AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2013 - 20

SAFETY PILOT

‘Weather Flying’ (again)

BRUCE LANDSBERG
President, AOPA Foundation

Worth reading the sequel
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ever written for pilots is entering its fifth edition, which for an aviation text is nearly
unheard of. Robert N. Buck, a real aviation pioneer, originally published Weather Flying in 1970. Capt. Buck
learned to fly in his early teens and grew into the airlines by his early 20s, starting with the DC-2 and ending
a storied airline career with TWA in 1970 in the Boeing
747. He saw it all. Capt. Buck was a wonderful mentor
and I had the great honor to fly with him in his sailplane
when he was in his 80s. His hand and eye was better
than many of us half his age. He passed away a few years
ago in his 90s but what a legacy he’s left us!
When I became a private pilot at the ripe old ignorant age of 21 my father, a meteorologist, gave me a copy
of Buck’s book and the good advice to read it. I’d already
speed-read a bunch of weather texts and had passed

Despite all of the advances in avionics and
airframes, pilots essentially do the same things
as in the days of round engines.

BRUCE LANDSBERG

will be a featured
speaker at AOPA
Aviation Summit
October 10 through
12 in Fort Worth,
Texas.

20 | AOPA PILOT October 2013

the FAA’s written test for private and was working on
the commercial. What was another weather book to
someone who knew almost everything? But this one
was different. The writing was simple, practical, and,
unlike many weather books, it all made sense laced with
real life stories and examples.
Rob Buck, Bob’s son and a retired airline captain
himself, set upon the formidable task of updating his
father’s book. Sequels are always tough to pull off but
he did it well. Let me dispel the notion that the Bucks
write from just the high and mighty perspective of flight
levels and turbine-powered behemoths. Both father and
son were, and are, avid GA pilots, owning both sailplanes
and light single engine aircraft.
A timeless bit of advice Capt. Buck passed along
was that, despite all the advances in avionics and airframes, pilots essentially do the same things as in the
day of round engines: we fly from A to B and shoot an
approach. And we should be prepared to go to a rather
basic skill level to accomplish that. There have been
too many accidents recently where high-tech aircraft
crashed unnecessarily because pilots forgot, or never
learned, those fundamentals.
So what about the book? A few highlights from the
table of contents: Pilots need to understand dew point. If

you don’t, you could find yourself in a really foggy place.
How does one go about checking weather and verifying if the forecast is any good? Check upstream of your
route or destination. If the forecast says a front is supposed to arrive at 14:00 look a hundred miles to the west
(in our hemisphere) and see if it’s behaving as predicted.
Clouds can tell us so much, and yet in the rush to get
through private and IFR training we often only memorize the rote things needed on the tests. How much
more they can tell us to not only stay safe but to keep
the trip comfortable? What of the convective layer on a
sunny day? What does stratocumulus tell us about icing?
How should I learn to fly thunderstorms? Very carefully—we’ve used much of the Bucks’ wisdom in some of
the Air Safety Institute weather courses. Capt. Buck did
some of the earliest thunderstorm and ice research in
World War II, but gained much practical experience in
the DC-2 and DC-3. Those aircraft were similar in performance to some of today’s high performance singles.
Capt. Rob brings us into the twenty-first century
with a discussion on Nexrad, briefing by computer, and
glass cockpits. He and I had a long discussion regarding how pilots should start flying and, not surprisingly,
came to the same conclusion that glass can wait until a
pilot masters the basic skills of VFR and the more mundane IFR flying.
There’s a simple paragraph on circling to land from
an instrument approach—a recent accident in New
Haven, Connecticut, sure looks like it might have been
a circle. If you can avoid it, do so. If not, set your own
minimums, which might be 1,000 feet and better than a
mile. It’s an instrument procedure with occasional looks
outside to see how you’re doing. Can’t see the runway
on one of the cross-checks out the window? We’re going
to the alternate.
There is a great chapter on learning to fly weather,
something that we don’t usually get much exposure to
in primary training—either VFR or instrument. The idea
is to ease into it, but stretching yourself as you would
before strenuous exercise. Remember we’re playing for
all the marbles so a little conservatism is smart. It all
seems so logical and easy when you have a good guide.
Captains Bob and Rob provide that in so many ways.
Highly recommended for your aviation bookshelf and
periodic review!
AOPA
WEB www.airsafetyinstitute.org

http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org

AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2013