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Reading Weather Prog Charts

ByHank Gibson January 27, 2015July 14, 2026

There are a multitude of weather products out there today to assist pilots in preparing for a flight.  Aviationweather.gov is the best source for getting all the information a pilot needs for planning a flight.  Aviationweather.gov is the National Weather Service’s source for all aviation related weather products.  When I teach about weather and weather briefings, I recommend to my students to utilize Aviationweather.gov in the planning stages, but still call the Flight Service Station to get a full fledged weather briefing before takeoff.

When preflight weather planning, one of the best ways to get a picture of what is happening over a broad area is utilizing the Low Level Significant Weather Prog charts.  The Prog chart gives a forecasted 12 and 24 hour picture of what type of weather to expect over the US.  The Prog chart gives the expected flight rules, areas of turbulence, and where the freezing level is located.  If you’re looking at the 4 panel view, the Surface Prog chart shows fronts, pressure areas, and areas of expected precipitation.  That covers just about everything, doesn’t it?

I believe the Prog charts are underutilized in planning.  Foreflight and Garmin Pilot have given easy access to radar pictures, satellite pictures, METARs, TAFs, and several other sources of weather information.  But, a lot of the easy access data you can get from those apps is current data (with the exception of the TAF) while a lot of the forecast data takes some hunting around.  So, products like Prog charts aren’t often utilized.

The other problem arises when pilots know about Prog charts, but don’t know how to read them, then don’t know how to find the legend to decipher the chart, the chart is often set aside and quickly forgotten about just because of a lack of knowledge.  Have no fear, though, as now we will use an example 4 panel Prog chart to decipher the lines and colorations.

Just looking at the Low Level Significant Weather Prog Chart above, it can be a little confusing.  That’s why they make a legend!

Coupling the legend with the chart above, we can determine some things.  First, California, parts of the Pacific Northwest, a small part of southern Arizona, and a good portion of the Midwest and East coast are going to have marginal VFR conditions in the next 12 hours.  Wisconsin, Illinois, a good portion of the Northeast, and a small portion of the Pacific Northwest will suffer IFR from IFR conditions.  There are going to be a good amount of low level turbulence in the northern and eastern parts of the country.  Finally, the freezing level starts at the surface running in a jagged line across the midwest states and curling up into the Northeast.

That’s a good bit of information, isn’t it?  If a pilot is planning a VFR flight into the Northeast tonight, it would probably be best to wait for another day, according to this chart.

Now, to see what is causing the conditions above, we need to look at the Surface Prog Chart.

The green circular areas above show that some form of precipitation is in that area.  The circular dots with the triangle located in Mexico and Baja California are depicting moderate rain showers.  If the triangle was gone, it would just be moderate rain.  In the northeast, all those symbols are showing moderate to heavy snow showers.  Across the plains, we see a lot of high pressure, meaning visibility and nice flying weather.

These charts are invaluable when it comes to flight planning, especially over long distances when the weather could be changing a lot over the period of your flight.  Put them to use the next time you are planning a trip and you’ll learn you have a much better picture of what the weather is doing.

Textron Aviation’s New Single Engine Turboprop

ByHank Gibson May 29, 2016

An 8 seat, cabin class, single engine turboprop is set to come to market in 2018 from the new aviation conglomerate Textron Aviation (Textron owns Cessna, Hawker, and Beechcraft).  Details were announced last week at the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition.  The as yet unnamed aircraft will be equipped with Garmin’s G3000 avionics and will be outfitted with a GE 1,240 Shaft Horsepower engine.

The GE engine will be equipped with a FADEC (Fully Automated Digital Engine Control) computer that will allow the pilot to make all necessary power adjustments using just one lever.

Range will be about 1,600 miles at 285 knots, giving the airplane the same legs as a PC12 at slightly faster speeds, but a smaller cabin.  The cabin will be equipped with a belted lav if desired.

To read more, check out the AOPA Article here.

VFR Flight Plans in the Modern Age

ByHank Gibson May 9, 2016May 15, 2016

Raise your hand if, after you have officially become a pilot by passing your private pilot check ride, you consistently file VFR flight plans with Flight Service.

Anybody?

Okay, let’s revise the question.  Raise your hand if you have filed VFR flight plans at least 5 times in the last year.

Okay, one or two hands go up.

That’s it?

