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.