Answer: It depends on your mission and how many Ben Franklins you have to spare. Your sferics (short for radio atmospherics) equipment may represent the only real-time weather you’ll ever see in your cockpit.

Sure, panel-mounted and portable weather systems deliver their product in a timely fashion, but it will never be as immediate as your sferics device. Once you understand how to interpret your real-time lightning guidance, it can become a valuable asset in your in-flight aviation toolkit. 

Choices in the Cockpit

You have two options if you want lightning data in the cockpit: You can choose from ground-based lightning sensors or onboard lightning detection from a sferics device such as a Stormscope.

A Stormscope provides real-time data but does require some basic interpretation. Ground-based lightning, on the other hand, is a bit delayed and is only available through a data link broadcast at this time. Ground-based lightning is normally coupled with other weather guidance, such as ground-based weather radar (NEXRAD), surface observations, pilot weather reports, and other forecasts.   

Ground-Based Lightning

The ground-based lightning that’s now available through the Flight Information System-Broadcast (FIS-B) comes from the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN). This network of lightning detectors has a margin of error of 150 meters for locating a cloud-to-ground strike. The ground-based lightning sensors instantly detect the electromagnetic signals given off when lightning strikes the earth’s surface.    

With 150-meter accuracy, I’d choose ground-based lightning any day. Don’t get too excited, though. Ground-based lightning is expensive (the data is owned by private companies like Vaisala), and you’ll not likely see a high-resolution product in your cockpit anytime soon.

SiriusXM satellite weather pulls from a different lightning detection network and includes both cloud-to-ground and intracloud lightning. It produces a 0.5 nm horizontal resolution lightning product. This means that you will see a lightning bolt or other symbol arranged on your display in a 0.5 nm grid.

Even if 50 strikes were detected minutes apart near a grid point, only one symbol will be displayed for that grid point. Same is true for the FIS-B lightning.

Stormscope Advantages

A Stormscope must be viewed as a gross vectoring aid. You cannot expect to use it like onboard radar.

Nevertheless, it does alert you to thunderstorm activity and will provide you with the ability to see the truly ugly parts of a thunderstorm.  Where there’s lightning, you can also guarantee moderate or greater turbulence.   

No lightning detection equipment shows every strike, but the Stormscope will show most cloud-to-ground and intracloud strikes. This allows you to see the intensity and concentration of the strikes within a cell or line of cells with a refresh rate of two seconds. It also lets you see intracloud electrical activity that may be present in towering cumulus clouds even when no rain may be falling.

Even if no cloud-to-ground strikes are present, intracloud strikes may be present. The Stormscope can detect any strike that has some vertical component (most strikes do). This is important since there are typically more intracloud strikes than cloud-to-ground strikes.

To emphasize this point, most of the storms in the Central Plains have 10 times more intracloud strikes than cloud-to-ground strikes. Moreover, during the initial development of a thunderstorm, and in some severe storms, intracloud lightning may dominate the spectrum. 

Also keep in mind that a sferics device does not suffer from attenuation like onboard radar. That is, it can “see” the storm behind the storm to paint cells in the distance out to 200 nm, but it does not see precipitation or clouds.     

Stormscope Disadvantages

It doesn’t take a full-fledged storm, complete with lightning, to get your attention.

Intense precipitation alone is a good indicator of a strong updraft (or downdraft) and the potential for moderate to severe turbulence in the cloud. Consequently, the Stormscope does not tell you anything about the presence or intensity of precipitation or the absence of turbulence.

Never use the Stormscope as a tactical device to penetrate a line of thunderstorm cells. Visible gaps in the cells depicted on the Stormscope may fill in rapidly. Fly high and always stay visual and you will normally stay out of any serious turbulence.        

A Stormscope display is often difficult to interpret by a novice. Radial spread, splattering, buried cables, and seemingly random “clear air” strikes can create a challenge for the pilot. It may take a couple years of experience to be completely comfortable interpreting the Stormscope display. Often what you see out of your window will confirm what you see on your display.    

