Title: weather - Why do pilots need the ceiling, time, and dew point in the ATIS? - Aviation Stack Exchange
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Why do pilots need the ceiling, time, and dew point in the ATIS?
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Content: Why do they need to know the ceiling? Zulu time: what is the zulu time? Dew point: why do they need to know the dew point? weather pilots atis
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edited Mar 30 '16 at 16:55
kepler22b
asked Feb 14 '16 at 21:30
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The ceiling is the lowest altitude where clouds cover more than half of the sky. This is important because climbing above that altitude means you will most likely have to fly through clouds. This makes navigation more difficult and pilots are required to have special training to fly in low visibility. If the ceiling is too low, pilots can't be at a safe altitude above the ground and out of the clouds at the same time. Low ceilings are also critical for landing, and may require pilots to make an instrument approach and landing.