For student pilots · ACS weather prep

Aviation weather, made clear.

METAR and TAF decoders, flight calculators, and fifteen lessons that turn aviation weather into a go/no-go call you can defend.

Free · No account · Built by a pilot, for pilots

Live sample · METAR KDAB · hover any code to decode it

KDAB 251753Z 24014G22KT 6SM -RA BKN025 OVC080 22/19 A2984

Wind
240° at 14 kt, gusting 22
Vis
6 SM, light rain
Sky
BKN 2,500 · OVC 8,000
Temp
22°C / dew 19°C, 3° spread
Alt
29.84 inHg

Every section answers one question: would you fly?

01 / Learn

Weather, concept by concept

Fifteen lessons that turn each weather topic on the Private Pilot ACS into a go/no-go call you can defend in the cockpit and in the oral. Thunderstorms, icing, fog, turbulence, fronts, winds aloft, density altitude, altimetry, and more.

Every lesson follows the same path

  1. What it isthe mechanism in plain English
  2. Why pilots carethe real operational risk
  3. What the products showin the METAR, TAF, and charts
  4. Red flagsconditions that should stop you
  5. Oral questionswhat an examiner will ask
  6. Would-you-flya real go/no-go scenario
Live · 15 lessons Browse all topics →
02 / Decoder

METAR & TAF translator

Paste a raw METAR or TAF. Get a color-coded breakdown, flight category badge, and plain-English translation of every token — winds, visibility, sky coverage, weather phenomena, and TAF change groups with timing.

Live · METAR + TAF
03 / ACS

Checkride task mapping

The weather tasks from the Private Pilot ACS, organized by topic. See exactly what the examiner can ask, the standard you're being held to, and the oral question types — without scrolling the PDF at 11 PM the night before.

Live · Private Pilot
04 / Tools

Two flight calculators

Personal Minimums Builder — set conservative limits above the legal floor and document them for your checkride. Crosswind Calculator — enter METAR wind and a runway number to see headwind and crosswind components with a live wind triangle diagram.

Live · 2 tools
05 / Nav Log

Cross-country nav log calculator

Plan a cross-country start to finish. Enter each waypoint, winds aloft, and altitude; the calculator solves the full heading chain (TC → WCA → TH → MH → CH), ground speed, ETE, and per-leg fuel, showing the math behind every value. Cruise TAS, GPH, and climb figures pull straight from the C172S POH Section 5 tables. Export to JSON, print a clean sheet, and your work saves automatically.

Live · Beta

Two goals: pass the checkride, and actually enjoy meteorology.

Most pilots don't fail weather questions because they're bad at weather. They fail because the products were designed for a 1970s teletype and have never been re-translated for visual learners. CrosswindWX is the site I wish I'd had when I started — built by an instrument-rated pilot working toward commercial, who also happens to be a meteorology tutor with a minor in atmospheric science. The goal is to help you pass the ACS, and along the way, to make weather interesting enough that you actually want to learn it.

About the creator →