Radial Spread

As the name suggests, the biggest Stormscope error is the distance calculation along the radial from the aircraft.

The placement of the strike azimuthally is pretty accurate. However, how far to place the strike from the aircraft along the detected radial is a bit more complicated and prone to error.

Lightning strikes are not all made equally. When the sferics devices were invented back in the mid-1970s, they measured the distance of the cloud-to-ground strike based on the strength of the signal (amperage) generated by the strike. An average strike signature of 19,000 amperes is used to determine the approximate distance of the strike.

Statistically, 98 percent of the return strokes have a peak current between 7,000 and 28,000 amperes. That creates the potential for error in the distance calculation. This error is a useful approximation, however, in that strokes of stronger intensity appear closer and strokes of weaker intensity appear farther away. 

In strike mode on the Stormscope, strikes are displayed based on a specific strike signature, whereas cell mode on the newer Stormscope models uses a clustering algorithm that attempts to organize these strikes around a single location or cell.

Cell mode will even remove strikes that are not part of a mature cell. Most thunderstorm outbreaks are a result of a line of storms. Cell mode provides a more accurate representation to the extent of the line of thunderstorms.

Radial spread is not necessarily always a bad thing. You can use it to your advantage to distinguish between false or clear air strikes and a real thunderstorm. Most of the strikes of a real storm will be of the typical strike signature and be placed appropriately.

As mentioned above, stronger than average strikes will be painted closer to the airplane. Looking at this in strike mode, a line of these stronger strikes will protrude toward the aircraft.  The result is a stingray-looking appearance to the strikes.    

You can confirm this by clearing the display.  The same stingray pattern should reappear with the tail protruding once again toward the airplane.

Clear Frequently

Clearing the Stormscope display frequently is a must.  How quickly the display “snaps back” will provide you with an indication of the intensity of the storm or line of storms.

You should be sure to give these storms an extra-wide berth.  Clearing the Stormscope in “clear air” will also remove any false strikes that may be displayed allowing you to focus on real cells that may be building in the distance.

Aging

Both ground-based and onboard lightning use a specific symbol to indicate the age of the data.

For Stormscope data shown on the Garmin 430/530, a lightning symbol is displayed for the most recent strikes (first six seconds the symbol is bolded). The symbol changes to a large plus  sign after one minute followed by a small plus  sign for strikes that are at least two minutes old. Finally, it is removed from the display after the strike is three minutes old.

Cells with lots of recent strikes will often contain the most severe updrafts and may not have much of a ground-based radar signature. Cells with lots of older strikes signify steady-state rainfall reaching the surface that may include significant downdrafts. 

Flight Strategy

A nice feature of a Stormscope is that you can quickly assess the convective picture out to 200 nm while still safely on the ground. Same is true for lightning received from the SiriusXM datalink broadcast.

However, for those with lightning from FIS-B, you won’t receive a broadcast until you are well above traffic pattern altitude unless your departure airport has an ADS-B tower on the field.  

As soon as your Stormscope is turned on, within a few minutes you’ll get a pretty good picture of the challenging weather ahead. If you are flying IFR, you may want to negotiate your clearance or initial headings with ATC to steer clear of the areas you are painting on your display. I’ve canceled or delayed a few flights based strictly on the initial Stormscope picture while I was still on the ramp. 

Another goal is to fly as high as allowable. You will benefit from being able to get above the haze layer, and the higher altitude will allow you to see the larger buildups and towering cumulus from a greater distance.

If you are flying IFR and you are continually asking for more than 30 degrees of heading change to get around small cells or significant buildups, then you should call it quits. You are too close, or you are making decisions too late.

Visual or not, the goal is to keep the strikes (in cell mode) out of the 25-mile-range ring on your Stormscope. If one or two strikes pop into this area, don’t worry. Just keep most of the strikes outside of this 25-mile ring.      

