A couple of weeks ago I asked what I thought was a simmple question about the Skew T chart. I was seeking to understand why some people thought it was so valuable to help me decide if it was worth further study. More specifically, I wanted to know (a) what it told me and (b) how it fit into the timeframe of an overall brefing.
As anyone who viewed the thread knows, although I received some helpful answers it soon devolved into flaming, apparently because I dared the sacrilege of questioning the wisdom of paying for a course on it without knowing in advance of the benefit. Ah well, can't account for those kinds of people.
Anyway, as I replied to a few who sent me kind private messages, I was not deterred in my search for information and education. And I now have a tentative answer to my own question.
For those for whom a picture says a thousand words, I think the Skew T's is valuable precisely because it can supplement your weather briefing with important information that gives both extra context and detail to the METARs, TAF, AIRMETs, etc with the "efficiency and value" I was looking for in my earlier post. It's to a large degree a pictorial representation of atmospheric stability that in addition to cloud layers and icing potential can give you information such as whether those fair weather cumulus you see are likely to grow into thunderstorms.
I think some of you know or know of Ed Williams. He's a pilot/instructor/professor out of Livermore, CA who may be best known in aviation circles for his "Aviation Formulary," a work on the calculations used in aviation, some of them quite complex. In 2008 Ed did a series of two talks on atmospheric stability entitled, "Weather in the Vertical" for a pilot group at his home base. The first week primarily discusses atmospheric stability, parcel theory and how they relate to weather. The second is an introduction to the Skew T and how it can be used by pilots as part of their weather briefing. Each presentation is about an hour.
Ed made his presentation avaiable on his website (http://williams.best.vwh.net/) as a pdf of the presentation slides and downloadable mp3 audio, which is how I came across it. I thought the material worthwhile enough to ask Ed if he would mind sending me the PowerPoint files so I could edit it into a self-running video presentation. Strictly selfish - it would make it easier for me to watch and learn.
The result is two videos now available on YouTube (in addition to the pdf and mp3 still available on Ed's ebsite).
Part 1 of the presentation, dealing priarilty with parcel theory, stability and it efects is at http://youtu.be/2pMYkSwZp0g .
Part 2, dealing primarily with the Skew T itself is at http://youtu.be/SU_ecI-vcNY.
Even if you're only interested in the Skew T itself, I recommend both programs unless you already have a basic grounding in the theory. After all, it one thing to be able to read the graph; it's entirely another to understand what it is telling you.
Due to the flames last time, I don't anticipate commenting on any replies in this thread, unless someone is having trouble with the links or technical aspects of the files.
Also, I know this won't be for everyone. I found it valuable but it doesn't answer all my questions (in fact it seems to be leading my in the direction of additional study). You might not find it and the information it provides as valuable as I did.
That's OK. After all we all learn differently and the same presentation of material, whether weather or flight instruction itself, can be meaningful to one person and not-at-all helpful to another. I won't presume to tell you that you must learn things in a certain way.
And I promise that, if you don't find it useful, I won't call you a "horse's_ss" who is "the kernel off GA's problem" and who should stay out of certain airspace.
As anyone who viewed the thread knows, although I received some helpful answers it soon devolved into flaming, apparently because I dared the sacrilege of questioning the wisdom of paying for a course on it without knowing in advance of the benefit. Ah well, can't account for those kinds of people.
Anyway, as I replied to a few who sent me kind private messages, I was not deterred in my search for information and education. And I now have a tentative answer to my own question.
For those for whom a picture says a thousand words, I think the Skew T's is valuable precisely because it can supplement your weather briefing with important information that gives both extra context and detail to the METARs, TAF, AIRMETs, etc with the "efficiency and value" I was looking for in my earlier post. It's to a large degree a pictorial representation of atmospheric stability that in addition to cloud layers and icing potential can give you information such as whether those fair weather cumulus you see are likely to grow into thunderstorms.
I think some of you know or know of Ed Williams. He's a pilot/instructor/professor out of Livermore, CA who may be best known in aviation circles for his "Aviation Formulary," a work on the calculations used in aviation, some of them quite complex. In 2008 Ed did a series of two talks on atmospheric stability entitled, "Weather in the Vertical" for a pilot group at his home base. The first week primarily discusses atmospheric stability, parcel theory and how they relate to weather. The second is an introduction to the Skew T and how it can be used by pilots as part of their weather briefing. Each presentation is about an hour.
Ed made his presentation avaiable on his website (http://williams.best.vwh.net/) as a pdf of the presentation slides and downloadable mp3 audio, which is how I came across it. I thought the material worthwhile enough to ask Ed if he would mind sending me the PowerPoint files so I could edit it into a self-running video presentation. Strictly selfish - it would make it easier for me to watch and learn.
The result is two videos now available on YouTube (in addition to the pdf and mp3 still available on Ed's ebsite).
Part 1 of the presentation, dealing priarilty with parcel theory, stability and it efects is at http://youtu.be/2pMYkSwZp0g .
Part 2, dealing primarily with the Skew T itself is at http://youtu.be/SU_ecI-vcNY.
Even if you're only interested in the Skew T itself, I recommend both programs unless you already have a basic grounding in the theory. After all, it one thing to be able to read the graph; it's entirely another to understand what it is telling you.
Due to the flames last time, I don't anticipate commenting on any replies in this thread, unless someone is having trouble with the links or technical aspects of the files.
Also, I know this won't be for everyone. I found it valuable but it doesn't answer all my questions (in fact it seems to be leading my in the direction of additional study). You might not find it and the information it provides as valuable as I did.
That's OK. After all we all learn differently and the same presentation of material, whether weather or flight instruction itself, can be meaningful to one person and not-at-all helpful to another. I won't presume to tell you that you must learn things in a certain way.
