PLT287: Surface Analysis Chart
What code PLT287 covers, why the FAA tests it, and how to study Surface Analysis Chart before your checkride.
Recall information on a Surface Analysis Chart
What this means for your checkride
The surface analysis chart depicts current surface weather over the contiguous 48 states and adjacent areas, transmitted every 3 hours. It shows areas of high and low pressure, fronts, temperatures, dew points, winds, local weather, and obstructions, with each reporting point drawn as a station model. You decode each station model to read sky cover, temperature and dew point, wind direction and speed, present weather, sea level pressure, and pressure tendency.
Reading the surface analysis and its station models gives you the current pressure pattern, fronts, and observed conditions across the region.
Misreading sea level pressure, which is coded to the nearest tenth of a millibar and needs a 10 or 9 prefix restored before use.
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.