Don’t discount the value of a sferics device.  Add one of the data link cockpit weather solutions as a compliment, and you will have a great set of tools to steer clear of convective weather all year long.

The post Is Sferics Equipment Still Needed in the Cockpit? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Northrop Grumman, I needed something that would challenge my mind, body, and spirit. There were two options on the table. I had just graduated with my master’s degree and was seriously thinking of taking the next leap of faith and earning a doctorate.

But that was quickly overshadowed by my second option—my childhood dream of learning to fly. And I wasn’t disappointed. It did challenge my mind, body, and spirit every step of the way.

What intrigued me the most about learning to fly was that it required mastering many disciplines. In other words, it’s more than just jumping into an airplane and learning stick-and-rudder skills. You have to become entrenched in subjects such as aerodynamics, radio navigation, geography, radio communications, airspace, map reading, legal, medical, and my favorite discipline, meteorology.

Despite my background as a research meteorologist, my aviation weather background was limited when I was a student pilot. So, I was very excited to discover what more I might learn about weather in addition to all of these other disciplines. If you are a student pilot, here are some tips that will help you achieve a good foundation with respect to weather.

It Isn’t Easy

First and foremost, weather is inherently difficult. It’s likely the most difficult discipline to master because of the uncertainty and complexity it brings to the table. Therefore, strive to understand what basic weather reports and forecasts the FAA effectively requires that you examine before every flight. It certainly doesn’t hide it. It’s a fairly short and succinct list that’s all documented in the new Aviation Weather Handbook (FAA-H-8083-28) and the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM). Ultimately, knowing the nuts and bolts of this official weather guidance will help with your knowledge and practical tests and give you a head start once the ink is dry on your private pilot certificate.

Second, as a student pilot, plan to get your weather guidance from a single and reliable source. Try not to bounce around using multiple sites or apps. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of websites and apps that will deliver weather guidance to your fingertips such that you can become overwhelmed with all of the choices, and entropy quickly takes over. Besides, flight instructors love to show off their unique collection of weather apps on their iPhone. Sticking with the official subset of weather guidance will allow you to focus on what matters the most.

• READ MORE: Aviation Weather Center Website Upgrade—the Good, Bad, and Ugly

Once you receive your private certificate, then you can expand the weather guidance you use to include other websites and apps.

The two internet sources that should be at the top of your list include the Aviation Weather Center (aviationweather.gov) and Leidos (1800wxbrief.com). Both of these sites provide the essential weather guidance needed to make a preflight weather decision. Using one or both of these sites will help focus you on the official weather guidance the FAA demands you use.

Categorize Your Data

Third, when you look at the latest weather guidance, take a minute and characterize each product. It should fall into one of three categories: observational data, advisories, or forecasts. Knowing its category will tell you how to properly utilize that guidance. For example, if you come across a visible satellite image, that’s an example of observational data.

Observational data is always valid in the past and typically comes from sensors. What about a ground-based radar mosaic (e.g., NEXRAD)? That’s also an observation. Pilot weather reports (PIREPs) and routine surface observations (METARs) are also considered observational data. While not a pure observation, the latest surface analysis chart that is valid in the recent past will identify the major players driving the current weather systems.

• READ MORE: What Is the Criteria for Issuing a Convective SIGMET?

Observations are like the foundation when building a house. All other weather guidance you use will build on that foundation. A sturdy and well-built foundation is the key to a good preflight weather briefing. You can’t know where the weather is going until you know where it has been. Identifying the latest trends in the weather through the use of these observations is the cornerstone of this foundation. When possible, looping the guidance over time will expose these trends. Is the weather moving or stagnant? Is it strengthening or weakening over time?

Advisories such as the initial graphical AIRMETs (G-AIRMETs) snapshot, SIGMETs, and center weather advisories (CWAs) are the front lines of aviation weather. They are designed to highlight the current location of the truly ugly weather. Advisories build the structure that sits atop of this foundation. Essentially, these advisories summarize the observational data by organizing it into distinct hazards and areas of adverse weather to be avoided.

