By Ryan Vinton, Chief Pilot

Many student pilots fail to properly prepare for each flight lesson. This can only hinder a student’s progress through training.

Students with the help of their instructor should always know where they are in the training syllabus and be properly prepared for their next lesson. Make sure after each lesson you get a chance to discuss your next lesson with your CFI, so you can take the time to read ahead and prepare for your next flight.  This includes reading the chapters assigned to you and preparing for the various maneuvers or flight tasks you will be expected to do on your next flight.  This doesn’t require perfection by any means, but you will have the ability to ask relevant questions when you arrive to fly.

Take some time to “chair fly” your next lesson by sitting at a desk and going through the procedures, flows and tasks you will accomplish in the air. Imagine your actually in the plane and take it seriously – it really helps to make something new in the aircraft seem like you’ve done it before! If you have a flight simulator, great, you can “chair fly” with that. If you don’t, no worries, you can still benefit greatly from this exercise.

Remember, you will only get out of flight training what you put it, but most importantly, have fun doing it!  And, you will save money by being prepared.

Learning to read the METAR and TAF coded report is a task that all pilots must master. The job is made somewhat difficult by the use of abbreviations of French vocabulary. This is because the METAR and TAF are derived from the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) world standard of weather reporting . The US is a member of ICAO and uses this system. I will attempt to demystify some of these abbreviations.

First , there are the “easy” ones:

Rain is RA; Drizzle – DZ; Ice Pellets – PL; Ice crystals – IC; Snow – SN

But what about these:

Hail is GR. What? Some say remember “granite” as a device for recognizing this abbreviation. But, really GR is the abbreviation for the French word for hail, grêle.

How about Mist? BR. Where does that come from? Mist in French is brouillard. Hence, the abbreviation, BR.

Smoke, as near forest fires, is shown by FU. It is short for the French word for smoke, fumée.

The most obscure, and most unlikely seen condition in New Jersey is dust/sand swirls or PO. A dust storm in French is tempête poussière, so PO is short for poussière.

Another, rare sight is a Funnel Cloud or FC. No French here, easy to understand. But, if the FC becomes a Tornado, then it is shown as +FC, or strong funnel cloud.

Now, you know more of what goes into the weather report and have learned some French words to impress your flying friends.

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PRINCETON AIRPORT FLYING TIGERS