What is Aviation course?
The Distance Learning Aviation Courses (DLAC) are a series of lessons, units, and cases designed to help aviation forecasters improve both their ability to forecast aviation hazards and to write terminal aerodrome forecasts (TAFs) that convey these hazards to aviation forecast customers.
Objectives
The overall objectives for the DLAC courses are to:
- Develop an increased awareness of the various users of aviation forecasts and how forecasts of aviation hazards impact (both positively and negatively) aviation operations within each user group
- Explain the significant physical mechanisms and weather patterns responsible for aviation hazards
- Give forecasters an understanding of observations, forecast tools, and model data that can help improve the forecasting of aviation hazards
- Provide practice in writing a TAF that is user-friendly
Courses and Resources
Courses currently available are:
- DLAC 1: Forecasting Fog/Low Stratus for Aviation Operations: Provides a comprehensive understanding of the physical mechanisms, synoptic patterns, and mesoscale features involved in fog/stratus generation and dissipation, as well as the latest forecast tools used to predict these challenging events. Introduces the Practically Perfect TAF (PP TAF) method for conveying ceiling and visibility information in a TAF.
- DLAC 2: Producing Customer-Focused TAFs: Emphasizes understanding how aviation customers use TAFs, how weather hazards conveyed in TAFs affect their decisions, and what constitutes a "good" or "poor" TAF from the customer's viewpoint. Also reviews the PP TAF technique introduced in DLAC 1 and provides additional practice in writing PP TAFs for various weather conditions.
More information about each DLAC course is available from the menu tabs at the top of this page. The Resources tab goes to a page with a variety of materials and links useful to aviation forecasters.
Individual units in the DLAC courses can also be taken separately, rather than as part of the course. In addition, there are several other aviation-related units that are not part of the DLAC course system. To see a complete listing of training materials relevant to aviation forecasting, click "MetEd Home" at the bottom of this page, then choose "Topic" and "Aviation."