Forecasts are the springboard for how these observations and advisories will evolve over time. You can think of forecasts as the elements that protect the finished house, such as paint, shingles, and waterproofing. This also includes the alarm and surveillance system to alert you to the possible adverse weather scenarios that may occur during your flight. While forecasts are imperfect, they are still incredibly useful. Forecasts include terminal aerodrome forecasts (TAFs), convective outlooks, prog charts, and the remaining four snapshots for G-AIRMETs.

Dive into the Details…

Fourth, details matter quite a bit. Look at the guidance and identify what stands out. Don’t make a decision too early. Instead, carefully observe and gather facts. Is the precipitation occurring along the route limiting the ceiling and/or visibility? Is the precipitation expected to be showery? This is a clear indication of a convective process in place.

Are the surface observations reporting two or three mid- or low-level cloud layers? Again, this is another indication of a convective environment. This can be especially important to identify, especially when there’s a risk of thunderstorms that have yet to form.

…But Fall Back on the Big Picture

Fifth, get a sense of the big weather picture. This is likely the most difficult aspect of learning how to truly read the weather. Think about the big weather picture as the blueprint for building an entire community. It’s what brings everything together. When I do my own preflight briefings, my decisions are largely driven by what’s happening at that synoptic level.

Lastly, read, read, and read some more. Focus mostly on the weather guidance and less on weather theory. These are the specific weather products mentioned earlier. Weather theory is something you can tackle at a later time. The FAA’s Aviation Weather Handbook is a great start. You can download a PDF document for free from the agency website and add this to your online library. This was issued in 2022 to consolidate the weather information from six FAA advisory circulars (ACs) into one source document. My book, Pilot Weather: From Solo to the Airlines, was published in 2018 and is written for pilots at all experience levels in their journey to learn more about weather.

If you fly enough, you will eventually find yourself in challenging weather. The goal of any preflight weather briefing is to limit your exposure to adverse conditions, and that takes resources and time. Once you’ve mastered the weather guidance, then giving Flight Service a call at 1-800-WXBRIEF will allow you to sound like a true professional.

Yes, I eventually did earn that doctorate, but I am really happy that I took the step over 25 years ago to learn to fly. One guarantee with weather: You can never learn enough. I am still learning today.

This column first appeared in the March 2024/Issue 946 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post How to Wrap Your Head Around Weather appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Answer: Of all of the weather guidance available to pilots prior to a flight, the images produced by the NWS WSR-88D NEXRAD Doppler radars are likely the most widely used in the U.S. These images have an extremely high glance value and are packed with important life-saving guidance assuming that a pilot knows how to interpret all the pretty colors.  

The colors you see on the Nexrad image displayed by your favorite website or heavyweight electronic flight bag (EFB) app depend on many factors. Unfortunately, accepted standards do not exist in the industry. Any private organization, vendor, or government agency is free to map the data (e.g., reflectivity) to colors of their choosing (although certified displays in the cockpit do have standards). Depending on their operational requirements, they may use three colors representing light, moderate, or heavy precipitation—or they are free to use 30 different colors.  So, it is important always to reference the scale that is normally located somewhere on the image or around the image border. For EFBs, that legend may be located on their interactive map, or you may have to look it up in their pilots guide. 

• READ MORE: Are Pilots Required to Call Flight Service for a Briefing Before Departure?

More importantly, there are many kinds of images and products that you may encounter. Therefore, knowing the kind of radar image you are viewing is also paramount. The image may display base reflectivity from a single NWS Nexrad radar that is in clear-air mode. Or it may be one of the volume products such as composite reflectivity or echo top heights. Another possibility is that the image may represent a radar mosaic that has combined the base reflectivity or composite reflectivity data from multiple Nexrad sites into a regional or national image.

