My thoughts on weather, let me preface by saying I have spent the last year attaining my FAA instrument and commercial rating and am about to embark on my CFI rating, I have attended Met GA weather training seminars in Exeter and have spent the last few years reading and rereading FAA published Aviation Weather Services training manuals and relentlessly pick the brains of more experienced pilots about weather conditions and observations, I have about 800 TT and have been flying for 20 years.
BUT , and here is the rub, I honestly feel I am still not proficient in the process of acquiring, determining the applicability and interpreting aviation weather in a manner that matches the levels of safety and comfort that I possess in other areas of GA flying. When I look at flying overall there can be no doubt there is a definitive process and procedure for most aspects, god knows we have checklists coming out our rear-end for every phase of flight and aircraft inspection including mechanical, documentation and licensing that are black and white. When it comes to weather we are taught a hodge-podge of methods, sources and steps that are available from multiple official and unofficial resources that is hard for a guy like me to put into a go/no go workflow or checklist because of the infinite variables. In the tragic case that initiated this thread it’s obvious that the weather conditions were decidedly not suitable for VFR but there is a whole bunch of conditions between what this guy flew in and VFR,999,SKC, no wind, that present significant dangers to the average GA pilot that can be missed due to information overload or interpretation failures.
Just my 2 cents