Climatology for Airline Pilots

Climatology – particularly the study of difficult and demanding weather conditions – is of major importance to pilots now that aeroplanes fly over previously unavailable routes such as the North Pole and take direct routes over very large oceans.

Existing books on climatology address physical, biological or cultural environments and do not supply adequate information for the pilot. Nor do the present books on aviation meteorology provide sufficient detail on subjects such as arid climates, tropical storms and upper tropospheric winds and temperatures.

This new book concentrates on aspects of climatology that are important for modern aviation, including temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, winds and regional climatic environments from around the world.

Although the book has been written with the airline pilot in mind, it will also be an essential reference for Air Transport Pilot Licence training staff and for ATPL students. It will also be of interest to operational route planning staff and students of climatology.

Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Global air circulation; The global overview; Upper winds and jet streams; Easterly convergence waves; The inter–tropical conference zone or equatorial trough; Tropical storms; Upper air temperature and tropospheric heights; Polar climates; The climatic zones; Route and area climatology – introduction – North Atlantic; Weather in the Arctic; Arctic regions of Norway; Europe; Mediterranean; Africa; Middle East; Arabian Gulf to Singapore; Singapore to Japan; Singapore to Australia; South West Pacific region; Australia; New Zealand; The Pacific; North America; The Caribbean; South America and South Atlantic; Route weather, Dakar to Recefe; El Ni&ño anad La Ni&ña; Appendices; Glossary; Index

Roy Quantick FRAeS, FRMetS was a former RAF pilot and airline captain and operated the world air routes. He holds the British Airline Transport Pilots License and Flight Navigators License. For 15 years he specialized in crop protection and insect control, working as Operations Manager and Aviation Manager in large programmes for the chemical industry and the UN and becoming Director of the International Agricultural Aviation Centre based at the Cranfield Institute of Technology. He has published a number of papers on the safety aspects of this industry, both in aircraft design and the use of toxic chemical formulations, and is author of two books, published in 1985, The Handbook for Agricultural Pilots and Aviation in Crop Protection and Insect Control.

Roy Quantick has taught for over 20 years at the Cranfield Institute of Technology and since 1985 has been an approved CAA instructor at training schools on the campus of Cranfield University, teaching ATPL students meteorology and other subjects.