Understanding the Sky: The weather book for sport pilots

by Dennis Pagen

Understanding The Sky is the essential weather book for pilots – whatever you fly. This new edition, published in August 2022, will give you a deep understanding of meteorology, from the micro to the macro – from soaring the coast seabreeze to understanding thunderstorms. Understanding The Sky will make you a better-informed and safer pilot, able to make accurate decisions based on enhanced knowledge. Build your knowledge of the way air flows and eddies over buildings and trees, understand how micro-climates are created by coastal systems and mountains, and appreciate the impact of different cloud developments on flying conditions. It doesn’t matter whether you fly paragliders, drones, balloons, RC models, ultralights, helicopters, or planes – this book has been the best-selling classic meteorology text for over 30 years. Substantially revised and updated, and packed with clear illustrations, you will find it seriously useful! “So informative, so in-depth, and so relevant to free flight. A masterclass in flying weather!” – Greg Hamerton, Fly With Greg flight academy

316 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1979

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somewhat dense, but that is the subject matter. The illustrations are plentiful, very well done and extremely illuminating.

[July Cvetkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books for general and microscale meteorology that is must have for every light aircraft pilot. It can answer you most of the weather related questions and even the most important one: when I should put out my clothes to dry :)

[Edgars Jasmans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book. I am about 50 hour paraglider pilot and this book was really eye opening collection of knowledge.
I am planning to put in my harness for reading while parawaiting

[Anthony Marra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A ton of information for ultralight pilots. Pictures are lacking in color/detail... Otherwise, great reference for thermal lore.

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty great for what it is - a textbook on understanding the sky from the perspective of a lightweight aircraft pilot.

[Mahmoud Megahed · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book to understand weather. It is dense and full of information. Illustrations are numerous to ease the digest of the content. Suitable for all pilots

[Kurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great explanation of how the atmosphere behaves, particularly useful to pilots and especially soaring pilots. The book takes a very complex subject and presents it in organized fashion. The diagrams are excellent. Covers large-scale phenomena (circulation patterns that go from the equator to the poles) all the way down to micro-scale events (fog caused by lakes).