To be perfectly honest, I have filed VFR Flight Plans twice (I think) in the last year.  The only reason I did was because I was flying in an area that had poor radar/radio communications and I wanted someone to know where I was (I was ferrying an airplane through southern Oregon and northern Nevada which is mountainous and is hard to get coverage into at lower altitudes).  I was so unaccustomed to doing it that I nearly forgot to call and close my flight plan.

This is a common complaint amongst pilots concerning VFR flight plans.  It’s extremely easy to get to your destination, hop in the car and completely forget to close your VFR flight plans.  Thankfully, now a days, the Flight Service Station will typically call the number you put in your VFR flight plans (your cell phone number most of the time) to make sure you are on the ground before initiating search and rescue services.

Another complaint is that it is cumbersome to call the Flight Service Station after departing to open the VFR flight plans.  This is especially true in a busy airspace area or if the pilot is getting a VFR Flight Following and talking to ATC on a different frequency.

I still think it is a great idea to file and utilize VFR flight plans.  If you don’t show up at your destination, someone will come looking for you which could mean the difference between getting stranded after an off airport landing and getting a warm cup of coffee at the end of the day.  Even if the you get flight following from ATC, it’s still good to file a flight plan.

Lockheed Martin, who runs all the Flight Service Stations across the US, heard these complaints from pilots and decided to come into the modern age and make it easier to open and close flight plans.  They developed EasyActivate and EasyClose.

These services are very simple.  Just go to Lockheed Martin’s Flight Service Station website, set up a new account, then file VFR flight plans to see the services in action.

File your VFR flight plans first, through calling the FSS or on your favorite iPad app.  Then, for EasyActivate, you’ll receive an email 30 minutes prior to your ETD with a link in it.  Simply click/tap on the link and your flight plan is activated.  No having to call FSS in the air, no having to try to get them on the ground.  Just tap the link and you’re good to go.

For EasyClose, you’ll receive an email 30 minutes prior to your ETA at your destination.  When you get on the ground, you’ll see the email in your phone or iPad and you just tap the link and your flight plan is closed.  Since we all have our phones and iPads with us constantly, there will be no more forgetting to close the flight plan and getting that angry call from the FSS.

Sign up is quick and easy.  All Lockheed Martin needs is your email address, last name and phone number. They’ll send you the password to set up your account.  Log in (they will have you change your password immediately), then just click on EasyActivate/EasyClose up at the top.  You have to register the email address you want (you can also put in a phone number to receive a text message, and you can put multiple email addresses and phone numbers if you’d like), then you are all set to go.

Air Traffic Control Privatization

ByHank Gibson January 25, 2016

There was a bill introduced in Congress recently to take control of Air Traffic Control away from the FAA and give it to a private, for profit, corporation.  The initial reaction of pilots is “Ahhh!  User fees!” which we are all adamantly opposed to.  There are a myriad of reasons why this is a bad idea (the “Flying” article makes a comparison to giving NASA to Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos) and we as pilots should be against it.

Read the “Flying” Magazine full article here.

Preventing Gear Up Landings

ByAndrew Robinson September 27, 2016April 5, 2017

On the evening of November 3rd, 2015, I was returning to my home airport of Lancaster from Pittsburgh in my company’s Aerostar, after being out on charter all day. It was dark out as I entered the traffic pattern at Lancaster. After an uneventful approach, I was cleared to land behind a Mooney. The spacing looked good as I turned final, but, as I was nearing the threshold, I started to become concerned that the Mooney wouldn’t be clear of the runway in time for me to land. At that moment, over the radio I heard an uncomfortable transmission from the Mooney pilot: “Tower, Mooney ABC has landed gear up.”

It took the tower controller a minute to grasp what was going on, and I was on about a 1-2 mile final when I was instructed to go around. Thankfully, the Mooney came to a stop in such a position that I was able to use the other intersecting runway, and was on the ground only a few minutes later. I can assure you, however, that I’ve never checked my “3 green” so many times in one traffic pattern as after that incident. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but there sure was an impressive amount of emergency equipment on the runway as I taxied back to my hangar.

In aviation, there’s a saying that goes: “There are two types of pilots. Those who have landed with their gear up, and those that will.” I don’t like that saying. The potential of a gear up landing (as a result of pilot error) is something that has always been a risk that I have worked hard to avoid. Not only is a gear up landing embarrassing; but it’s also an extremely expensive black mark on any pilot’s career.

