PLT068: Significant Weather Prog Charts
What code PLT068 covers, why the FAA tests it, and how to study Significant Weather Prog Charts before your checkride.
Interpret information on a Significant Weather Prognostic Chart
What this means for your checkride
The significant weather prognostic chart forecasts hazardous weather: areas of IFR and marginal VFR, turbulence, freezing levels, and fronts and pressure systems, at set valid times. The low-level prog covers the surface to 24,000 feet, showing what to expect along a route.
The prog chart is a planning tool for hazards, so the FAA tests reading the symbols for IFR and MVFR areas, turbulence, freezing levels, and frontal movement.
Pilots read the prog as current weather. It is a forecast for a specific valid time, so you match the chart's time to your planned position, not to now.
Where to study it
A code on your test report is an area of deficiency. An authorized instructor must review it with you and endorse that review before you take the practical test, and the examiner may revisit it during the oral. Study it until you can explain it out loud, not just recognize the answer.