Weather charts

badtransam97

Well-Known Member
Okay so I'm getting ready for my instrument checkride and the examiner I'm going to is big on regurgitating all the info on wx charts. So I was wondering if anybody had any type of memory aids to remember what all is shown on certain charts, issue time, etc... Or is this just basically all memorization?
 
Okay so I'm getting ready for my instrument checkride and the examiner I'm going to is big on regurgitating all the info on wx charts. So I was wondering if anybody had any type of memory aids to remember what all is shown on certain charts, issue time, etc... Or is this just basically all memorization?
If you are going for regurgitation then please reconsider, I highly doubt that regurgitating is all the examiner expects from you.

For the IR especially you really need to be able to actually read the weather charts, and make an informed Go-No go decision.

Most of the IR students that fail with the examiner I send students to fail on weather charts. He expects them to be actually understand the chart, what a chart can and can't show you, and when it is valid.

I highly recommend the Aviation Weather Services book, it details everything you may need to know for the IR checkride.
 
I guess I kinda worded the regurgitate part wrong..ha! I can interpret the charts fine, by looking at them. What I think I'm gonna have a problem with is keeping the names of the charts seperate, like if he said, " tell me everything the constant pressure chart shows". If I see one, I can tell him, but just sitting there naming off everything on it without looking at it is gonna be tough! Maybe thats just part of instrument flying..LOL!
 
I guess I kinda worded the regurgitate part wrong..ha! I can interpret the charts fine, by looking at them. What I think I'm gonna have a problem with is keeping the names of the charts seperate, like if he said, " tell me everything the constant pressure chart shows". If I see one, I can tell him, but just sitting there naming off everything on it without looking at it is gonna be tough! Maybe thats just part of instrument flying..LOL!
cool,

more than likely he will put the charts in front of you to ask you the questions. Hell I doubt I could tell you even half of what there is to know about a chart if just given the name of the chart
 
I guess I kinda worded the regurgitate part wrong..ha! I can interpret the charts fine, by looking at them. What I think I'm gonna have a problem with is keeping the names of the charts seperate, like if he said, " tell me everything the constant pressure chart shows". If I see one, I can tell him, but just sitting there naming off everything on it without looking at it is gonna be tough! Maybe thats just part of instrument flying..LOL!

I have the same problem, it's been hard but I'm slowly learning the charts.
 
I highly recommend the Aviation Weather Services book, it details everything you may need to know for the IR checkride.

This book is a must have imo. I use it as a sort of User Manual for NOAA's Aviation Digital Data Service(ADDS). EVERYTHING imaginable is in there relating to aviation weather products.
 
This book is a must have imo. I use it as a sort of User Manual for NOAA's Aviation Digital Data Service(ADDS). EVERYTHING imaginable is in there relating to aviation weather products.
Before I got the book I didn't know half of what ADDS had to offer, or how to read it.
 
imaginable is in there relating to aviation weather products.

At least for the FAA/NOAA stuff. The commercial charts generally are simpler, with slightly different symbols. You really need the legend to those charts. I use printouts of Meteorlogix charts to train students, but the charts for other services are pretty similar.

Years ago, I went to some trouble to locate current sources for the charts used in the Aviation Weather Services and on the knowledge test. My examiner laughed at me and said no one used charts like that any more, even FSS. He tests students on commercial-type charts.
 
Years ago, I went to some trouble to locate current sources for the charts used in the Aviation Weather Services and on the knowledge test. My examiner laughed at me and said no one used charts like that any more, even FSS. He tests students on commercial-type charts.

Good, so it isn't just me. I have been unable to find a lot of those charts.
 
I have a problem of remembering when those charts come out. There are a lot of numbers I have memorized, but I can't get those charts to stick in my mind.
 
Surface analysis and weather depiction every 3 hours? .. and radar summery at 35 past the hour?

I think :)
 
Good, so it isn't just me. I have been unable to find a lot of those charts.

Oh, I found them, but it was in some obscure ftp folder on some NOAA ftp server. The folder was labeled "fax", suggesting that these were intended to be faxed.
 
Oh, I found them, but it was in some obscure ftp folder on some NOAA ftp server. The folder was labeled "fax", suggesting that these were intended to be faxed.

That's exactly where they're at... Hidden well out of the way. You can get right to the fax folder from STANDARD BRIEFING on the home page.

I like Meteorlogix too for certain products too. Very simple, straight forward wx charts.
 
This is one reason why I have my students print out all the charts/reports required in the PTS for each lesson by the time they solo if a private, or by lesson 2 if instrument or commercial. Also, the weather chart questions on the written are easier if you've actually used them a few times.
 
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