Start here: weather briefings, FRAT, and risk stacking
New to the Learning Center? Begin with these three.
Weather Briefing Types
The three FAA briefing types and when to get each, what a standard briefing contains and in what order, what “VFR flight not recommended” means, and how self-briefing fits in.
FAA FRAT
FAA FRAT means Flight Risk Assessment Tool. How the FAA form, checklist, and online tool work, what green, yellow, and red mean, and how an eFRAT fits.
Risk Stacking
No single item on a flight has to be dangerous for the flight to be dangerous. A case study from the AOPA Air Safety Institute shows how risks stack, and how to see the stack while you can still act on it.
Aviation weather guides for pilots
Plain-language guides to weather products and hazards, sourced from the FAA, NWS, and Aviation Weather Center.
Aviation weather reports and forecasts: METAR, TAF, PIREP
How to read the products you pull before every flight.
What Is a METAR?
A METAR is the coded weather observation for an airport. Learn to read every group, what AUTO and AO2 mean, when a SPECI is issued, and where METARs fit a disciplined weather decision.
What Is a TAF?
A TAF is a coded airport forecast. Learn to read wind, visibility, clouds, FM, TEMPO, and PROB30, and where the TAF fits in a disciplined weather decision.
What Is a PIREP?
A PIREP is a pilot weather report. Learn the UA and UUA format, how to decode each field, the official icing and turbulence intensity scales, and how to give a PIREP that helps.
AIRMET, SIGMET, and CWA
How to read AIRMETs, G-AIRMETs, SIGMETs, Convective SIGMETs, and Center Weather Advisories: criteria, valid times, decoded Handbook examples, and where advisories fit a disciplined weather decision.
Winds and Temperatures Aloft
How to decode the FB winds and temperatures aloft forecast, including winds over 100 knots and missing low levels, with a worked decode of the FAA Handbook sample.
Weather Radar for Pilots
How to read NEXRAD and TDWR radar, what dBZ and composite reflectivity mean, where radar misses weather, and why cockpit radar mosaics are older than their time stamp.
TAF vs MOS, LAMP and NBM
TAFs are the official NWS terminal forecast. This article compares them with MOS, LAMP and NBM guidance, and explains why many small airports never get a forecaster-written TAF.
TCF vs ECFP
How the TFM Convective Forecast and Extended Convective Forecast Product help traffic managers and airline dispatch plan around storms, and how a GA pilot can read them as context (not as a go/no‑go product).
Weather hazards for pilots: thunderstorms, icing, turbulence, fog
What each hazard does to an airplane, and how it is forecast.
Thunderstorms for Pilots
Why the FAA treats every thunderstorm as hazardous, the 20-mile avoidance rule, how lightning is reported, and what convective outlooks, TCF, ECFP, and watches tell you.
Icing Forecasts
What the CIP and FIP icing products show, how to find the freezing level, what trace, light, moderate, heavy, and severe icing mean, and where icing forecasts fall short.
Turbulence Forecasts
How the GTG turbulence forecast and GTG-N nowcast work, what EDR means, the official light to extreme intensity scale, and which turbulence GTG does not forecast.
Low-Level Wind Shear and Microbursts
What low-level wind shear and microbursts are, the signs to look for, how LLWAS, TDWR, and ATIS alerts reach you, how to report wind shear, and what the FAA says about recovery.
Ceiling, Visibility, and Flight Categories
What legally counts as a ceiling, how prevailing visibility is measured, the four flight categories, and why a green VFR dot is not the same as the 14 CFR 91.155 VFR minimums.
Fog for Pilots
How each type of fog forms and clears, what the temperature-dewpoint spread tells you, how fog is coded in METARs and TAFs, and what the FAA and NTSB say to do about it.
Mountain Wave and Mountain Weather
When mountain waves form, how propagating and trapped lee waves differ, the clouds that mark them, rotor and downslope wind hazards, and how to plan a mountain crossing.
Big-picture weather: fronts, stability, and surface charts
Air masses, fronts, stability and the weather map.
Fronts, Troughs, and Drylines for Pilots
How air masses form, what to expect before, during, and after a warm or cold front, what troughs and ridges are, how a wave cyclone develops, and why the dryline matters for spring storms.
Atmospheric Stability for Pilots
What absolute, conditional, and neutral stability mean, how lapse rates and lifting shape clouds and turbulence, what inversions do, and how LI and CAPE show up in convective planning.
Surface Analysis and Prog Charts for Pilots
How to read the surface analysis chart and short-range surface prog charts: fronts, highs and lows, troughs, drylines, precip symbols, issuance times, and how they fit a briefing.
Preflight planning: briefings, weather risk, density altitude
Briefing types, weather risk and what heat and altitude do to climb.
Weather Briefing Types
The three FAA briefing types and when to get each, what a standard briefing contains and in what order, what “VFR flight not recommended” means, and how self-briefing fits in.
Weather Risk and Personal Minimums
How the FAA defines hazard, risk, personal minimums, and PAVE, the NTSB lessons on compounding weather risk, and links to PlaneWX guides for setting and using your own limits.
Density Altitude Calculator and Guide
What density altitude is, how to calculate it by hand and with the NWS formula, a worked example, the Koch chart, and why hot, high, and humid days catch pilots out.
Aeronautical decision making: FRAT, IMSAFE, risk stacking and CFIT
ADM habits from FAA risk management material that keep the PIC in command.
