This is the FAA remote pilot study guide for 2025. And in this video, I'm going to be breaking down the differences between a MEAR report and a TAFF report. You'll learn about when they're issued, how long they're valid, the purpose of this report, and most importantly, I'm going to show you how to break it down and decode it so you won't have any issues on the part 107 exam. So, level up. This is part 10 of 12 remote pilot study guide 2025 starts now. The part 107 exam requires that you know about two types of aviation weather reports. MEAR reports and TAF reports. There's also a speci report which I'll touch on in this video. These reports provide vital information for pilots especially when they're flying under instrument flight rules. So, let's go over MEARS and TAF reports so I can explain to you exactly what the differences are between those two type of weather reports. MEAR stands for meteorological aerodrome report and TAF stands for terminal aer drrome forecast. And if you use the power of association, you'll never forget that the last letter in MEAR is R, which stands for report and the last letter in TAF is F, which stands for forecast. Now if we look at the type of reports for these two, the MEAR report is a realtime current weather report. That means you're getting it for whatever is happening right now and the Taft report is a forecasted prediction. Very different because one is long-term and the other is immediate. What I'm giving you in detail is that the MEAR report is a snapshot of what's happening right now. The TAF report is merely a forecasted prediction of what will happen. Now, in regard to when these reports are issued, a MEAR report is issued every hour or every 55 minutes past the hour. That's when a new snapshot will occur. And a Taft is issued four times per day. I'll tell you exactly when those occurrences are in just a moment. Now, in regard to how long these reports remain valid, well, the MEAR report will remain valid for 1 hour, but the Taff report will remain valid for 24 to 30 hours. Now, follow the little red ball and you'll see that the MEAR reports are updated every hour automatically and it runs pretty much on time, on schedule. But if there is some significant weather change in the conditions that could impact aviation safety, then an unscheduled report will be issued. And that unscheduled report is called a specy report. It's basically the same exact thing as a meter report, but it occurs when there is a significant change in weather conditions that could impact aviation safety. And that weather report can be issued at any time. Now taps on the other hand are issued four times per day. And do you see how I have indicated 00 Z, 06 Z, 12 Z, and 18 Z. Now what does that mean? And a lot of you are saying, "Oh, why does Mike do this to me?" And that's because I want you to understand all of the details. These numbers are in Zulu time, also known as UTC or coordinated universal timestamps. Zulu time is used in aviation because it's a universal time standard for pilots around the world. And regardless of whatever local time zone they're in, these Zulu timestamps or UTC time remain consistent no matter where you are in the world. And just so your mind remains clear, why did they actually use the word Zulu, which is the phonetic for the letter Z? It's because the reference for UTC is at zero time. And military and aviation all over the world do not use the word zero in their phonetic alphabet. They use the word Zulu. And this is why it's called Zulu time. Now, I've taken the initiative here to break it down for you so you can see each current time zone and how they are referenced to Zulu time as you can see in the left column of your screen. And what this means is that at 00 Zulu time, that's going to be 400 p.m. my time since I'm in Pacific time zone. And you notice that there's a 5:00 p.m. there. That is for daylight savings time. Zulu time never changes. Now, let's take a look at the purpose of these reports and why we actually need to use these two different types of reports. You can see that the MEAR report here is an immediate flight planning. What this means is that whenever it is that you're getting ready to fly, for example, you want to know what the current weather conditions are, just before you're ready to fly, and this is part of your pre-flight procedures. You want to know what the current weather conditions are when you're getting ready to fly. MEAR reports are there for that purpose. So, now I'm going to provide you with an answer before you actually ask me the question, when do you actually use a Taff report? Well, let me give you the answer. when I actually drop the little red ball down and move to location first so that I can explain that then I'll come back and answer this question. Notice that mear and taff are generally five statute miles around a station or an airport. Now I need to give you an understanding about something right now. A mear station is located at an airport but a taff report station is not located at an airport. Although it says five statute miles around an airport, that does not necessarily mean that a TAP is generated at an airport. It is issued somewhere else. But the reason why these reports are primarily focused around airports, it is because all of this is about airport operations and safety. And that is why if you checked out my video that has to do with pre-flight, making sure you add these reports to your checklist is vital. And that's because weather directly impacts flight safety and legality for a remote pilot. So now let me go back and answer the question for you. You use a Taff report when you want to check the weather conditions around a specific airport and you're preparing for a flight operation that is not immediate. It is in long-term pre-flight planning. And just keep in mind that despite all of this that the FAA still wants you to know this information for the part 107 exam. Now, I think I've covered the differences in detail, and everything else is self-explanatory, but I want to go ahead and decode a Taff report so that way you'll know exactly what to do when it's time for you to take the part 107 exam. Now, you notice that there is some coded information on this Taff and it basically tells you what the expected wind is, the visibility, the clouds, and where the airport is located. So, let's begin from the top left to right. You notice that the first one says T AF? Well, that is telling you that this is a terminal air drrome forecast. And if on the part 107 exam they ask you what type of report this is, well, all you have to do is just to look to the top left. Okay. The next one over