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Source: 4 Rules-Of-Thumb For Late-Summer Flying | Boldmethod

Rules-Of-Thumb For Late-Summer Flying; by Colin Cutter – 
Thanks to Boldmethod for sharing…
1) Calculating Civil Twilight
Summer days are getting shorter, but there’s still a lot of daylight left.
A good rule-of-thumb for calculating civil twilight is that it usually ends between 20-35 minutes after sunset. Tonight in Boulder, CO, sunset is at 8:05 PM, and civil twilight ends at 8:34 PM. That’s a difference of 29 minutes. Once twilight ends, you can start logging night flight time. But remember, you need to wait an hour after sunset to log night landings.

2) Takeoff roll increases about 10% for every additional 1,000 feet of density altitude
There’s no sign of the weather cooling down yet. And on hot days, you get high density altitude. For most normally-aspirated GA airplanes, you’ll add about 10% of takeoff roll for every 1,000′ of DA. For example, if your airport’s density altitude on a hot day is 3,200′ over field elevation, you’ll increase your takeoff roll by about 32% over an ISA day. So if you have a 1,500′ takeoff roll on an ISA day, you’ll increase that roll to almost 2,000′.

3) Stay a minimum of 5 miles from storms, and up to 20 miles if you can.
Flying closer than 5 miles from visible overhanging areas in storm clouds puts you at risk of flying through hail and severe turbulence. That’s not good for your plane, or your passengers. In some cases, aircraft have encountered hail, severe windshear, and severe turbulence up to 20 miles from storms. When in doubt, keep your distance.

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4) Add Half The Gust Factor On Windy Day Landings.
As we approach the end of summer, windy days increase across the US, because the jet stream starts moving south. When you’re dealing with a gusty day, the FAA recommends that you add half the gust factor to your final approach speed to give yourself safe padding from a stall. For example, if the winds are reported at 18 knots, gusting to 30 knots, it means you have a gust factor of 12 knots (30-18 = 12). So if you take half the gust factor, you get 6 knots (12/2 = 6).

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To apply that in an SR-22T, Cirrus recommends that you fly final at 80 knots. So on a day with a 12 knot gust factor, you’d add 6 knots to the published 80 knots, for a final approach speed of 86 knots. The same math works for any GA airplane’s final approach speed. Just add half the gust factor to your final approach speed.

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Thanks to Boldmethod for sharing. What other rules-of-thumb are you using? Tell us…
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