• READ MORE: Why Are Some Airport Buildings Painted in a Checkerboard Pattern?

While forecasters at the various NWS local weather forecast offices (WFOs) do have real-time access to all of the data, the “raw” data that is generated by the WSR-88D Nexrad Doppler radars is not distributed directly to other government and private organizations in real time. Therefore, a Nexrad Information Dissemination Service (NIDS) has been established that includes only a subset of the entire WSR-88D base and derived products for use by external users. Below is the RPG console that you’ll find at every WFO that manages a WSR-88D Nexrad Doppler radar.

One of the most ubiquitous products is called base reflectivity. Note that the term “base” does not mean “lowest” as most pilots are taught or assume. It comes from the term “base data” since every elevation scan has a base reflectivity product (note in the image above that says “Base Data Display”). How you interpret the base reflectivity image will depend on the mode of the radar. In most cases, the base reflectivity will be the lowest elevation scan on various websites and apps since it better approximates the precipitation that is falling from the base of the cloud.     

The WSR-88D radar operates in one of two modes: precipitation and clear air. The main difference between the two is that clear-air mode offers the advantage of greater sensitivity because of a slower antenna rotation rate, which allows more energy to be returned back to the radar. However, clear-air mode takes twice as long to generate a product so it suffers from temporal resolution, but is able to detect smaller objects in the atmosphere such as light snow or drizzle.   

In either mode, the radar sends out a known pulse of energy in the microwave band (a wavelength of 10 cm to 11 cm). Some of this energy strikes airborne objects referred to as hydrometeors. This includes rain, snow, hail, dust, birds, insects, etc. and the power returned is referred to as the reflectivity parameter or Z. In basic terms, Z is the density of water drops (measured in millimeters raised to the sixth power) per cubic meter of air. As you might expect, there is a very wide range of possible Z values. Converting Z to dBZ (decibels of Z) makes that range smaller and easier to use.

When the radar is in precipitation mode, the range of dBZ values displayed can be as low as 5 to a maximum of 75, whereas clear-air mode offers a range from -28 to +28. Negative dBZ values can occur in clear-air mode because dBZ is a logarithmic function. So, an increase of only 3 dBZ actually represents a doubling of power returned. Anytime Z is less than 1 mm⁶/m³, dBZ becomes negative because of the nature of logarithms. Negative dBZs are only found when the radar is in clear-air mode such as shown above. This radar image shows light snow falling around the Bismarck, North Dakota, area. Given that light snow is falling, the operator at the NWS set the radar to its most sensitive mode, namely, clear-air mode. Notice the negative dBZ values in the dark taupe color. If the radar were in precipitation mode, the amount of coverage would be limited to the baby blue areas. 

A negative dBZ means that the radar is detecting very small hydrometeors. As mentioned above, this is a great way for forecasters to detect very dry light snow or drizzle which have lower reflectivity values. One of the disadvantages of clear-air mode is that any dBZ value under 5 typically gets filtered by the datalink weather. The Nexrad clear-air mode image above shows a rather wide area of light precipitation around the Bismarck radar site that represents light snow in this case. However, the SiriusXM weather image shown below only includes the returns that are greater than 5 dBZ. The areas shown in the taupe color in the Nexrad image have been effectively filtered out of the SiriusXM-delivered product due to their lower dBZ values.     

• READ MORE: Can I Fly VFR in Smoke?

Do you have a question about aviation that’s been bugging you? Ask us anything you’ve ever wanted to know about aviation. Our experts in general aviation, flight training, aircraft, avionics, and more may attempt to answer your question in a future article.

The post How Can dBZ Values Be Negative? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

“Are you a CFI?”

“No, I’m not. Why? What’s going on?”

“I’m trying to figure out which runway to depart from.”

