PIREP Basics

Safety Spotlight: Sky Spotter

PIREP is short for pilot report. PIREPs are reports of actual in-flight weather conditions, created by pilots and given to flight service or ATC, or submitted electronically through an electronic flight bag application or the Aviation Weather Center website, and then made available to other pilots.

Aircraft Reports

An Aircraft Report is a report of actual weather conditions encountered by an aircraft while in flight. There are two types of reports. An AIREP is a routine, often automated report of in-flight weather conditions such as wind and temperature. AIREPs are more common outside the contiguous U.S. and their location specifies latitude and longitude (preferred for international routes). A PIREP is reported by a pilot. PIREPs are preferred over the contiguous U.S. and the location is based on distance and direction to a known navaid (for example, a VOR). Both AIREPs and PIREPs are tranmitted in real-time.

PIREPs provide information on actual:

Cloud tops
Cloud layers
Turbulence
Icing conditions
Visibility and precipitation
And more!

Pilots use this information to visualize actual in-flight weather conditions, verify forecasts, and fill in gaps between ground-based weather reporting stations.

It’s important to remember that most of the briefing information you get on cloud tops, cloud layers, turbulence, and icing conditions is only a forecast, not a report. A report of actual in-flight weather can only be obtained through a PIREP or automated weather reporting technology.

A report of actual in-flight weather can only be obtained through a PIREP or automated weather reporting technology.

Accident Statistics for Weather

An accurate understanding of the weather is critical to the safety of flight. Attempting to continue visual flight into instrument conditions is consistently one of the leading killers in general aviation, but it’s far from the only hazard arising from unfriendly weather. Thunderstorms, non-convective turbulence, and both airframe and induction icing bring down airplanes every year—and even instrument-rated pilots on IFR flight plans don’t always keep the right side up in IMC.

Real Pilot Story: From Miscue to Rescue

Watch as a series of delays, poor decisions, and lack of preparation turns a four-hour cross-country flight into a 30-hour survival crisis for a pilot and his family in the unforgiving Idaho backcountry.