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There are always two systems out there:
Air Traffic Control and Weather.
The responsibility and the challenge come from fitting the airplane
into both of them as smoothly as possible.
In this book, Richard Collins highlights and stresses the importance of negotiating the systems of air traffic control and weather services to maximum advantage. The emphasis is on pilot judgment. Yes, a flight is affected by winds, and storms are always a risk. Visibility is an area where the regulations desert us; a blanket rule that sets the VFR minimums in miles does not take into account differences in speed. A regulations legality does not guarantee pilot and passenger safety.
Yet Richard Collins demystifies the art of aviation, and dexterously guides the pilot through common misconceptions with solid advice and accurate examples for improvement.
From flight Training on through to arrival, approach, and landing, Collins encourages all pilots to be a critic of your own performance, with an example of his own flight self-analysis. A basic weather course is provided, which serves as a backbone for leaning how to read the signs:
- What kind of weather breeds the labels from which flight decisions
are based : VFR, IFR, MVFR, CVFR (Continued VFR)
- How do you glean the necessary information during preflight,
analyze the conditions experienced in flight, and calculate your
own forecast based on the new information.
- When does it make sense to fly above the cloud deck, and when
should your try to stay down below?
In this newly revised Second Edition of this book, Collins teaches you to use ATC to your benefit, whether flying VFR or IFR. The factors your need to consider when making these decisions are outlined, supplemented with examples from personal experience and accident reports. He explains the most frequent decisions pilots made when they were caught in weather laying all the factors on the table so you have enough information to develop pilot and airplane limitations that make sense for you-so you know exactly what you can and should ask of ATC for help out there. But regardless of weather factors or services available en route, Collins is confident in his craft. He never lets his more than 40 years of fling relax his judgments. It is with this drive toward excellence that you can learn from his experiences.
Chapters:
- The Myths
- Weather Basics
- Flight Planning and Weather
- Flight Planning and Air Traffic Control
- Reading the Signs
- VFR Weather
- IFR Weather
- VFR and ATC
- IFR and ATC
- The VFR Arrival
- The IFR Arrival
- The Final Grade
Softcover, 155 pages, Indexed
About the Author: Richard L. Collins has spent his life in aviation, Logging over 19,500 flight hours in almost every type of aircraft, including Concorde, and writing about it in over 900 magazine articles and 11 books for pilots-plus many video productions. He has been editor-in-chief of Flying Magazine, and publisher and editor-in-chief of Flying magazine, and the publisher and editor-in-chief of AOPA Pilot Magazine. Collins has won many aviation awards and continues to do extensive research in aviation safety. He is currently an editor-at-large for Flying.
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