Aviation Weather For Pilots and Flight Operations Personnel

by Federal Aviation Agency, U.S. Weather Bureau

A clear, concise, & readable book. Discusses each aspect of weather as it relates to aircraft operation & flight safety. Covers: temperature, wind, moisture & clound formation, stable & unstable air, atmospheric pressure & altimetry, turbulence, icing, thunderstorms, high altitude weather, arctic weather, tropical weather, soaring weather, & more. Glossary of weather terms. 172 black & white photos & illustrations.

Genres: Aviation, Reference, Nonfiction

299 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super informative, with convincingly terrifying descriptions of what happens when your plane gets sucked into a thunderstorm.

A lot of this information would be interesting to the general outdoorsy person, not just pilots. In particular, the discussions of wind formation around land masses, dew point and temperature changes around twilight and dawn, and discussions of the impact of rain, thunderstorms, and hail would all be useful to know if you're a frequent camper. The last section, which is on soaring and glider piloting, was interesting from a physics perspective, but became overly mathy and I mostly skimmed it. I especially liked the sections on reading and identifying clouds.

Minus a star because this author assumes all pilots are male, just like every author in general aviation and the federal government, apparently.

[Michael O'Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

A typical government reference book. Not going to wow anyone with its style or illustrations, but this book does a good job at getting across the essentials of what a professional aviator needs to know about weather. And a fair amount of its subject matter finds its way onto FAA exam questions --- as on my employers' annual standardization exams.

[Brian Page · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aviation Weather is a great, fact-filled, concise yet detailed presentation of weather phenomena particularly as it pertains to aviation – but not exclusively. Non-pilots can get just as much out of this book as pilots. For pilots, however, Aviation Weather fleshes out much of the more cursory knowledge that is required for examinations and even for flying safely. In other words, a pilot may not actually need this level of knowledge to remain safe & competent, but the book explains the mechanisms and the meteorological science behind the phenomena. It can turn memorization into understanding.

[Spencer Petersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short chapters and subdivision of chapters into sections makes it easier to get through in bite-sized sections.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

if some day you have to fly above 1500 ft and at least 1NM away from the visual pattern, you better have this amazing life insurance

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative.