Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

XM WEATHER
The XM satellite weather system available in Cirrus airplanes consists of a simple hardware and software installation. In some Cirrus airplanes, the XM weather antenna is combined with the number 1 communications antenna, while in current production models, the antenna is a small, dedicated teardrop just aft of the windscreen. The XM system also includes an internal receiver and the Avidyne MFD.

Combined Antenna	Stand-alone Antenna
	Weather

		This issue of Pilot’s World discusses the resources available with the most current revision of the XM and avionics software. If you do not have the most current revision, your Cirrus Authorized Service Center can help you upgrade your system.

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

XM WEATHER FEATURES
The features available with the XM weather services include:

• NEXRAD Radar Returns with Storm cell intensity, ground track, and datalink lightning strike display
  
• Graphical METAR
  
• Decoded-text METAR
  

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

XM WEATHER FEATURES (continued)

• Undecoded Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAFs)
  
• Forecast winds aloft and freezing levels
  

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

XM WEATHER FEATURES (continued)

• AIRMET, SIGMET, and Convective SIGMET types and boundaries
  

Line Color		Type	Label
	Bright Blue	Mountain AIRMET	MTN
	Dark Yellow	IFR AIRMET	IFR
	Orange	Turbulence AIRMET	TURB
	Blue	Icing AIRMET	ICE
	Dark Red	SIGMET AIRMET	SIG
	Blue Gray	Convective SIGMET	CSIG

	Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) are also available through the XM datalink.

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

WX-500 Stormscope
Additionally, Cirrus airplanes can be equipped with the BF Goodrich WX-500 stormscope, allowing you to see the location of real-time, non-datalink lightning strikes.

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

A Little Preparation Goes a Long Way…
Despite the fantastic resources available in the cockpit, pilots should always obtain thorough pre-flight briefings before making a go/no-go decision. There are many excellent free online resources for aviation weather information, including the Aviation Weather Center, the Aviation Digital Data Source, DUAT, and DUATS.

		There are also many subscription resources with added weather features, including the following links: WSI WeatherTAP Enflight Jeppesen FlightStar AOPA’s Real-Time Flight Planner

As you analyze and interpret weather charts and products, remember that the Flight Service Station network is available to help you make informed decisions. By calling 1(800)WX-BRIEF, you can speak directly to a weather interpreter and receive valuable assistance as you analyze the weather. Additionally, the Flight Service briefer can provide access to Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs) and TFRs not accessible through other sources.

		Important to note during your pre-flight weather brief are Pilot Reports (PIREPs) and Area Forecasts. These provide the altitude of reported and forecast cloud tops, which are important to in-flight decisions and not available through other weather products.

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

Flying by the seat of your pants
As you use the weather information in your cockpit, follow these simple steps to make your flights faster, easier and more efficient while also greatly enhancing your airborne safety and situational awareness.

1. Go with the flow!
Use the winds aloft forecast (available on the Trip page of the MFD) to find the most favorable head- or tailwinds for your route of flight.

Changing altitudes to take advantage of better wind conditions can cut significant time from a flight leg and save valuable fuel. Remember that the winds aloft forecast is just that -- a forecast. Monitor the wind vector to keep an eye on the actual wind conditions at your altitude.

		Remember to follow the cruise altitude rules for your direction of flight, found in FAR 91.159 and FAR 91.179.

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

Flying by the seat of your pants (continued)

2. Ice in your veins Avoid icing encounters by using three excellent in-cockpit resources. First, pay attention to the location of AIRMETs for ice. You should also look at the forecast freezing levels for your route of flight. Take heed if the temps are near or below freezing, as this is the optimum range for ice formation. Again, this is a forecast, so reference your Outside Air Temperature (OAT) for current conditions, too.

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

Flying by the seat of your pants (continued)

2. Ice in your veins (continued)

In addition to freezing temperatures, ice formation requires the presence of moisture – use the base reports from the text METARs,

the precipitation returns from the NEXRAD returns,

and the forecast and reported tops from PIREPs and the Area Forecast to paint a picture of moisture locations. Avoid any areas where cold temperatures and moisture both exist!

		Get the most current PIREPs in-flight from FSS or Flight Watch. You should obtain the Area Forecast tops during the pre-flight briefing.

(For more information on icing, click on “Contrails” under “Quick Links.” Then click on the October issues of Pilot’s World and Fly-Bys)

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

Flying by the seat of your pants (continued)

3. Stormy Weather
Every pilot dreads close encounters with thunderstorms. Use the Convective SIGMETs to pinpoint regions with conditions favorable to thunderstorm formation.

