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Most of us can rattle off a raw METARs without resorting to the decoded version of these hourly reports of the weather at many—not all—airports. It wasn’t always that way. When METARs replaced the earlier surface reports (SAs) in 1996 there was a lot of brouhaha and a steep learning curve. Same thing with the switch from terminal forecasts (FTs) to today’s TAFs. All of this in the name of establishing a world standard of weather reports.

However, most pilots haven’t been educated in some METARs’ more infrequently used coded abbreviations. Particularly those from sites having automated weather observing capability. You know, the additional reporting codes that follow the core report of date and time, surface wind, visibility, current weather, cloud conditions, temperature/dew point, and altimeter setting. Sometimes instructors will blow these off by saying, “Oh, you don’t need to know them. It’s for meteorologists.” True, in the strictest sense. Most of us accept this advice. Others are curious about these seemingly odd collections of numbers. So, let’s delve into them.

To maintain lateral balance in airplanes that cannot simultaneously feed fuel from both wings, try to keep the tanks as equal as possible (within reason). For example: After takeoff, you might fly for half an hour on the left tank, and then an hour on the right tank, switching hourly thereafter. This should keep you from having more than a half-hour’s fuel imbalance at any given time. Many pilots mount a timer in plain view to remind them to switch tanks.

Leaning the Mixture

The performance, range, and endurance figures listed in the POH are based on a properly leaned engine. Most engines can be safely leaned at any altitude so long as they are operating at less than 75 percent power. (Consult your POH for information on calculating percentage of power.)

Engine failures happen. Prepare for the possibility by practicing simulated engine-outs and emergency landing procedures with an instructor—and considering the psychological hazards that may affect your reaction to a real emergency.

For safety reasons, most of a pilot’s training for emergency landings takes place over suitable terrain. But sometimes engine failures happen when you’re flying over congested areas, forests, or just after takeoff. Pilots may not act appropriately because of fear and lack of training.

We’ve all been taught to leave the doors or canopy cracked open while on the ground. It certainly helps with airflow, but it can only do so much. Once the doors are closed, the only relief to be found is at altitude. More than once, I’ve seen this race to cooler air cause pilots to rush critical tasks, let a door pop open, fail to follow proper procedures, or worse. For those aircraft or flights where reaching cooler temperatures at altitude isn’t an option, heat in the cabin can cause dehydration, distraction, and heat exhaustion—putting the safety of the flight at risk.

As with most technical challenges, cooling the cabin starts with understanding the problem. The heat effects that we experience while flying have two contributing factors: solar radiation and ambient air temperature.

Making a quick recovery from your surprise, you tell your friend that aviators use checklists to ensure important tasks aren’t missed during busy times. You point out that even the most experienced airline crews use them.

What you tell your friend about the virtues of aircraft checklists applies just as much to obtaining a preflight weather briefing as it does to what you do while you’re in the airplane. The federal aviation regulations require you to learn about the weather that might affect any flight. A weather briefing checklist ensures you don’t miss any important information while doing this.

The latest series of high-profile accidents that started last week included a helicopter crash in New York City, a Cessna 310 crashing after takeoff in Florida, and a Mitsubishi MU–2B crashing in upstate New York while attempting a second approach.

Each of these is a tragedy, and many lives will be forever changed as a result.

“Our hearts are broken for the families of those who died in these recent accidents,” said AOPA Air Safety Institute Senior Vice President Mike Ginter. “Aviation safety is under a microscope by the public at large, and understandably so. While it’s important not to speculate on what caused these crashes until the NTSB has completed their investigations, it’s also important to remember that, overall, general aviation has never been safer.”

The troubling news is the annual average appears stagnant and we have a worrisome number of near misses. Our training in visual scans, radio use, and procedures in cruise and the traffic pattern have helped to make midairs rare, but we can make them extinct and reduce the number of close calls. We’ll need to capitalize on new technologies, such as ADS-B; learn how and when to use them most effectively; recommit to discipline on established procedures; and utilize new techniques when appropriate to drive midairs to zero.

The AOPA Air Safety Institute analyzed midair collisions and determined that collisions in cruise, especially a near-head-on collision, are exceptionally rare. More likely, the impact in cruise will occur converging from the side, and the highest probability of an impact in cruise will occur with one aircraft overtaking the other.

The greatest risk of a midair collision appears to be in or near the traffic pattern. Airplanes converging to the same relative point in the sky are more likely to create conflicts as the “big sky” gets squeezed. Most midair collisions happen within five miles of an airport.