The weather briefing they always ask about — The Oral EP14

Show: The Oral — checkride oral exam prep for student pilots from PilotPrep. Hosted by Jake. Prepare • Perform • Pass.

Description: The DPE slides three sheets across the table, a METAR, a TAF, and a prog chart, and asks: can you go? Jake decodes all three in plain English, shows you the ceiling and temp-dewpoint traps, and turns the forecast into a decision.

Listen: https://muse.ai/podcasts/media/1411453445377353/7cae982a-899d-48e0-8ef0-aabd4432d52f/ep-01823438-3ebf-4a71-8584-be987fe651d4.mp3

Show notes

• The one sentence: the METAR is what was, the TAF is what might be, the prog chart is why. The examiner is not testing whether you can decode. They are testing whether you can decide.
• METAR is a snapshot: what the weather was doing at one airport at one minute in time. History the second you read it, never a forecast.
• Decode order: station, date/time in Zulu, wind, visibility, weather, sky layers, temperature/dewpoint, altimeter setting.
• Worked example (KPOU): 051453Z AUTO 27008KT 10SM FEW030 SCT060 12/07 A2992 — Poughkeepsie, wind out of the west at eight knots, ten miles visibility, few at 3,000, scattered at 6,000, 12 degrees, dewpoint 7, altimeter 29.92.
• Ceiling: the lowest broken or overcast layer only. Few and scattered do not count — scattered at 2,000 feet is not a ceiling.
• Temp/dewpoint spread: 12 and 7 is a comfortable five-degree spread. A spread of two degrees or less means near-saturated air and fog/low cloud on the way.
• TAF is the movie: a forecast with a valid period. Read the valid period FIRST — a TAF ending at noon is useless for a two o'clock departure.
• TAF change words: FM (from — clean break), TEMPO (temporary), BECMG (gradual change), PROB30/PROB40 (forecaster sees it but is not sure). The story is in the changes: getting better or worse, and when.
• Prog chart is the big picture: highs and lows first, fronts (cold = triangles, warm = semicircles; weather sits on the front), isobars (tight lines = strong wind), where the low is moving. Cross-check it against the TAF.
• Standard briefing: 1800wxbrief.com, ForeFlight, or 1-800-WX-BRIEF. Covers adverse conditions, synopsis, current conditions, en route forecast, destination forecast, winds aloft, and NOTAMs. A perfect weather picture with a closed runway is still a no-go.

Your drill

1. Pull up the METAR and TAF for your home airport, and the surface prog chart for twelve hours out.
2. Decode the METAR out loud in plain English, in order.
3. Read the TAF and say whether the weather is improving or deteriorating, and when it changes.
4. Point at the prog chart and say where the low is and where it is going.
5. Have your CFI change one thing — the ceiling drops, the wind swings, the TAF expires — and answer again. Repeat until the code disappears and all you see is the weather.

Next episode

EP15: airworthiness — the documents and inspections the examiner checks before you ever start the engine.

Tags: checkride oral, METAR, TAF, prog chart, weather briefing, private pilot, VFR weather, DPE, standard briefing, student pilot, PilotPrep

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Full transcript

Picture the oral. The examiner slides three sheets of paper across the table. A METAR, a TAF, and a prog chart. Then the only question that matters. Can you go? This episode is how you answer like a pilot who already knows.

Start with the METAR, because the METAR is a snapshot. It tells you what the weather was doing at one airport at one minute in time. Not what it will do. What it was doing. A METAR is history the second you read it.

Read it in order and it stops looking like code. Station, then the date and time in Zulu. Then the wind, direction and speed, and gusts if there are any. Then visibility, then the weather itself, rain, mist, haze. Then the sky, layer by layer. Few, scattered, broken, overcast, with the height in hundreds of feet. Then temperature and dew point, then the altimeter setting. That is the whole code.

Try one. K P O U, zero five one four five three Zulu, auto, two seven zero at eight knots, one zero statute miles, few at three thousand, scattered at six thousand, one two over zero seven, A two niner niner two. In plain English: Poughkeepsie, wind out of the west at eight knots, ten miles of visibility, a few clouds at three thousand feet, more scattered at six thousand, twelve degrees, dew point seven, altimeter two niner niner two. Say it like that and the examiner hears a pilot, not a decoder ring.

Two numbers in that METAR do more work than all the rest. First, the ceiling. A ceiling is the lowest broken or overcast layer. Few and scattered do not count. The examiner will hand you scattered at two thousand feet and ask if there is a ceiling. Say yes and you just busted a question you did not have to. Second, the temperature dew point spread. Twelve and seven is a five degree spread, comfortable. When that spread shrinks to two degrees or less, the air is nearly saturated, and fog and low cloud are on the way.

Now the TAF, and the TAF is the movie. Same airport, same code, but a forecast with a valid period. That valid period is the first thing you read, because a TAF that ends at noon is useless for a two o'clock departure. The examiner's favorite trap is a beautiful TAF for a flight that leaves after it expires.

Inside the TAF, watch the change words, because the whole forecast lives in them. F M means from. A clean break at that hour. Tempo means temporary, a fluctuation that comes and goes. Becoming means a gradual change over a couple of hours. And prob thirty or prob forty means the forecaster sees it coming but is not sure. The story is in the changes. Is it getting better or getting worse, and when?

Then the prog chart. It is the big picture your METAR and TAF live inside. Find the highs and the lows first. Then find the fronts. A cold front wears triangles, a warm front wears semicircles, and the weather sits on the front, not next to it. Read the isobars. Tight lines mean strong wind. And look at where the low is moving. The prog chart is a forecast too, usually twelve or twenty-four hours out. If the low is marching toward your route and the TAF says tempo showers after noon, those two agree.

When the examiner asks how you would get all of this for a real flight, the answer is a standard briefing. One eight hundred W X brief dot com, or ForeFlight, or one eight hundred W X brief on the phone. A standard briefing covers adverse conditions, the synopsis, current conditions, the en route forecast, the destination forecast, winds aloft, and NOTAMs. Know that list, because the examiner can ask for it by name. And the NOTAMs matter. A perfect weather picture with a closed runway is still a no go.

Three traps. One, reading the TAF valid period last instead of first. Two, calling scattered clouds a ceiling. Three, the quietest one: treating the METAR as a forecast. The METAR is what the weather was. The TAF is what it might become. The prog chart is why. If you can say those three sentences, you can answer the can you go question.

Today's drill. Pull up the METAR and TAF for your home airport, and the surface prog chart for twelve hours out. Decode the METAR out loud in plain English, in order. Read the TAF and say whether the weather is improving or deteriorating, and when it changes. Point at the prog chart and say where the low is and where it is going. Then have your C F I change one thing, the ceiling drops, the wind swings, the TAF expires, and answer again. Do it until the code disappears and all you see is the weather.

That is the weather briefing. The METAR is what was. The TAF is what might be. The prog chart is why. And the examiner is not testing whether you can decode. They are testing whether you can decide. Next time on The Oral: airworthiness. The documents and the inspections the examiner checks before you ever start the engine. Prepare. Perform. Pass.