First off, I was flattered that he thought I was a CFI. Quickly moving past that, it occurred to me that it might be because I looked old. Slowly moving past that, I realized I needed to be careful in advising him. Catalina is tricky in that the single runway has a pretty good slope to it. But departing downhill on Runway 4 during a busy weekend when everyone is landing on 22 has its own risks. When winds are calm, it’s worth waiting for a break in traffic. With a 6-knot quartering tailwind, it’s not so clear. His passengers were eagerly watching this exchange as we discussed the pros and cons of both. I found myself smiling widely and trying to sound as casual as possible so as not to worry them. They simply didn’t have the knowledge to weigh in on the decision. They could only hope their pilot made the right one. The balance changed the moment the young pilot asked me for help. I could see it on their faces.

The decision-making process for the layperson who is deciding whether to fly with a friend is a complicated one that reveals a lot about the individual. It illustrates the internal algorithms that take place inside the passengers’ head. It’s a balance of practical need and risk assessment. But the information being used makes me think of the old adage about computer science: Garbage in, garbage out. This refers to the idea that inputs of poor quality will always produce a faulty output.

With people who have little understanding of aviation, these are entirely emotional decisions. I’m not necessarily suggesting they aren’t effective, but they are certainly not based on empirical data. It is a decision largely based on appearances. I present as responsible and confident, and have been flying for a number of years. But they don’t know enough to ask about total hours or currency or maintenance on the aircraft (or the pilot). All of those things get folded into their sense of “me” and their judgment of my capability to keep them safe.

A fellow pilot will have a specific set of criteria that are measurable—data points that they can use to gauge the current faculty of both me and my aircraft. They might drill down and ask how old the oil is, or who did the last annual and when. If we are going to fly IFR, they will likely ask when the last time I flew an instrument approach was. I know I would. 

But how much more effective does that really make the decision? If someone knows you well, and has observed a years-long pattern of decision-making outside of aviation, then perhaps their judgment isn’t quite as arbitrary as it seems. Recently, I read about two professional pilots who were drunk on a commercial flight. They were current and the aircraft was in perfect shape. But there were personal issues at play that only a close friend or family member would be in a position to see. And maybe not even then.

That same day on Catalina was my friend Kelli’s first flight with me. We know each other from work where she is a stunt woman. She’s professional and meticulous in her craft. I trust her on set. She’s seen me work as a director, and there exists a mutual appreciation between us. So, at lunch, when another pilot brought up the incident that totaled my first Bonanza in Telluride three years earlier, I felt a small lump appear in my throat.

Kelli didn’t flinch. She barely asked about the incidentand showed no reticence in her decision to fly with me. She knows me and knows that I learned from the experience, thereby making me an even safer pilot. She’s studying for her private pilot certificate herself and made her decision based on both data and observation. So far, so good.

Sometimes practical needs will supersede fear. My friend Dave recently told me his wife was returning to Los Angeles from Ireland and that he didn’t know how to get her up to Paso Robles—where he would be for a long weekend—when she arrived back with their 11-month-old son. I offered to fly her up, knowing there was no chance he’d take me up on it. Why? Because she won’t let him fly with me since they had their baby. It seemed like an easy offer that I’d never be called on to execute. Wrong. She found out the drive was four hours and very quickly reassessed my ability as a pilot. I flew her and the baby up with no issues. On a side note, breastfeeding helps with pressure-related issues on descent. For the baby. 

I have other friends who would rather eat a glass casserole than get into an airplane with me. And some of them don’t even know about Telluride. It matters not how good I am. The math simply doesn’t work out for them. I use the term loosely because in reality there’s no math at all. Fear is the ultimate decision-maker, and it cares not for data sets.

My ex-girlfriend was the complete opposite. Her appetite for risk was substantial. She was far more confident in my ability than I was myself. It was confidence-boosting at times, scary at others. When telling her I was concerned about a weather system I was looking at on Nexrad, she said it was fine and that I could easily navigate through it.

The kid on Catalina made the right decision. I saw him lift off below me as I made my way back toward the mainland. Was it close? Could it have gone another way? Who knows? But I’d like to think the people flying with him had a better read than I did. They know him. I don’t.

