 Peter Miranda is the 10,000th pilot to complete the Air Safety Foundation's SkySpotter® online pirep training course. |
Peter Miranda of Charlotte, N.C., is the AOPA Air Safety Foundation's 10,000th SkySpotter®. The SkySpotter® online course teaches pilots how to file a pilot weather report, or pirep.
"Preflight briefers do an excellent job of telling pilots about forecast weather conditions along their route of flight," said ASF Executive Director Bruce Landsberg. "But the only way to know what's really going on is to get a firsthand report from someone who's already up there. With more pireps, weather decision-making becomes much easier."
The SkySpotter® online course is a free, interactive program that tells pilots what information they should include in a pirep and who it should be given to. There is also a brief weather refresher. Pilots who complete the course agree to file at least one pirep on every cross-country flight.
Pireps not only assist other pilots with their go/no-go decisions, they confirm or contradict the weather forecast. Meteorologists may amend the forecast as necessary, based on the pireps they receive.
Peter Miranda is a private pilot who's been flying since 1985. He earned his certificate in Puerto Rico, where most of his flight hours were either aerial photography or flights to St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. Miranda currently flies out of Concord Regional Airport (JQF) in Concord, North Carolina. He hopes to complete his instrument rating by year's end.
For becoming the 10,000th SkySpotter®, Miranda receives an AOPA watch, a SkySpotter T-shirt, and an autographed copy of Bob Buck's classic book on aviation meteorology, Weather Flying.
SkySpotter® is one of the many free online courses that the Air Safety Foundation offers. For a listing of ASF online offerings, visit the Web site.
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