FAA FRAT
FAA FRAT means Flight Risk Assessment Tool. How the FAA form, checklist, and online tool work, what green, yellow, and red mean, and how an eFRAT fits.
The IMSAFE Checklist
IMSAFE as six questions you can answer before every flight, the FAA medication rules and the new FAA MedGuide, and two NTSB accidents where the pilot was the weak link.
Risk Stacking
No single item on a flight has to be dangerous for the flight to be dangerous. A case study from the AOPA Air Safety Institute shows how risks stack, and how to see the stack while you can still act on it.
Controlled Flight Into Terrain
What CFIT is, why it happens in general aviation, two NTSB accidents step by step, and the preflight and in flight checks that keep terrain out of the windshield.
Accident case studies
Real accidents from AOPA Air Safety Institute case studies and NTSB final reports. Filter by what went wrong.
- VFR into IMC
Fair Weather Flier: When the Briefer Says VFR Is Not Recommended
A noninstrument-rated Bonanza pilot heard “VFR flight not recommended” and left anyway, a day early, to beat worse weather. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at what self-induced pressure looks like from the inside.
- Icing
Trapped in Ice: The Cost of a 10-Hour-Old Briefing
An instrument-rated Cirrus pilot briefed the night before, departed into forecast icing in an airplane not equipped for it, and lost control on a diversion. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at why a briefing has a shelf life.
- VFR into IMCThunderstorms
Blind Over Bakersfield: Forecast IMC and a Party to Get To
A low-time, noninstrument-rated pilot launched with his family into forecast storms, climbed to nearly 20,000 feet to stay on top, then accepted an IFR clearance. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at how one decision keeps leading to the next.
- Icing
Delayed Reaction: Severe Icing and the Minutes That Matter
An instrument-rated TBM 700 pilot climbed into icing he'd been warned about and asked for a higher altitude instead of declaring. About two minutes later the airplane came apart. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at using your command authority early.
- VFR into IMC
Hazardous Attitudes: A 10,000-Hour Pilot Departs VFR Into a Warning
A 75-year-old instrument-rated commercial pilot left Fullerton VFR with no briefing on record, after the tower warned of deteriorating weather ahead. Six minutes later his Cessna 414 broke up over Yorba Linda. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at the five hazardous attitudes.
- IFR and night
Night Falls on Final: Currency, Avionics and a Dark Approach
An experienced pilot, out of instrument and night currency, struggled with his GPS and autopilot after a runway change at Raleigh-Durham, then descended into trees a mile short. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at what recency really protects.
- VFR into IMC
In Too Deep: A VFR Pilot Turns Away From a Cleared Runway
A 207-hour private pilot without an instrument rating found his destination gone IFR, was cleared to land anyway, and turned away to avoid getting stuck. Minutes later his Cirrus SR20 spiraled into the ground near Crystal Lake, Illinois. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at taking the out you're given.
- Fuel and planning
Cross-Country Crisis: No Briefing, Six Aboard and Snow on Arrival
A private pilot without an instrument rating set out VFR from the Chicago area to Raleigh in January with no flight plan, no record of a weather briefing and an airplane over its weight and balance limits. Low on fuel in heavy snow, his Seneca crashed near Huntington, West Virginia. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at planning the whole route.
- Thunderstorms
Time Lapse: Datalink Radar Is a Picture of the Past
An instrument-rated Cherokee Six pilot used in-cockpit NEXRAD to pick his way around Texas thunderstorms at night. The airplane flew into severe weather and broke up near Bryan. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at what datalink weather can and can't tell you.
- Performance and terrain
Into Thin Air: Clear Skies, High Terrain and a Slow Climb
On a clear July evening, a 12,000-hour pilot ferrying a Bonanza G36 out of Aspen turned down an IFR departure and flew east VFR, climbing a few hundred feet per minute toward rising terrain. The airplane turned into a bowl ringed by 13,000-foot peaks and hit the mountain. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at performance and terrain.
- Performance and terrain
High Aspirations: A Heavy Airplane on a Hot Day
A 108-hour pilot with five hours in his Piper Lance took off near maximum gross weight, with a tailwind, at a density altitude above 7,200 feet. The airplane never climbed more than 120 feet above the ground and stalled into a West Jordan, Utah neighborhood. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at takeoff performance.
- IFR and night
Deadly Disorientation: Leaving an Approach Between Cloud Layers
An instrument-rated Cessna 340 pilot drifted off the localizer on an ILS with a circle to land, called the runway in sight, and lost the protection of the approach. Between two cloud layers he struggled to hold altitude, then entered a steep descending turn into Santee, California. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at spatial disorientation.
- Fuel and planning
Faulty Assumptions: The Fuel You Think You Have
A Baron pilot planned an IFR trip on fuel numbers that had been wrong for eight days. Both engines quit on a GPS approach to Kerrville, Texas, and the airplane spun in below its minimum control speed. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at verifying fuel before every flight.
Weekly PIREP tips on aviation weather and ADM
Archive of Weekly PIREP weather and ADM tips.
- Issue #2
Risk stacking tip: count your risks out loud
No single risk has to be dangerous for the flight to be. Keep a running count across pilot, aircraft, environment and external pressure, and stop to rethink at three.
- Issue #1
What the WX Score actually is
The WX Score is your own personal minimums, applied the same way every time, against the forecast for your route, altitude, and departure time.