I have the books & have passed the FAA IR Written & do take weather seriously. But I feel weak on interpretation & on knowledge of online sources.
Are there any courses that address weather from the practical standpoint of a x-country pilot, both IFR and VFR, with a focus on sources and interpretation?
Not sure about online sources and their interpretation, but I think a lot of useful knowledge about weather phenomena in general and interpretation of what you can directly see with your eyes can be gained from a good course in mountain soaring. I have it on my to-do list.
I absolutely agree, several years ago I spent 1 week with an instructor gliding in the French Alps. Much of what I know about dealing with the mountains comes from that (as well as doing a couple Alpine transits before that with a mountain flying instructor in SEP).
But My inquiry did not concern interpretation of weather when you’re in the air. It concerns using the internet before you get there!
PPL/IR did a great weather seminar last year
Are there any courses that address weather from the practical standpoint of a x-country pilot, both IFR and VFR, with a focus on sources and interpretation?
I have never heard of anything in Europe that’s really suited to “touring GA” whether VFR or IFR. I have been to a number of classes but found them all near-useless. One was run by a weather forecaster (who AFAIK doesn’t fly but is quite active on the UK forum scene, because he’s making money running the courses) but it was just a re-hash of met theory, not apparently applicable to flying. Another was run by a (now defunct) “advanced training” outfit, but the presenters were fresh CPL/IRs who had the 14 exams but didn’t appear to do much GA.
It is something I have thought about. If one was running a “class”, the best way to approach it would be a scenario workshop, where you pick a route, say EGKA-LDLO, and dig out the wx, get the radar, sferics, IR, tafs/metars, etc, and examine them, relative to aircraft performance. Unfortunately, unless you have a reasonable perf plane, you will quickly realise you need one! A PA28-161, ceiling say FL110, will just be in IMC much of the time at Eurocontrol IFR levels! Unless you do it VFR, below the cloudbase, which is hard on a long flight (because it crosses multiple wx systems), and everybody should know how to do it on a 50nm flight (tafs and metars along the route is a good start) 
If I was doing one-to-one mentoring I would do the same, with a focus on the person’s actual plane’s capability.
Some years ago I wrote up this which references some long-gone wx sites but you get the general idea. The holy grail in long distance flying, both VFR and IFR, is VMC on top.
You also quickly realise you need oxygen, but that’s the easy bit.
Nowadays I consult the tafs/metars, MSLP, radar, IR, sferics, and that’s about it. You can find these on various free websites and I have a private site which concentrates them all in one place, having stripped off the adverts
If you’re keen to try out your mentoring skills Peter, I’ll sign up.
I don’t know about mentoring skills but how about starting a thread (or maybe posting it in this one?) where a real scenario is considered?
Then a lot of people can see the discussion, whereas any physical meet-up is obviously going to be severely limited.
Peter, your post hits all the points, including plane capability, etc. I have pushed my Rallye to its limits (safely), but realize I need more of a plane to do the sort of travel I do. I have no desire to tangle with icing even in a FIKI plane, but do want more useful load, faster climb, and higher ceiling (including oxygen) to get above low level tops.
I’ll also sign up (paying) for your course when you get it together!
How about the following route for starters:
LICC, LICA, LIBR, LYPG, LYBE
It has multiple stretches of water and terrain which give a good chance of varied weather along the route! We can wait for things to get messy in Sicily, Calabria, the Adriatic and Balkans to have more “fun”.
What plane shall we use? Capable or underpowered? VFR or IFR?
Perhaps we should do two scenarios:
1) VFR in underpowered plane (172, PA28 or Rallye) flying below the weather;
2) IFR in more capable plane going over (TB20, 182RG)
We could discuss how tactics differ depending on the plane you’re using.
Doesn’t quite address the original question but I found Robert Buck’s book ‘Weather Flying’ incredibly helpful – good mix of theory and hard practice from a guy (actually two guys – father and son) who have about a hundred years of flying experience behind them. By far the best book on weather for aviators VFR and IFR out there.
I think the course Peter mentions is one I have also attended. Very VFR focussed and the (actually very nice) chap who runs it doesn’t really ‘get’ IFR at all.
We all develop our own personal kitbag don’t we? For me, it’s MSLP charts for the big picture (starting a few days before), TAFs and METARs of course, satellite photos (visible and infra-red, very helpful), a GRAMET from Aeroplus (which I’ve learned can be way off reality but I’m still hopelessly drawn to the ordered simplicity of the images!), and sometimes a Skew T from a few places down route to check likely cloud tops/temps etc.
The Aeroplus weather and flight planning app I use (in preference to the much more fiddly and overblown Rocket Route) has a useful tab where you can check forecast relative humidity, as well as winds and temps for stepped altitudes above every airport anywhere which also has a METAR. I’ve found it pretty accurate.
On the day – and also just before flight – I do a quick download of the weather picture along my route on my ADL Golze Connect app, which I also update in flight via the iridium satellite network.
That’s it really. After hours and hours of exhausting met theory in the CBIR exams, all I’m really interested in now is can I depart, can I land at my destination, and are there icing/CB issues en route. It was much harder flying VFR!
