Meteorology
Weather for pilots
Meteorology questions test your ability to interpret reported and forecast conditions and to anticipate hazards. Know the standard atmosphere, pressure and its reduction to sea level, QNH/QFE/QNE, and how pressure systems and fronts produce weather. Understand stability: stable air gives layered cloud and steady precipitation; unstable air gives cumuliform cloud, showers and turbulence.
Clouds and precipitation: know the ten genera and what each signals. Icing: recognise conditions for airframe icing (supercooled water, temperatures around 0 to −20 °C) and its severity. Thunderstorms: know the three stages, the hazards (hail, turbulence, microburst, lightning, icing) and the rule to avoid them by a wide margin. Wind: understand veering and backing, wind shear, and the formation of mountain waves and rotors.
Traps: mixing QNH and QFE (QNH gives altitude, QFE gives height above a reference); assuming a forecast is a report; and misreading METAR/TAF groups - check the time group, wind direction and speed, visibility, cloud amount and height, and temperature/dewpoint spread. A small spread means high humidity and fog risk.
Worked example
METAR shows temperature 8 °C, dewpoint 7 °C. The 1 °C spread signals near-saturation and a high probability of fog or low cloud. Combine this with the wind and QNH trend to judge whether conditions will improve or deteriorate.