Let it Rain! Still Let me Fly!

Hello to everyone reading this! Today at Civil Air Patrol, I dove into a world I never really thought much about before—weather! Yep, weather. Turns out, it's super important for flying, and not just the simple stuff like rain or sunshine. We learned about clouds, winds, and even how storms can affect flying. And oh boy, was there a lot to learn!

Our instructor for the day, Lt. Edwards , set up this cool presentation with videos and animations showing different weather conditions. First, we talked about clouds. Did you know there are tons of different types of clouds? Some are puffy like cotton candy, and others are really thin and stretch across the sky. Each type can tell pilots what kind of weather is coming, which is pretty crucial when you're up in the air!

Then, we moved on to wind. I always knew wind could push things around, but I had no idea how much pilots have to think about it. We learned about things like "wind speed" and "wind direction" and how they can change really quickly. Mr. Barton showed us how pilots use their instruments like Barometer, air speed indicator and directional gyros to keep track of the wind and make sure they’re flying safely.

The most exciting part was learning about storms. We saw videos of lightning and thunder and learned how dangerous they can be for planes. Mr. Barton explained how pilots have to be very careful and sometimes change their route to avoid bad weather. It’s like playing a video game where you have to dodge obstacles, only this is real life!

After all that learning, we had a quiz to see how much we remembered. I was a bit nervous because there was so much information, but guess what? I remembered almost everything we talked about! I felt really proud, especially when Mr. Barton said I did an excellent job.

When I got home, I was still so excited about everything I learned that I couldn't stop talking about it at dinner. My family was impressed by how much I knew about the weather now. I even started teaching my younger cousin  about the different cloud types, and we made a game out of spotting different clouds from our backyard.

Later in the evening, I immediately dove into one of Mark Rober’s latest YouTube videos. He was building and testing this super cool drone, and it totally got me hooked! Watching him mess around with it got my gears turning, and I started wondering how things like wind and weather actually affect a drone’s flight, especially when it’s taking off vertically. It was like a lightbulb moment, and now I’m super curious to learn more about how all that works!