Weather Site

The other day there was a short session by someone from the CWSU in Freemont. CWSU as I understand it is the Center Weaher Service Unit. There is one for each "center". This one obviously focuses strictly on the Oakland, ZOA, center weather conditions. The link to their weather site is:

www.weather.gov/zoa

On the left hand side of that main page are several links. One of which is "Aviation TEXT"
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/zoa/BriefgFrameset.php
This is provides a description of the local weather pattern and one of the things they talk about is the marine layer and what they see it doing.

Just one other site to consider if you are interested in the local weather.

Virtual Patti

For those times when you need a CFI but you favorite CFI is not available... Now you can have the virtual Patti.

Direct Crosswind - what runway?

I thought this was an interesting question... assume you are landing at an un-towered airport and the windsock shows the wind direction to be at an exact cross wind. What runway would you choose for landing? Assume the runway is 23/5 and the wind is coming from 160 @ 10 KTS. Would you land on runway 23 or runway 5? Would it make a difference?

What's up with PAO and ATIS?

ATIS has been reporting missing temperature and dew point for awhile. Lately they are reporting "estimated" winds. Are the weather facilities at PAO falling apart? Or am I just imaging this?

Jack flying with his grandpa in DC

Congratulations to Jack!

... private pilot as of Friday!

Interesting Prog Chart

check out the lower left quadrant.

Flying in Washington & Idaho

Here are some pictures from my flight while I was in Coeur d'Alene, ID. I was able to fly with a local CFI from Spokane International, GEG. We flew down to my college town, Pullman, WA (PUW), and then flew up to Coeur d'Alene Lake where we were staying. The pictures are probably boring unless you are a Cougar or familiar with the Spokane area.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20442968@N08/sets/72157624497950575/

Interesting Radio Calls

If you have heard interesting traffic, share the info under this post.