, more experience alone isn’t the answer for most general aviation pilots. In fact, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a safety notice in October 2005 that states, “It appears that pilots generally require formal training to obtain weather knowledge and cannot be expected to acquire it on their own as they simply gain more flight experience.”

Scott Dennstaedt, Ph.D

Scott resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, and flies regularly throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast U.S. He is a CFI and former NWS meteorologist. Scott is the author of "The Skew-T log (p) and Me: A Primer for Pilots" and the founder of EZWxBrief.