From the December 2022/January 2023 Issue 933 of FLYING

The post Trust But Verify appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Weather is one of the biggest variables in general aviation flight and a contributing cause of many accidents. While there is no way for us pilots to control the weather, we can modify our flight paths to prevent unplanned encounters with Mother Nature. Fortunately, doing so has become a lot easier in the past few decades. With the recent implementation of ADS-B, we have access to live weather information, either on a panel-mounted device or a tablet, without ­paying for a monthly subscription.

As a budding pilot two decades ago, I didn’t have the luxury of live weather in the cockpit or multiple apps or websites from which to obtain weather data. Pilots had to get their weather forecasts and reports from local flight service stations—FAA offices focused on ­providing information to pilots. Many years ago, I ­visited the FSS in Hawthorne, California, which has since closed. It looked much like an air route traffic control ­center—a ­windowless room filled with computer screens and several briefers who deciphered the weather data and relayed it to pilots dialing in on 800-WX-BRIEF or from a frequency while airborne.

Calling for a weather briefing was initially somewhat intimidating to me. I understood probably less than half of what the briefer was ­saying. But the call provided an opportunity to ask questions regarding the weather—a service that apps and websites don’t offer. When the briefer said, “VFR flight not recommended,” it was easy to decide to stay on the ground (before I got my ­instrument rating, that is).

Once I started flying in the clouds, things got more complicated. Understanding what the weather was doing—and, more important, where the most severe areas were—was a challenge. About a year after I started my primary flight ­training and had finished my instrument rating, I was building time toward my commercial certificate. My boyfriend at the time and I decided to make an actual cross-country flight to build multiengine time. We rented a Beechcraft BE-76 Duchess for two weeks and flew it from Torrance, California, to Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Our trip took place in the middle of summer, so we had mostly CAVU skies, which suited us West Coast ­pilots. We rarely had a chance to fly in clouds at home, but we had a scary encounter on our way back, somewhere above Pennsylvania. There were thunderstorms in the forecast, but they were scattered, and we decided to press on. We ended up in IMC, and after a while in the clouds, we started experiencing some pretty bad turbulence. In a flash of a second, all our electrical equipment went dark. No radios. We looked at each other, surprised and a bit scared.

Fortunately, the electrical ­systems came back after just a couple of minutes, though those minutes felt like hours. We called ATC immediately to let them know what happened and requested vectors away from the storm. We got out of the clouds and stayed out for the duration of the flight.

My first solo encounter with thunderstorms came in 2002 when I was flying a Liberty XL2 from California to Florida. If you’re not familiar, the XL2 is a two-seat, carbon-fiber ­airplane with a claim to fame of being the first piston-powered airplane to be certified with an engine equipped with full authority digital engine control—the 125 hp Continental ­IOF-240-B. I was the West Coast sales representative at the time and had to bring my demo airplane back to the factory in Melbourne, Florida. I had spent the night in Pecos, Texas, and continued my track through what seemed like the never-ending state of Texas in this 120-knot airplane.

My weather briefer told me there were storms east of my position, but I nevertheless decided to take off. I figured I could fly beside, below or above the weather; I was unable to fly IFR because, at that time, the airplane was only certified for VFR flight. Well, with thunderheads rising from nearly ground level to what appeared to be 20,000-plus feet, and stretching for hundreds of miles, my plan failed miserably. After flying around for a while, trying to find a way through, I diverted south and landed in Del Rio, where I spent the night.

When I first started flying with the Garmin G1000 equipped with datalink weather, I was excited. Here it was: real-time radar, metars, TAFs, winds and GPS navigation—all on a screen about the size of the TV I grew up with. However, information is only as good as what you understand and respect, so, at times, having access to real-time weather got me into trouble rather than out of it.

