Aero-Tips!

A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of "there are no old, bold pilots.") It's part of what makes aviation so exciting for all of us... just when you think you've seen it all, along comes a scenario you've never imagined.

Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner, master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us -- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators, and as representatives of the flying community. Some of them, you may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be something we might never have considered before, or something that didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized it for the practical test.

It is our unabashed goal that "Aero-Tips" will help our readers become better, safer pilots -- as well as introducing our ground-bound readers to the concepts and principles that keep those strange aluminum-and-composite contraptions in the air... and allow them to soar magnificently through it.

Look for our daily Aero-Tips segments, coming each day to you through the Aero-News Network. Suggestions for future Aero-Tips are always welcome, as are additions or discussion of each day's tips. Remember... when it comes to being better pilots, we're all in this together.

Aero-Tips 05.20.06

We're all taught early on some things about wind flow -- the general flow in the middle latitudes is west-to-east, air spirals clockwise around high pressure and counterclockwise around low, breeze blows in from the sea during the day and outward from the land at night. For a given location, typical wind patterns are predictable. For instance here in Kansas, in the summer the wind is generally from the south to southwest, and in winter it usually blows cold from the northwest.

There are times when local wind patterns don't adhere to these climactic norms, however. Pilots need to know they should beware the backward wind.

Blowing Backward

By "backward wind" I mean a local wind flow that does not conform to normal patterns. For instance, the weather report this morning tells me the wind is blowing strong from the northeast. That's exactly backward from the late-spring norm of southwest. What might that mean to me as a pilot?

• Wind from the northeast is strong enough to fight the general air flow, so the system creating the wind flow is also strong.
• A wind from the northeast might mean a high pressure center somewhere north to northeast of my position -- I'm experiencing the clockwise spiral of air at the roughly four to five o'clock position of the high. The stronger the wind, the more powerful the system and/or the close I am to its center.
• Wind from the northeast could also mean I am on the back side of a low pressure system, one centered somewhere to my southeast. I'm in the cold-air quadrant of the low but well behind the cold front; skies may be clear but turbulent. If there's a lot of moisture in the system I could be hit by the "wrap-around" effect over the north side of the low—some of the heaviest rain- and especially snowfalls happen on the north to northwest side of a particularly juicy low pressure system.
• A "wind disturbance" could also be more fleeting and localized, the result of terrain, outflow from a supercell thunderstorm or even (if in close proximity) air being drawn in to a storm cell that will soon hammer my location.

Aero-tip of the day: There are any number of conditions that can cause wind to flow opposite its "usual" course. Some can bring better weather, others can definitely bring worse. Check weather closely when wind patterns aren't as expected -- and beware the backward wind.

FMI: Aero-Tips