Page 36 - Volume 15 Number 2

JOYS
Winter Flying
The
of
What you need to know when aviating in the continent’s northern winter climes
As pilots we wear many hats: aerodynamicists, engineers and system managers among them. But potentially the most important role we play is that of a meteorologist.
Early on in my flying career, I flew with a guy whose pre-flight ritual was spending the better part of an hour gathering weather data, NOTAMs and PIREPs. After all that, he would casually walk around the plane and give it a very cursory look. I asked him why he gave the aircraft such a low percentage of his time. He said, the airplane wasn’t likely to kill him, but the weather easily could.
Being based in northern Michigan, we get a great deal of winter flying
by Chuck Blackaby
34 • ­TWIN & TURBINE
FEBRUARY 2011