How to Fly in Bad Weather

If you do any cross country flying, you will eventually encounter unexpected bad weather. Are you mentally ready for the change that this will possibly cause to your schedule? It's imperative that you have current charts in the plane and are willing to talk with ATC and flight service to advise them of the worsening conditions.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Become an instrument rated pilot and then maintain IFR currency and proficiency. If you are instrument rated, then if necessary, continued flight from visual into instrument conditions becomes much more manageable.
2. Consider forecasts carefully, but be don't be too dependent on them. Technology has made forecasted weather more accurate today than ever before. However if marginal VFR conditions are forecasted, especially around frontal boundaries--perk up! Weather can and will deteriorate quickly in such unstable conditions.
3. Learn to study the clouds carefully. Don't ignore building cumulus clouds or widening stratus formations. If the air is unstable and continues to be so and there is a front moving through, this means trouble. Be keenly aware of the times at dawn and dusk. Temperatures will be falling, and if the temperature decreases to within four degrees Celsius of the dew point, thick fog can develop.
4. Don't get stuck on top of a cloud layer, especially if you're not instrument rated because having to descend through the clouds for landing when just referencing instruments can cause perceptual issues, vertigo, extreme disorientation which often leads to a deadly spin. You must believe your flight instruments despite what your senses tell you.
5. Determine if you are in the front's "warm sector." This is the area just ahead of a cold front and just behind a warm front. You can bet thunderstorms are likely to develop there. When the winds aloft are out of the south, you're most likely in the warm sector. Unstable conditions abound.
6. File an IFR (instrument flight plan) or land ASAP if the ceilings are getting too low. Call up Air Traffic Control and request a "direct to" the nearest airport. If you have inadvertently entered the clouds, ask for a DF steer and get ATC help quickly.
7. Monitor available weather services such as AWOS (automated weather observation station), ATIS (automated terminal information station), HIWAS (hazardous in-flight weather advisory service or ASOS (automated surface observation system) frequencies as you fly. This will keep you current on surface conditions and you can compare the actual weather with the forecasted weather. Also be sure to communicate with flight watch (122.0 MHz) for in flight advisories, especially when the weather is changing.