Bentonville West Wolverines UAS Program
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Before every drone flight, the FAA requires you to know exactly what the sky is doing. A METAR is the pilot's shorthand for current weather — learn to read it, and you'll read the sky like a professional remote pilot.
Example METAR — from the FAA's Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (FAA-H-8083-25B):
Current observation from KXNA. KVBT (Bentonville Municipal) is geographically closer, but KXNA is kept as this page's primary instructional station because it provides the principal ASOS observation and the associated TAF used throughout the tutorial. Either way this is an airport observation, not a measurement at your operating site. Make the call for a flight in the next hour, then check yourself.
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Every METAR follows the same field order. Click any piece of the code below — or tab to it and press Enter — to see what it means. Colors and underline styles stay consistent everywhere in this tutorial, and every METAR on this page is clickable, not just this one.
Each field will explain itself here — what it says, and why a drone pilot should care.
A METAR reports BKN035 and SCT008. If both layers are over your operating area, which one sets your under-cloud altitude limit?
A METAR always follows the same field sequence. Drag (or click) the pieces into the correct order. Getting this into muscle memory means you will notice instantly when something is missing.
Click a chip to move it to the answer row. Click it again to send it back.
Available pieces:
Your answer (left → right):
Every timestamp in aviation is UTC, spoken as "Zulu." Nobody converts it for you, and the exam will not either. Two minutes a day here is worth more than re-reading the rule.
Answer in 24-hour time, four digits.
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A METAR is stamped 081453Z. It is currently 0920 local time in Arkansas during Central Standard Time (UTC−6). How old is this observation?
The single most-missed piece of Part 107 weather arithmetic. The rule is not about the ceiling — it is about any cloud. Two minutes a day here, the same way you drill Zulu time, and the calculation stops being something you work out and starts being something you know.
§ 107.51(d) sets both cloud clearances; § 107.51(b) sets the altitude cap. All three apply at once.
Answer in feet. Assume the reported layers are over your operating area and you are away from any structure.
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You are flying at 250 ft AGL. A scattered layer sits at 900 ft, and the nearest edge of it is 1,400 ft away horizontally. Are you compliant with § 107.51(d)?
Five METARs, and the help drops away as you go. The first is fully worked. By the last one you get the raw code, no color, and no narration — which is what a real preflight looks like.
Two reports from the same station, one or two hours apart. Spot what changed, read the trend, and decide whether your go/no-go call should change. This is the skill that separates decoding from briefing.
Three modes, one parser. Decode any METAR, build your own from scratch, or try to pull a live observation.
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Set the fields below and watch the coded report assemble itself. Anything physically impossible gets flagged.
Your constructed METAR:
METARs are updated approximately every hour. The data you see here is the most recent observation for that station.
A METAR tells you what the sky is doing; a TAF tells you what it will do. A sound preflight combines current observations with forecasts. § 107.49 requires the remote PIC to assess local weather conditions; METARs and TAFs are important tools for doing so. Here is the same field, same morning — observation alongside the forecast.
You are planning a 30-minute flight at 1730Z. The current METAR is fine. The TAF shows FM141800 21015G25KT 3SM TSRA BKN020CB. What do you do?
Read each METAR and commit to a call before you look. Each scenario carries a real-world mission — the kind of pressure that actually causes bad decisions in the field — plus the aircraft profile and classroom SOP you are flying under. Six steps: do the reported numbers meet the Part 107 minimums, would you fly the mission, how sure are you, which condition is doing the limiting, what controls the decision, and what is the best response.
Ten questions, no color coding and no hints. Several of them are built fresh from a randomly generated report every time you run it, so the exam cannot be memorized — the only way through is to read the METAR. At the end you get a breakdown by field, so you can see whether it is ceilings, visibility, or time conversion that keeps catching you.
You will see raw METARs with the colors switched off. Answer honestly and do not scroll up — a wrong answer here is worth more than a right one you looked up.
Choose a mode:
Practice shows feedback after each question. Checkride withholds feedback until all 10 are answered — like the real test. Run it again in a few days: the generated questions will be different ones, and spacing the practice out is what makes it stick.
Print this page (Ctrl/Cmd+P) and only this section comes out — color coding intact — as a study card for your kneeboard.
| METAR/SPECI | Report type |
| KGGG | Station ID |
| 161753Z | Date/time (Zulu) |
| AUTO | Auto/corrected |
| 14021G26KT | Wind dir/speed/gust |
| 3/4SM | Visibility |
| +TSRA BR | Weather phenomena |
| BKN008 OVC012CB | Sky condition |
| 18/17 | Temp / dew point °C |
| A2970 | Altimeter inHg |
| RMK AO2 PRESFR | Remarks |
A ceiling is the lowest BKN or OVC layer. But cloud clearance applies to the lowest layer of any coverage.
| METAR | What the weather is. An observation, taken at one field, usually hourly. |
| SPECI | An unscheduled observation, issued when conditions change significantly between hours. |
| TAF | What the weather will be. A forecast for a 5-statute-mile radius around the field, issued four times a day. |
§ 107.49 requires the remote PIC to assess local weather conditions; METARs and TAFs are important tools for doing so. A METAR alone will not tell you the front arrives in forty minutes.
Hot, humid, high, or low-pressure air is thin air. Thin air means less lift per propeller revolution, so your aircraft works harder for the same hover.
| High temperature | ↑ density altitude |
| High humidity (small temp/dew spread) | ↑ density altitude |
| Low altimeter setting | ↑ density altitude |
| High field elevation | ↑ density altitude |
What it costs you: shorter flight time, slower climb, longer braking distance, less margin in an emergency. A METAR that clears every reported minimum on a 38 °C August afternoon still means a noticeably weaker aircraft.
| 1. Reported minimums | Do the numbers in this airport observation meet § 107.51? MET or NOT MET. |
| 2. Site verification | Flight visibility you observe, where the clouds actually are, 2,000 ft horizontal clearance, whether the layer is over your area, terrain, observation age, changes since. |
| 3. Operational call | Given the aircraft, the SOP and the hazards: GO, GO with restrictions, or NO-GO. |
Reported minimums MET is not site legality. An operational NO-GO is not necessarily illegal. Answer all three, in order.
| SM, not NM | Visibility is statute miles. |
| AGL, not MSL | Cloud heights are above the ground at that field. |
| True, not magnetic | METAR wind is true north. Tower and ATIS give magnetic. |
| SCT still counts | Cloud clearance is not just about the ceiling. |
| AUTO is not "unreliable" | It means no human observer, not bad data. |
| Small spread = fog risk | Temp and dew point within ~3 °C. |
| That airport is not your field | Conditions and ground elevation both differ. |
| Wind is not a Part 107 number | No maximum wind speed in the rule. Limits come from the aircraft and local policy. |
| Thunderstorms are a hazard | Not an enumerated numerical prohibition — but § 107.49 and § 107.19 still apply. |
Flight visibility is judged from your control station, and the 500/2,000 ft clearance applies to every cloud — FEW and SCT layers count, not just the ceiling.