is the AO code for the airport identifier. In this case, it's JFK airport in New York. The next block over to the right, you'll see the first two numbers always have to do with the day of the month. In this case, it's the 12th day. and the four numbers 130 with the letter Z following it stand for 11:30 Zulu time. The next block of numbers with the 12 12 13 18 and a slash between them. This is how long this report is valid for. Now the way that you decode this information is that the first two numbers 12 for example would be the 12th day and then the two following numbers after the 12 which is 12 again means that it's 12,200 hours Zulu time. Now, let me clarify something that may be a little confusing for you. If you're using military or aviation references in regard to time and you say 1200 hours Zulu time, then that is perfectly correct. But if you also say 12:00 Zulu time, then that is also correct, but it's just not being communicated in a standard for military or aviation purposes. And the same exact decoding would apply to the next number that you see which is 1318. Between these two days and times is the duration of when this report will be considered as being valid. The next block to decode which is very similar to a mear report is the wind direction and speed. And when you see the 180 that tells you where the wind is coming from. Now stop for one second. I want you to pay attention to what I just said. when we're referring to wind direction, not an airplane or a runway. We're talking about wind direction on a report. So that means that this will always be where the wind is coming from. The wind is coming from 180°. So if I am looking at 180° facing it, I can expect to feel the wind on my face. Now the numbers after that you should already be familiar with. The wind speed is at 12 knots. So say this to yourself. wind coming from 180 degrees at 12 knots. That's how you're going to hear it when you're listening to the report yourself. So, if you know how to decode and speak the language, you'll also understand it when you're listening to the report as well. Now, the next block we need to decode is something that may confuse you, but I am going to not only decode it, I'm going to deconfuse you. P6SM. And some of you probably already know kind of like what this means because you see the six statured miles 6SM. But I'm sure that the majority of you do not know what that P stands for. It's not something that's covered in these training courses and some of these other study guides. Am I right? Well, I'm going to explain it to you. That P stands for plus. And what it means is greater than. It means that it's greater than six statured miles. So when you're looking at the P and you're reading this decoding, it says greater than six statute miles, meaning visibility is greater than six statured miles. P is for plus. And you can thank the National Weather Service for coming up with that standardized coding system. And the next block to decode on the right, you'll see that it says BKN. That stands for broken clouds. We're talking about clouds here. And the numbers 040. Well, if you add two zeros to the end of that, then we'll be talking about broken clouds at 4,000 ft AGL. Now, I probably just opened up a can of worms by saying AL. And I know there's going to be a comment that's going to ask, why is it not MSL? Well, I'll tell you why. These are groundbased reports that are taken from groundbased stations. And therefore, since we know that we're on the ground and we're not flying over water, it won't be mean sea level. It's going to be AGL at ground level because that's where we're referencing the readings from. And just keep in mind that these stations are going to be at different elevations because the elevation at ground level always changes according to the terrain. Now, let's look at the next block below to the left and decode that one. Do you see it says FM? Well, FM stands for from, but it doesn't mean from such as where the wind is coming from. What it means is from this time forward something is going to change. Do you see how I'm breaking these things down so you understand it? FM from 12 the 12th day and 1600. Now wait a minute. I just noticed something. Did you? There is no Z at the end of that 1600. And I have at the very top there's 11:30 Z for Zulu time but there's no Z at this one. What does this mean? And now you're puzzled and confused, right? But nope, you don't need to be because I'm here to tell you exactly what you need to know. Anything that has to do with me and Taff, regardless of whether there's a Z at the end of that number or not, will always be referenced in Zulu time. And the reason that they leave the Z out is because they're trying to make this concise and compacted by you understanding and knowing that it's automatically going to be considered as Zulu time. So they leave the Z out. And this is a forecasted prediction from the 12th day of the month to the future of 1600 hours Zulu time. And yes, a change is coming. You know, I almost started cracking myself up when I said that because it sounds as though it's some sort of struggle for hope that you're yearning for justice and freedom. Let's continue decoding, shall we? The next block of numbers. Again, we see 200°. And you know that's where the wind is coming from at 15 knots, gusting at 25 knots. Now, do you see how easy this is? And all of the other coded blocks are very simple because we've done this already and you already know how to read a Taff report and it only took just a few minutes of watching this video. If you have any questions, you know that you can leave me a comment and I will respond to those questions as soon as I can. I've been doing that throughout the course of these videos. Also, for those of you who have been leaving donations, I want to take this moment and just thank you and let you know that your donations are truly appreciated. It allows me to put the donations back into the video so I can create better content, have better audio, better video. So stay tuned for everything that's coming in the future. Part 11 of 12 will be uploaded midweek and I have a lot of information from you for those of you who have taken the exams. The FAA is trying to change those exams and have different variations of it, but it won't make a difference because we're going to learn every single thing that has to do with remote pilot certification and they can change them all they want and will still end up getting a high score. Until then, I will see you on the next one. Listen, for all of you, congratulations who've passed the exam. Stay tuned to this channel and fly safe. See you on the next one.