A good rule of thumb I've found: keep it in the green if you can't stay in the black. Avoid red dots. If it's lots of green and yellow, turn gain down 2 notches find the least green, green. Avoid high gradient areas. Avoid black holes. Use WWx to avoid sucker holes.

 

I spent 15 years flying around in airliners with manual tilt radar and I have to say, I'll take "scary" mode every day of the week and twice on Sundays!

 

Now that I have my coffee, Im ready to watch radar.

 

Yep..a LCA just like there was a LCA on the flight feck in Milan.

 

In N.C. right now riding out a storm where the tops are at 60,000 feet. I have never seen a 60,000 foot storm in the southeast. Times are changing. One reason to be glad I only fly when I feel like it now. Be careful out there!

 

In my example, you are picking your way through cells. There is a 30-mile gap between cells. I would hug the upwind cell and maximise my distance downwind of the other cell.

 

LCA are human too.

 

It’s the same with FAs at AA. Get the service done as quickly as possible and then disappear for 6-9 hours.

 

Whatsa matter Colonel Sanders? Chicken??!!

 

That's fine when it's one cell in the middle of nowhere. What do you do when a line of thunderstorms stretches across the country? Getting further from one buld up puts you closer to another. That's why you need to evalue each build up and determine which ones are the biggest threats so that you can give yourself more room around those. Like I said before, I would rather pass closley to the upwind side of a moderate build up in order to give myself more distance downwind of a severe cell. Spitting the gap right in the middle isn't always the best.


It's 5 nm below 10,000 ft, 10 nm between 10,000 feet-FL250, and 20 nm above FL250. Plus, clear tops by 5,000 feet and 1nm per 1 knot of wind.

Because deviating around a small buildup could put you closer to a large one. Again, not all storms exist in isolation. I routinely take the radar out of auto to see what altitude the storm is at. There have been many times when I see 2 red cells, but then I take the radar out of auto and see that one cell is "red" at a much lower altitude. That's a clue that that cell is weaker. I wouldn't fly through it, but I would prioritize avoiding the stronger cell over that.

Evaluating the weather is an important skill. You won't always be in a situation where you can go 80 miles around a minor storm.