This platform links with the research: Pilots, Weather and Perceptual Experience together with the helmeted and flight environment.

Pilots get to the hangar in the morning. Make their coffee. Look at the map, weather reports, forecasts, the sequence of current reports, and the winds. And no matter how deep their knowledge of meteorology may be, pilots still want to know more about the local system. Is it a GO or NO-GO? If a go: go underneath clouds or on top? Go around? Follow the coastline? Not Go? Or wait a couple of hours? These are the questions that can be hard on some days.

The helicopter has a long range without refueling, and makes a big difference on days when the flight plan requires longer distances. Engine failure is rare with redundancy and advanced avionics. However, airports and runways are not plentiful, runways are short, heliports are confined, and the flight environment is defined as hostile.

In light of this, the weather is flyable. No issues, just easy days. Yet, on occasions, perhaps more often noting the seasonal changes in Greenland, something is sitting out there that can be worrisome. Maybe you have heard ‘There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are NO OLD BOLD pilots’. Too bold, and this can only lead to something like an accident. Too timid, and the helicopter takes over, and the skills of piloting degenerate. When it comes to the weather, weather decision-making is a process which can be described as a "struggle between 'guts' and 'judgement'" as pilots say.

There are times when flying single-pilot, a call to a really experienced pilot helps. Experience? Experience flying over 11000 hours in Greenland - that is experience! These are the pilots who have seen and flown some of the toughest weather conditions - unheard of today. These experienced pilots are not trained meteorologists with advanced degrees in physics. Yes, it does help. As would knowing basic textbook meteorology, in order to know what they will encounter in the air: cold fronts and warm fronts, cumulus clouds or icing conditions, inversions, temperature/dew point spread, fog and the creation of fog, and frictional forces. This knowledge also helps to understand the local system. It helps to recognise it when they see it. In this sense, it's true, meteorology describes, gives names and categorises, however, the question pilots ask is, What do I do with it?

One of aviation's greatest fascinations is the weather. Most certainly for the pilots who fly in Greenland. When it's bad, it consumes their thoughts. When it's sunny-but not too sunny-they ask, will it stay like this? The weather has many factors that are part of learning. From these pilots, it's certain that the situation, landing, takeoff, the flight are never guaranteed, and knowing exactly how the weather will pan out.