Eric Avila, at the Houston Center Weather Service Unit has designed a helpful, color-coded way to look at a TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast).
It even includes current and previous weather, making it easy to spot trends.
You can even customize it with your personal weather minima.
Oddly, it only works with three-letter airport designations (completely barfs on ICAO designators). And the design work is, shall we say, government issue. But check it out. Looks very useful.
Light gun signals from the tower.
| LIGHT | ON GROUND | IN AIR |
| Steady Green | Cleared for Takeoff | Cleared to Land |
| Flashing Green | Cleared to Taxi | Return for Landing |
| Steady Red | Stop | Yield, Continue Circling |
| Flashing Red | Taxi Clear of Runway | Airport Unsafe, do not land |
| Flashing White | Return to Start | NOT USED |
| Red/Green | Exercise Extreme Caution | Exercise Extreme Caution |
Acknowledge instructions by wagging your wings (day) or flashing your landing light (night).
I just found a very cool site, LiveATC.net. They have many live ATC audio feeds. It’s not the whole country by any means, but most of the biggies are covered. Check out their feed map.
Or Nav Logs or Navigation Logs. Say you’re planning a VFR flight and are getting frustrated with getting certain flight planning software to print. Maybe you’d like to download a PDF file of a navlog and just print up a blank. Well, you might be me. Except that I already looked up a few for you. You can find navlogs at:
I’m sure there are more. I’ll add them as I find them. If you have a favorite, leave a URL in the comments.
As long as we’re covering the basics, even though this should be easy to find now it’ll be just that much easier. Here is your aviation alphabet.
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Phonetic Alphabet:
Alfa
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-ray
Yankee
Zulu
0 Zero
1 Wun
2 Too
3 Tree
4 Fow-er
5 Fife
6 Six
7 Sev-en
8 Ait
9 Niner
Now practice all that with a West Virginia accent and you’ll be Chuck Yeager.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but I’ll keep updating this post as new aircraft V speeds come to my attention. Don’t expect to see V1 or other speeds associated with large turbine aircraft. If you’re flying one of those, you’ve either memorized all you need or have access to all relevant speeds. This collection is for pilots of light general-aviation aircraft. You know, those of us who need a BFR every couple of years
Va Design Maneuvering speed
Vc/Vno Structural cruise speed. Orange/Green lines meet. (35kt vertical gust)
Vf Design flap speed
Vfe Flap extension (top of white)
Vg Best Glide
Vle Max gear extension speed
Vlo Max gear operating speed
Vlof Lift-off
Vmc Minimun control speed
Vne Redline
Vr Rotation
Vref Ref to Vso. Short final = Vso * 1.3 + 1/2 wind gust speed
Vs1 Clean stall (bottom of green)
Vso Stall, landing configuration
Vx Best angle of climb
Vy Best rate of climb
I must include one of the classics: GUMPS.
G as on fullest tank, and boost pump on
U ndercarriage (gear down and locked)
M ixture full
P rop to takeoff pitch
S witches and Seat Belts (landing lights, etc.)
A good suggestion for those of us who fly with the gear “down and welded” is to press the toe brakes on the U to make sure there’s hydraulic pressure. I also like to say “gear down” while reaching up to pull down a phantom switch. I figure it can only make the transition easier.
Some learn it as CGUMPS, with the C meaning carb heat.
Nearly as easy to remember as the sandwich: BLTT is a handy mnemonic for that last-minute checklist as you take the runway for takeoff.
B oost pump on
L anding light on (assuming it’s dark out)
T ransponder to ALT (for those of us without the fancy GPS units that turn it on automagically)
T ime of takeoff (hack the clock!)
My first instructor, who got me through my instrument rating back in the day, taught a simple mnemonic to remember for unusual attitude recovery. You’re in a TRAP:
T hrottle
R udder
A ileron
P itch
It has worked well for me. But after reading a recent IFR Magazine I realize it needs help. First, you need to push to unload. But PTRAP isn’t as catchy.
As for the rudder, IFR has this great disambiguation: Step on the sky, or Put your Foot in the sky. Even if the sky is just the blue part of the artificial horizon.
One part of my BFR which drove me nuts was trying to memorize all the VFR minimums. Pilots have to memorize so much random stuff it’s no wonder we come up with so many strange mnemonics. This ditty is my contibution to the oevre. You’re on your own to remember that the miles are all statute. If it helps you, forgive that it doesn’t quite scan.
Alpha Not here,
Bravo 3 and clear.
(3 mi and clear of clouds)
Charlie, Delta and Echo played Golf at night, using 3, 1, 5, 2 to avoid a fright.
(3 mi, 1000 above, 500 feet below, 2,000 lateral)
Golf in the day is 1 and clear, and below 1200 at night
(below 10,000 day, and below 1200 AGL at night)
while Echo and Golf over 10 is 5, 1, 1, 1, all right.
(Above 10,000 feet: 5 mi, 1,000 feet above, 1,000 feet below, and 1 mi lateral)
The bit about golfing at night is, obviously, because the minima in Golf airspace at night are the same as they always are in Charlie, Delta and Echo – below 10,000 feet. See why this is hard to memorize?
NB: Yes, I know it should be VFR Minima, not VFR Minimums. I’m optimising for page hits. Sue me.
Update: I tweaked the bit about Golf because I had neglected Golf during the day below 10,000. This stuff is really hard to memorize. I hope this bit of purple verse helps.
