Saturday, February 25, 2012

Where could I find a website that show the Density Altitude for Dugway, Utah?

I need to find the current density altitude for the Dugway Proving grounds, or at least the current weather conditions to calculate it.Where could I find a website that show the Density Altitude for Dugway, Utah?
Since you mention density altitude, I assume you know what it is and how it is used. As a light aircraft pilot myself, I use it often during the summer, to know if I will have enough runway to take of from short fields in the mountains.



You will find many sites that will give you both atmospheric pressure and temperature for Dugway. But I don't think you will find anyone that gives you the density altitude. This is because it is only used by light aircraft pilots and ... there are very few of us. For example, do you know of any weather forecasting site that gives the cloud ceiling in altitude above ground level? I don't and yet, this is one of the most important thing I expect from a weather forecast because if the ceiling is e.g. 500 ft AGL, I can just forget to go flying VFR.



In my pilot handbook (I own and fly a Kitfox III) I have a density altitude diagram where I plot my actual altitude based on QNH, then the temperature and, from that, I find the density altitude that gives me a higher elevation if the temperature is above ISA of 15 C. From that, I can look up what is my expected take-off distance, considering that moist air and a long grass runway will also take some of the time before I am airborne.

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