{"id":5154,"date":"2026-07-16T17:21:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/?p=5154"},"modified":"2026-07-16T17:21:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:21:24","slug":"fu-and-your-checkride-or-training-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/?p=5154","title":{"rendered":"FU and your Checkride or Training Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"If you\u2019re a student pilot, instructor, or anyone with a checkride or training flight on the calendar this week in the Upper Midwest, you\u2019ve probably already glanced at the METAR, looked out the window, and muttered something colorful. The sky has that milky, yellow-orange haze. The sun looks like it\u2019s shining through a dirty ashtray. Everything smells like a forest fire that decided to visit. And right there in the weather report\u2014FU.<\/span><\/p>\n

No, the weather gods aren\u2019t literally typing profanity at you. In the international language of METARs, <\/span>FU<\/b> is the code for smoke. It comes from the French <\/span>fum\u00e9e<\/span><\/i>. When smoke is reducing visibility to six statute miles or less (and sometimes when it\u2019s just hanging around being a pain in the ass), the METAR sticks FU in the weather phenomena section or remarks. You\u2019ll see it alongside HZ for haze when the air gets thick with fine particulates from wildfires.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right now\u2014mid-July 2026\u2014that smoke is pouring south out of western Ontario and northern Minnesota fires. Dozens of blazes, some massive, some out of control, are feeding a plume that has turned large parts of Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and points east into a hazy mess. Air quality alerts cover at least 17 states. Michigan and parts of Minnesota have seen hazardous to very unhealthy AQI readings\u2014some spots pushing well over 300 and even spiking past 1,000 in northern Minnesota. Detroit has been among the worst major cities in the world for air quality on some of these days. The smoke isn\u2019t just a local annoyance; it\u2019s a widespread, lingering layer that the high pressure and northwest flow have been parking over the Great Lakes region.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s doing exactly what the abbreviation suggests to a lot of training programs and checkride schedules: <\/span>F<\/b>-ing <\/span>U<\/b>p the plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why FU actually matters in the cockpit<\/b><\/h3>\n

Surface visibility in a METAR is measured horizontally at the airport. That\u2019s useful, but it doesn\u2019t tell the whole story when smoke is involved. Slant-range visibility\u2014the view you actually need to see traffic, spot the runway on final, or maintain visual references in the pattern\u2014is often worse. Smoke scatters light differently than fog or mist. It can sit in layers, get trapped under inversions, and turn what looks like \u201c6SM HZ\/FU\u201d on the ground into something that feels like flying through thin soup at pattern altitude.<\/span><\/p>\n

For VFR training and checkrides, this creates real problems:<\/span><\/p>\n