Do you find the aviation weather forecasts provided by Airservices to be 'jargon', 'secret code', 'only for the initiated' or 'for those in the club'?

Well, here is the good news. They are jargon and they are for members of the club – and you as a glider pilot are in the club. Yes, you are an aviator, and the aviation weather forecasts are intended for all aviators. There is no secret. All the information you need to read an aviation forecast is in the public domain.

All power pilots are required to be to read the aviation forecasts before they fly. So how do they know the jargon and where do they learn it? Just go to:

http://www.casa.gov.au/pilots/download/vfr/pre-flight.pdf

Here, you can download a copy of the entire VFR Flight Guide that CASA sends all visual power plots. The Pre-Flight Planning section has lots of useful information and the Meteorology section starts on page 117. All the jargon that is contained in an Area Briefing and TAF are explained there.

So, to get you started, here are some examples from the VFR Flight Guide.