The Winds of Flight - a meteorologists guide to flying
Whilst searching around for weather-related websites I came across Henry Robinson’s online book entitled “The Winds of Flight”. Mr Robinson developed this e-book from his experiences teaching meteorology to pilots and his desire to spread his knowledge of his field to as many people as possible. Its written in a very readable style based on real world examples rather that the traditional theoretical approach found in other texts.
There are any number of excellent texts discussing aviation-related weather, some of my favorites being Robert Buck’s Weather Flying, Thomas Horne’s Flying America’s Weather and Jeppesen’s Aviation Weather is also a very well illustrated text book. When I stumbled across The Winds of Flight I was pleasantly surprised to find such quality material available for free and I certainly applaud Mr Robinson for taking this approach. He writes in a very personal style, recounting flights and the associated weather decisions, introducing weather theory along the way. Im still working my way through his extensive material but I wanted to mention it here with the hope of directing a wider audience to his door. I have reproduced the table of contents below with the direct links to the chapter text.
The Winds of Flight by Henry W. Robinson
© Henry W. Robinson, 2001,2004
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - The Lower Part of the Three Dimensional Atmosphere
Chapter 3 - If Hot Air Rises, How Come Its Cold Up Here?
Chapter 4 - Simulating the Weather
Chapter 5 - Fronts, Lows, and Highs
Chapter 6 - Seeing the Big Picture
Chapter 7 - Stratus Clouds and Fog
Chapter 8 - Cumulus Clouds and Thunderstorms
Chapter 9 - Thunderstorm Avoidance
Chapter 10 - Mirages in Sound, Light and Radar
Chapter 11 - Local Circulations
Chapter 12 - Lake Effect Storms
Chapter 13 - Halos and Rainbows
Chapter 14 - Getting Weather Information
Chapter 15 - The Beginning
References and further reading
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