There are a couple of flights in particular I will never forget. I was flying from the William P. Hobby Airport in Houston to the Johnson County Executive Airport in Olathe, Kansas, located at the southwestern edge of the Kansas City metropolitan area, for an event that started that same evening. Severe thunderstorms were forecast in the area, but I had the G1000 in the Cessna 400 (originally designed by Columbia Aircraft) I was flying, so I was not concerned. As I approached Kansas City, I could see all kinds of colors on the MFD on the west side of city. The Johnson County Airport was right at the edge of the color patterns on my screen. It was forecast to be bad all night, so there was no way to wait out the storm if I was going to make it to the event. I decided to go for it. After all, the airport was outside the red and magenta areas, depicting the most severe precipitation.

I was fortunate to be in an airplane built to withstand a lot of stress. The airplane was certified in the utility category, which meant it was built to withstand higher G-loads than ­airplanes certified in the normal ­category. There were strong winds, and I kept my speed up to make sure any potential wind shear didn’t bring me down. I could see lightning and weather phenomena that I can only describe as extreme—things I had not seen before or after. I landed just before really heavy rain began at the airport. Had I been forced to go around, for whatever reason, I might not be here to tell the story. I saw firsthand why I should stay well clear of thunderstorms, particularly on the downwind side.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only time I snubbed the bright colors on the screen. On another trip in the Cessna 400, I was flying from my home base of Colonel James Jabara Airport in Wichita, Kansas, to Olive Branch Airport in Mississippi. A very thin line of red extended for what looked like hundreds of miles across the G1000, right across my flight path. I was impatient and thought to myself: “It’s really thin—how bad can it be?” Well, let me tell you. It was bad. I have never experienced such turbulence—before or after. I even hit my head in the ceiling a couple of times. There was also heavy precipitation. I remember being thankful I was by myself because I wouldn’t have wanted to expose someone else to this debacle. Fortunately, it didn’t last long. But the experience taught me firmly never to challenge the weather gods again.

Once I learned how to properly use the in-flight weather data to my advantage, the information on the screen kept me out of the bad stuff. I flew from Addison Airport in Dallas to Jabara on a day when severe thunderstorms and tornadoes were forecast over Oklahoma. This time, I stayed upwind of the storm. It was one of the most spectacular flights I’ve ever experienced. The western edge of the angry-­looking storm was marked by a wall of ­billowing clouds, extending from the ground to tens of thousands of feet up. It was as if I were flying alongside a never-ending, living sky scraper. It appeared as though the water molecules inside the clouds were boiling—large balls of clouds kept rolling up the virtual wall. But despite the intense weather event taking place just a few miles east of me, the conditions where I was, and as far west as I could see, were perfectly clear, and there was not the slightest bump of turbulence.

In my Mooney, I have ADS-B In, which provides me with ­similar information as the G1000 in the Cessna 400. The free weather data is received by the L3 NGT-9000 Lynx, and it is displayed on its touchscreen, as well as on the Avidyne IFD 540 and 440 and Aspen Evolution 1000, all of which were installed for long-term flight testing in cooperation with the manufacturers. The combined systems, along with my experience gleaned from flying behind a variety of weather displays, help me to stay out of extreme weather.

5 Fast Tips to Stay Out of Thunderstorms

• Look at the trends. How has the shape of the storm changed in the recent past? In which direction is it going? Storm cells can change course or grow. Don’t get yourself stuck with no point of return.
• Stay upwind of the storm. If you fly downwind, you’re essentially flying into the storm. Lightning, turbulence and other dangerous weather phenomena can ­extend well beyond the edge of the precipitation.
• Respect the colors. Just because a colorful area on the screen is small doesn’t mean it won’t take you down. Stay well clear.
• Call an expert. If you have trouble understanding a weather pattern during your preflight, call 800-WX-BRIEF. The expert can clarify the data to help you make a go/no-go decision.
• Wait it out. You can never go wrong with staying on the ground when the weather gets intense. No meeting or event is worth risking your life over.

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