Steam, smoke, blowing snow, ripples on the water, big flags, and that's just a few ways off the top of my head. Lots of ways to see which way the wind is blowing.
Remote Airport: where would you get your winds prior to landing?
- Thread starter thebruce
- Start date
MAKG1
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2012
- Messages
- 13,411
- Location
- California central coast
- Display Name
Display name:
MAKG
None of those things are going to be at a remote desert strip.
blowing sand?
Timbeck2
Final Approach
Elephants and/or camels pointed away from the wind? Of course it would depend on how remote that desert strip was.
CT4ME
Cleared for Takeoff
Windyty.com takes this to a new level... you can pick altitude (or surface) and even time (slider at bottom)
MAKG1
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2012
- Messages
- 13,411
- Location
- California central coast
- Display Name
Display name:
MAKG
If you see that, it's best to divert. Lots of terrain and high winds don't make for a good combination.
Blowing sand isn't that common. It requires a source for the sand. Without that, whatever sand that can blow away did so a long time ago, forming "desert pavement."
MAKG1
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2012
- Messages
- 13,411
- Location
- California central coast
- Display Name
Display name:
MAKG
Never confuse a forecast with an observation. That website is totally useless for a "Do I land here now?" decision. And it does not resolve terrain on the scales necessary.
Fearless Tower
Touchdown! Greaser!
Exactly. Seems a lot of folks are responding in generalities without bothering to look up the airport in question.
L61 is not manned. There is no FBO. There is no appreciable city nearby. If you look for a METAR/TAF in ForeFlight, it gives you INS, which is 47nm away.
For the OP: you might first try to call the airport manager (number listed in AFD or on airnav.com) in advance and just ask about prevailing wind patterns. You could call the restaurant that is near the airport and ask (number is listed in ForeFlight).
I would compare the METARs for INS, LAS, NID and DAG to see if there is an appreciable difference. That will give you the best idea in advance, but ultimately you will want to overfly the field to confirm.
Hope that helps.
Fearless Tower
Touchdown! Greaser!
Correct. Surface fiction changes the direction.
MAKG1
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2012
- Messages
- 13,411
- Location
- California central coast
- Display Name
Display name:
MAKG
Yes, but the 30 deg thing is for mesoscale winds over featureless terrain. With terrain, it may just follow it. Or not. There are some serious mountains around Shoshone, though the airport itself is at low elevation.
Fearless Tower
Touchdown! Greaser!
Totally agree. The bigger point being that you can't really rely on winds aloft to know what the surface winds will be.
CT4ME
Cleared for Takeoff
Agreed about an observation being best. But do your homework on Windyty. It was created by a pilot. It uses realtime data from NOAA, NWS, and other agencies. It utilizes metars from all reporting airports and reported public and private data. Press "enter" to get into the detailed reports. It reports and forecasts at AGL 1k, 2, 2.5, 3,5,8 and FL100+. The OP ask where a pilot might get "my best surface winds picture prior to overflying". I'd have to say this is a good source, and should provide enough information to pick a runway, short of an observation or some sort of realtime report. That being said, we've all seen winds shift dramatically everywhere.
That's just when you need to be "really good really brave pilot" as the villagers say.