THE SCHIFF SHOW Episode 14 – "Weather or Not? Avoiding the Bad Stuff"
Hosted by renowned pilot and aviation expert CAPTAIN BRIAN SCHIFF
With special guest presenter GREG REVERDIAU
An upgraded Cessna 421C, advanced weather tools, a professional pilot, and plenty of warnings—yet N4467D still penetrated a severe storm, lost control, and came apart in the Gulf of Mexico with five fatalities. In this episode, THE SCHIFF SHOW welcomes Greg Reverdiau, aviation educator, human factors specialist, and co-founder of Pilot Institute, one of the largest online training platforms for manned and unmanned pilots. Together, we will replay the flight, the ATC exchanges, the convective SIGMET environment, and the weather technology picture that set this crew up for disaster.
Using the same teaching style and tools Greg’s team applies in Pilot Institute’s online ground schools and accident case studies, we will slow the event down and visually compare what the pilot likely saw on XM weather versus what was really happening on radar and satellite imagery. We will examine attenuation, radar shadowing, distance limits, and radar tilt management in a single pilot IFR workload, along with the 10 to 15 minute latency “gotcha” that can turn a seemingly safe gap into the core of a mature thunderstorm.
By the end of this presentation, you’ll be able to:
- Recognize the specific limitations of onboard radar and XM / satellite weather—and why “seeing red” is not the whole story in convective environments.
- Apply practical techniques for using strategic (XM) versus tactical (airborne radar) tools, so you do not “thread the needle” through a moving line of storms.
- Identify human factor traps highlighted in this accident, including expectation bias from airline PIREPs, pressure to continue, and over-trust in what ATC “is painting” on their scopes.
- Decide earlier and more confidently when to divert, hold, or turn back—even when technology, ATC, and other pilots seem to be telling you it’s fine to continue.
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Our special guest is GREG REVERDIAU, Co-founder PILOT INSTITUTE
Greg Reverdiau is an aviation professional with a background in aeronautical science and a master’s degree in aviation human factors, and he has trained hundreds of thousands of pilots through Pilot Institute.
Pilot Institute offers comprehensive online ground schools for airplane and drone pilots, with expert-designed curricula, visual lessons, quiz banks, and “pass the test or your money back” guarantees for courses like the Private Pilot and Part 107 programs.
Attendees will see how that same modern, data-driven training philosophy can be applied to real-world accident analysis to make every flight safer.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from a tragic event and enhance your operational safety and piloting expertise.
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The Schiff Show is a monthly aviation education variety show hosted by Brian Schiff and sponsored by AVEMCO. It is offered for FAA WINGS credit. Brian will discuss a specific theme across five program segments on the second Thursday of each month. The themes will be chosen from a hit list of common accident causes. Each episode will be one hour long and focus on a particular causal accident factor, and will include the following segments:
- Accident Review
- Procedures
- Techniques
- Technology Tips and Tricks
- Game Time - WIN PRIZES!
Registration is not required. Go to TheSchiffShow.tv at 7:00 PM Central Time on the second Thursday of the month and join the show. All episodes are archived on TheSchiffShow.tv and available to watch (for WINGS credit) anytime after the original air time. (NOTE: you must be watching live to participate in the game show portion.)
The Schiff Show promises to be an hour well spent, which will fly by while you have fun and learn to be a safer pilot.