Line Color		Type	Label
	Bright Blue	Mountain AIRMET	MTN
	Dark Yellow	IFR AIRMET	IFR
	Orange	Turbulence AIRMET	TURB
	Blue	Icing AIRMET	ICE
	Dark Red	SIGMET AIRMET	SIG
	Blue Gray	Convective SIGMET	CSIG

Additionally, look for areas with moderate to strong radar returns. Often, these returns will be marked with a storm intensity and ground track symbol. You can further confirm convective activity by using both the datalink and the stormscope to locate areas of lightning activity. Remember that the stormscope will provide real-time strike detection, while the datalink information may be delayed.

		Be conservative in avoiding potential storm cells. Depending on the timeliness of satellite updates, the radar and lightning information displayed on the MFD may not represent current conditions.

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

Flying by the seat of your pants (continued)

4. Sunny Side Up
You can also use your resources to avoid IFR conditions. By monitoring AIRMETs for IFR and Mountain Obscuration, NEXRAD returns and METARs and TAFs, you can quickly assess conditions along your flight path.

The METAR flags on the Map page provide a visual overview of the conditions along your route or within a region. This will help you determine whether deteriorating conditions at your destination are localized or part of a larger weather pattern.

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

Flying by the seat of your pants (continued)

5. The Sky is Falling
If you determine that the weather is deteriorating at your destination, along your flight path or at your alternate airport, assess your options. If you need to divert, find an airport with METARs and TAFs indicating conditions that exceed your personal minimums. (Click here for a Personal Minimums Worksheet).

		During flight, monitor the METARs and TAFs for your destination and alternate. If they don’t follow the trends that you expected after completing your pre-flight briefing, consider calling Flight Watch on 122.0. They can provide information that may help you determine the reason conditions are changing.

6. Under Pressure
During your preflight briefing, you may have identified one or more frontal systems that could influence your flight path. While you don’t have a direct depiction of those fronts in the airplane, you can still keep an eye on where they are located and how they are developing.
Precipitation is an obvious indicator of frontal location. If there is no precip, the altimeter settings at airports in the path of the front will indicate location. Expect the local pressure to drop as a warm front passes, and to rise with a cold front.

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

Weather Reports 101
We all remember trying to memorize facts and figures for weather products during our pilot training. While you may have forgotten a few things since then, there are some important details to keep in mind as you use in-flight weather resources. Click here to see a list of important facts about your weather resources.

		Share the Wealth! With the advantage of so many in-flight sources of information, Cirrus pilots should make PIREPs whenever they find weather conditions that other pilots might want to know about. Use this form to make submitting a PIREP easy.

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

NTSB ACCIDENT REPORT
Now that you’ve learned about the weather resources available to you, click on the following link to review this NTSB Accident Report:

Analyze the accident. Think about how the pilot, his use of in-flight resources and his weather awareness and knowledge contributed to the accident.

• What systems and features available on a Cirrus airplane could have helped prevent this accident?
• How did the pilot’s actions and decisions affect safety with regard to weather?
• What weather-based decisions might have lead to a safer outcome?
• Why might a ground-based preflight weather briefing have been inadequate in this scenario?

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

To try your hand at making wise weather decisions, click on the Pilot's World Challenge below

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

Objective:
This month’s flight segment requires both ground and in-flight activities. The objective is to reinforce good weather decision making both during preflight and enroute using all resources available to you, including Flight Service, Flight Watch, computer-based weather products, and in-flight weather resources.

Complete the following weather management exercises by incorporating them into your flight activities. Ideally, you will complete these exercises with a CSIP instructor on-board to help critique and asses your performance. Always maintain situational awareness and never compromise the safety of yourself or others.

Flight activity items to complete:

• Complete a Personal Weather Minimums assessment
• Obtain a thorough pre-flight weather briefing
• Make an appropriate go/no-go decision for the flight
• During flight, use all available resources to monitor the weather:
• Compare the weather from the briefing to the weather observed in the air
• Observe the in-flight indications of major systems and fronts
• Use the in-flight resources to monitor local weather phenomena
• Contact Flight Watch and request a route briefing
• Submit a Pilot Report
• Practice making a weather-caused diversion while using your resources to determine a safe alternate airport

For a Printable PDF version of this information, CLICK HERE.

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Cirrus Monthly Proficiency Program
January – Becoming Weather Wise:
Turn your entire flight into a weather briefing

You will successfully complete the January CIRRUS Monthly Pilot Proficiency program when you have gained a thorough understanding of pre-flight and in-flight Weather Resources. Additionally, you will understand how to analyze and interpret the information available in your Cirrus airplane cockpit and will make appropriate in-flight decisions to minimize and avoid weather-related risks while operating within your personal minimums.

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