According to a July 2006, article in Aviation Consumer, the estimated cost of repairs following a gear up landing for an A-36 Bonanza would be about $27,000 and about 3 weeks of down time. 25 years ago, even my beloved E33 Bonanza was the victim of a gear up landing. While it was neither me nor my dad flying our airplane that day, the event stays in its history and reduces its value should the time ever come to sell it.

That incident in 1990 resulted in approximately $25,000-30,000 in repairs. The cause of the incident was classic: the pilot put the gear down at the normal time, but then had his downwind extended by tower. He brought the gear back up to fly the longer downwind, but forgot to put it back down later when he was cleared to land. Like many pilots, he had a set routine time when he normally put the gear down, and when his routine was changed, he didn’t remember to lower the gear once more.

Unfortunately, no matter what experience level one may be at, no pilot is immune to the possibility of such a mistake. The following are 5 tips that I have learned in my time flying that have helped myself and others minimize the chance of a gear-up landing occurring:

1. Know your aircraft systems: What are the operating perimeters on your airplane’s gear warning system? Most airplanes have a designated speed or power setting at which the gear warning horn will sound in the event that the gear isn’t down and locked. In the Aerostar that I was flying, the gear horn was supposed to come on at 15” of manifold pressure with the gear up, but in practice, it didn’t come on until much lower than that. It has since been adjusted, but at the time it was important for me to know that if I had left the gear up, the horn wouldn’t have sounded in a timely enough manner for me to go around, much less lower it prior to touchdown. Most likely it would have just added to the noise of metal on concrete as I pulled the power all the way back in the landing flare.
2. Don’t override gear-up warning systems: They were put there for a reason! Even if you’re out doing maneuvers and the horn is blasting in your ear for half an hour, resist the temptation to simply pull the circuit breaker or push the warning silencer to make it shut up. If a pilot disables the gear-up warning horn and then later forgets to put the gear down on landing, he or she will have a much worse headache on their hands than the one that the horn would have given them.
3. Use your checklists and memory items: It doesn’t matter how much a pilot knows about his or her airplane, or the procedures for it. Distractions happen. Mistakes Happen. Always consult the checklist for confirmation that you’ve accomplished all the essential tasks before landing. Additionally, if you haven’t already, work on developing call outs which you perform out loud regardless of whether you are alone in the airplane or not. Whenever I’m landing an airplane, I start with my flows, go through my GUMPS (Gas-Under carriage- mixture- props- seat belt) checks, then do the printed checklist, and finally when on short final I call out “short final, cleared to land, three green.” I’ve had several passengers tease me about doing the “three green” call out while I was flying aircraft that didn’t have retractable landing gear. But, I’d much rather be in the habit of checking every time regardless of what I’m flying than forgetting to check when it is necessary.
4. Use your available resources and develop healthy habits: If I have someone riding with me, I generally ask them to confirm that there are 3 green lights glowing on the instrument panel. Even if that person isn’t a pilot, they will probably enjoy the opportunity to be involved, and it’s a good way for me to stay in the habit of checking the gear lights to ensure that everything is properly down and locked. I’ve also found that intentionally leaving your hand on the gear lever until you have gear safe lights is a good idea. Forcing yourself to keep your hand on the handle until you have the all important lights obligates you to actually observe the indications instead of simply throwing the lever and moving onto something else. This way, if you only get an indication of 2 greens you’ll be aware of it right away and have more time to respond appropriately. It also helps you to learn the normal length of time it takes for the gear to extend or retract, which will be helpful to you to be aware of any abnormalities in the gear system.
5. Upgrade your aircraft’s gear-up warnings: There’s a variety of ways you can improve your aircraft’s ability to warn you of a potential gear-up landing. For student pilots or pilots new to complex aircraft, it could be something as simple as a red post-it note on the panel to remind you to verify the gear position prior to landing. Or, if you own an aircraft that doesn’t have an effective way to warn the pilot of a gear-up landing, consider investing in an aftermarket gear-up warning system – surely the extra price of such an upgrade is a small amount next to the cost of repairing the damage from a gear-up landing!

Always remember, regardless of experience, no pilot is immune to the possibility of a gear up landing. The best way to safeguard yourself is to discipline yourself in the use of flows, checklists, and call outs. Things like gear warning horns, visual reminders, and other systems are a useful back up, but they shouldn’t be relied upon to save your bacon if you don’t get the gear down at the proper time. Fortunately, in most gear up landings, the pilot and passengers are able to walk away uninjured – but that doesn’t lessen the embarrassment or financial burden of the event. So, keep your chin up, your gear down, and remember….THREE GREEN