Determining Cloud Tops

It may be easier in winter with more stratus layers, but during the rest of the year I can't see how anything could predict.

Recent VFR flight from Houston to Tuscaloosa, bases were quite perfectly at 2500-3000. Tops were all over the map. I was dodging and climbing from 4000 to 8000, finally gave up when a wall well over 10,000 confronted me, went down to 2500 and stayed there. Constant temp, fairly constant humidity, steady winds on the ground.
 
Well you know, there are a bunch of guys here, one midlife mark comes to mind, who won't pay a penny for education.

They get, what they deserve. And think they "get it".
It'd be funny if it weren't so sad. You readin' this, "no heat"?

So now you chase off a real expert. ptui on you...you self satisfied self appointed expert....Scott really is an expert, so go **** in your own pot, not the communal one.....
 
tsts4 said:
Pirep.
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Very few official PIREPs these days, everyone is playing with their weather gadget crystal balls hoping some good data is being introduced into their data feed somewhere over the rainbow.

Tons of PIREPs on Center frequencies but they rarely make it into the official PIREP system unless they're about something severe or there's significant icing in the clouds. Even then, not many jump the boundary between operational ATC and weather data.

It's been seen before in multiple threads here that most pilots aren't using FSS or Flightwatch in-flight much anymore. Either they perceive they don't get responses, or they find it a hassle when the (often bad or missing) gadget/data viewer is along in the cockpit for the ride. They'd rather play with that than make a PIREP.
 
denverpilot said:
Very few official PIREPs these days, everyone is playing with their weather gadget crystal balls hoping some good data is being introduced into their data feed somewhere over the rainbow.
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That's true to a degree, but the big iron guys seem to submit a lot of PIREPs. But they're usually about conditions up in the flight levels, so not much use to spam can drivers.

I'm as guilty of this as the next pilot. But the main reason is that in order to submit one to FSS, I'd need to ask for a frequency change because I'm always either IFR or on flight following.

I've submitted quite a few directly to ATC though. I'm not sure how many of those end up in the system.
 
bbchien said:
Well you know, there are a bunch of guys here, one midlife mark comes to mind, who won't pay a penny for education.

They get, what they deserve. And think they "get it".
It'd be funny if it weren't so sad. You readin' this, "no heat"?

So now you chase off a real expert. ptui on you...you self satisfied self appointed expert....Scott really is an expert, so go **** in your own pot, not the communal one.....
Click to expand...


PoA really needs a "like" button like Facebook. You are so spot on with this, Bruce.
 
I found the Echo Tops on XM\WX accurate enough for deciding to climb over or just go underneath a build up. Where there is no XM|WX coverage I use a bubble horizon finder scope. At up to about 50nm it will show if the cloud tops are above or below my altitude. It helps me in finding a breach on the cloud formation. You can also determine build up grow rate with it. Very handy in the oceanic environment.

José
 
Skew-T is correct [remembering it is a forecast] where the Temp and Dew Point lines diverge. It is fairly accurate.

Best evidence is a PIREP as has been said -
 
scottd said:
You need some training in this area. They are called stratocumulus. A big difference that you don't understand.



Unfortunately your knowledge is lacking and that's why I responded to your post. It's amazing when I take my own spare time to help pilots get a better grasp of a complex subject and it's turned back against me. What a shame. This will be my last PoA post.
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bbchien said:
Well you know, there are a bunch of guys here, one midlife mark comes to mind, who won't pay a penny for education.

They get, what they deserve. And think they "get it".
It'd be funny if it weren't so sad. You readin' this, "no heat"?

So now you chase off a real expert. ptui on you...you self satisfied self appointed expert....Scott really is an expert, so go **** in your own pot, not the communal one.....
Click to expand...

Wow - guess I missed some non-weather exchanges on this thread.

Hard to make sense of what went on since it looks like scottd may have removed some of his posts. All I can tell is that after 8 years being a member of PoA it looks as of it took one (possibly two) posts by others for him to decide to no longer post here. A single trigger seems unlikely. Hopefully nothing bad is happening in scottd's life that magnifies a small affront into a large one.

While he may no longer post here, perhaps he still reads these threads.... Perhaps his business training wasn't as deep as his meteorology training, else he would not have made the mistake (in my opinion, obviously) of letting one or two critic(s) out of thousands of members get him annoyed enough to leave what should be a rich ground.

It is not only reasonable, but ethical (yes!) and standard advertising mechanism to use online teasers. I, and many others, have to as a matter of economic survival write free technical material that is placed on the internet. It is intended to attract prospects by leveraging two types of psychological influence: authority and reciprocity. It shows (we hope) that we are authorities on the subject, and because the reader gets something for free, the reader feels compelled to reciprocate somehow. Hopefully by patronizing our business.

Since a lot of people find themselves employing that marketing strategy without realizing it, after the realization takes hold when it is pointed out, I think they should simply continue on as they were. Not stop it.
 
Jim Logajan said:
Wow - guess I missed some non-weather exchanges on this thread.

Hard to make sense of what went on since it looks like scottd may have removed some of his posts. All I can tell is that after 8 years being a member of PoA it looks as of it took one (possibly two) posts by others for him to decide to no longer post here. A single trigger seems unlikely. Hopefully nothing bad is happening in scottd's life that magnifies a small affront into a large one.
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If you follow the history, Bruce has left here several times, and (fortunately) always returned. It can be frustrating to be an expert in an area on this forum for something relative to what we as pilots should know. Some folks have called me an expert on our engines, so I guess I know what it's like.

I've certainly found Scott's tidbits to be generally useful, but I've never bought into his mantra that we all need his weather training, and so that's kept me from throwing money his way. That, and I seem to do just fine on my own. One could say I'm somewhat hypocritical, but even when I was trying to make money by teaching people how to run their engines, I fully admitted that it wasn't useful to everyone. Everyone I know who's taken his course has spoken positively of it.

You need to have a thick skin on the internet.
 
Here is a link I use before flight and find it to be very accurate...

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/rt/viewdata.php?product=ct_us

I have learned a lot from Scott as well as many others on POA and do hope he returns. I am in the HVAC business but unfortunately I don't think there are too many pilot's or POA members within 25 nm(my max range). There have been a few instances where I just go unsubscribe to a particular thread. Go work in the garden, spend time with family and return another day. Sometimes it is the best thing to do.
 
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