About the Course

Prerequisites: Some familiarity with basic weather concepts
Approximate Time to Complete: 1 hour

In this seminar, you will learn how to read and interpret atmospheric soundings. This seminar expands on the brief overview on soundings given in the Weather for Soaring course.

This course is designed for primarily for glider pilots, but I have included examples specifically for the benefit of airplane pilots, such as how to determine structural icing levels, and smooth cruising altitudes.

I start out the seminar by reviewing adiabatic heating and cooling, followed by the how stability works in the atmosphere. I then describe the Skew T/Log P diagram, and then look at over 20 examples of soundings, and how to interpret them.

Purchase of this course entitles you to one year of access to the course material.

Please Note: This course is designed for use by a single individual. It is against the Terms of Use to share this course, in part or whole, with other users, or to teach others using the content from this course. The time and effort that goes into the development of these courses is immense. To ensure that we will be able to offer more courses, we need to collect a fee from every student who takes a course. Thank you for supporting our effort!

About the Course

Course Curriculum

  • 1
    Overview
  • 2
    Adiabatic Heating and Cooling
    • Overview
    • Video
    • Quiz 1
  • 3
    Atmospheric Stability
    • Overview
    • Video
    • Quiz 2
  • 4
    Skew T/Log P Diagrams
    • Overview
    • Video
    • Quiz 3
  • 5
    Interpreting Soundings
    • Overview
    • Video
    • Links
    • Quiz 4
  • 6
    Final Test
    • Final Exam

  About the Instructor

  • Russell Holtz

    Russell Holtz

    Russell is the author of two well-respected and widely-used soaring flight training books in the United States - the Glider Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge and the Flight Training Manual for Glider Pilots.

    Russell grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering.

    He obtained his Private Pilot Certificate in gliders in 1995, in airplanes in 1996, his Commercial Certificate in Gliders in 1998, and his Certified Flight Instructor rating in gliders in 1999. He completed the FAI Silver Badge requirements in 1997, and the Gold and Diamond requirements in 1998. Russell has given over 2,800 hours of primary, cross-country, contest, and aerobatic flight instruction, and has over 4,000 hours total time in gliders.

    Russell's passion for understanding and communicating soaring knowledge is evident in his teaching.

Reviews

  • A good course - will help people that are not familiar, but as a good review

    Stephen Brown

    Good - Some of the questions made you "Stretch" your knowledge based upon what was presented, which help in relation to my understanding. Also, although have used Skew T diagrams for years, the mixing ration line was never described or used well. ...

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    Good - Some of the questions made you "Stretch" your knowledge based upon what was presented, which help in relation to my understanding. Also, although have used Skew T diagrams for years, the mixing ration line was never described or used well. This helped me understand it better.

    Read Less