Let's review the goals:

1.  To provide students (pilots, dispatchers, air-traffic controllers, and aviation weather folks) a review of common and basic vocabulary of winter weather.

2.  To provide students a deeper appreciation for winter weather as a hazard to aviation.

3.  To provide students a better knowledge of the systems that are designed to warn the users about potential winter weather hazards.

4.  To provide students the opportunity to learn from and interact with the actual members of the aviation weather community who are working to provide a safe flying environment in the United States.

5.  To provide students a better awareness of how the current aviation weather system works to collect data, create useful products, and distribute them to the end-users.

6.  To provide students with a list of internet resources to help them share information on aviation weather to others.

Still interested?

Before we begin, we want you to  know who we are as an organization and we want to get to know you better.

Question:  Who is the National Weather Association?

The National Weather Association is a professional nonprofit association, incorporated in Washington, DC, in 1975 mainly to serve individuals interested in operational meteorology and related activities.

The NWA's Aviation Weather Committee is composed of aviation meteorology professionals from a variety of organizations including the National Weather Service (NWS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), NASA, the airline industry, the United States Air Force (USAF), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), academia, and others.

Our Co-chairmen are Ms. Carolyn Kloth from the NWS's Aviation Weather Center (AWC) in Kansas City, and Mr. Terry Lankford, a retired Flight Service Station (FSS) Specialist, and author of numerous books on aviation weather for pilots including Weather Reports, Forecasts & Flight Planning: A Pilot's Guide, published by McGraw Hill.

The "course director" for this effort is Mr. Tim Miner, a pilot for a major airline and a Colonel in the USAF Reserves where he serves as a Weather Officer.  He also is a member of the National Safety and Training Committee of the Allied Pilots Association (APA).

Many organizations and individuals contributed their interest and expertise in aviation weather to try to create the most comprehensive tutorial in flying in winter weather.  It is a "course" for the next few months when you will be able to ask the "subject matter experts" about anything we discuss.  It will be a tutorial after that when the links and text remain but no questions will be answered.  Of course, we welcome your feedback at all times.

It is not our intention to make a meteorologist of every pilot, air-traffic controller, or dispatcher.  This course is a public service effort of the NWA to provide communication and interaction between the aviation operator and the aviation weather provider.  Every attempt was made to insure the currency and accuracy of the information that you receive.  However, the NWA cannot know the specific guidance that everyone taking this course receives from their employer, military organization, or their local instructor pilot or FAA inspector.   The responsibility is still on every operator to fly safely.

Over the next few months, until March 2002, we want to explore aviation operations around winter weather with four lessons which are listed on the index page that sent you here.  A new lesson will be added each week in December to create the course.

If you are still interested in joining us in this adventure, please let us know some things about you.  All information is confidential and used only to get feedback to the NWA and the instructors.  Please email a registration to the course including your name, organization, email address and whether you are a General Aviation, commercial, or military pilot.  If you are involved in another aspect of aviation, please let us know that (meteorologist, dispatcher, etc.).  Thank you again for registering with us.

Do you have a question?  Email that to us if you want.

On or after 5 December 2001, you can begin lesson 1 on the meteorology of aviation's winter weather or return to the index page.

Note:  All email links have been removed since the course is only available as a reference at this time.
 

Updated:  28 Nov 2003