Pilot Reports (PIREPs)
A PIREP is a pilot-issued report which describes weather at a given location at a given time.
They can be standard (denoted UA), or urgent (denoted UUA).
They often contain height/bases of clouds, wind shear, turbulence, or icing.
They are reported in:
- Altitude MSL
- Visibilities in statute miles
- Distance nautical miles
Contents of a PIREP
When giving a pilot report, be sure to include the following elements:
| L | Location | Location of your report |
| A | Altitude | Altitude of the report |
| T | Time | Time of the report in zulu time |
| T | Type of aircraft | E.g. C172, BE36 |
| O | Observation | What you're observering. This could be wind, sky condition, cloud tops, turbulence, icing. Not every element need to be in your report. |
Solicitation of PIREPs by ATC
ATC will actually ask for PIREPs in certain weather conditions:
- Ceilings at or below 5,000 feet.
- These PIREPs must include cloud bases, tops and cloud coverage when available.
- Additionally, when providing approach control services, ensure that at least one descent/climb-out PIREP and other related phenomena is obtained each hour
- Visibility (surface or aloft) at or less than 5 miles
- Thunderstorms and related phenomena
- Turbulence of moderate degree or greater
- Icing of light degree or greater
- Wind shear
- Braking action reports
- Volcanic ash clouds
- Detection of sulfur gases (SO2 or H2S), associated with volcanic activity, in the cabin