Position Report vs. PIREP: The Essential Difference

Question: I have just begun my instrument training and learned about position reports in IFR. Are these the same as the PIREPs (pilot reports) we learned about in private pilot ground school?

Answer: No, they’re not the same thing.

A position report provides air traffic control (ATC) with an aircraft’s current location and helps them keep track of it to facilitate separation. It also provides updates on the flight’s progress and estimated time of arrival. ATC might instruct you to keep your speed up because there’s another aircraft following you, or ask you to slow down to avoid overtaking another aircraft.

When a position report is requested or required, the pilot must supply:

• Aircraft identification (N-number)
• Position (in reference to VOR or IFR fix)
• Time of report
• Altitude or flight level
• Type of flight plan, unless you’re on an IFR plan and the report is being made directly to Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) or approach control
• Name of the next reporting point along the route of flight and ETA
• Any remarks pertinent to the flight

A pilot report or PIREP is an “eye in the sky” report of the actual weather conditions encountered in flight. These are usually transmitted via radio and include the aircraft’s physical location, type, cloud bases, tops and layers, visibility, outside air temperature when icing is encountered, turbulence, wind shear, and visibility restrictions such as smoke or dust.

A routine PIREP is coded UA, and contains items that don’t present a potential hazard to flight.

An urgent PIREP is coded UUA and contains reports of conditions that are hazardous to flight, including tornadoes, funnel clouds, or waterspouts, severe or extreme turbulence, severe icing, hail, volcanic ash, low-level wind shear (LLWS), airspeed fluctuations of 10 knots or more within 2,000 feet of the surface, and any other weather phenomena reported that’s considered by the controller to be hazardous, or potentially hazardous, to flight operations.

When reading an urgent PIREP, take note of what type of aircraft is reporting. That moderate turbulence reported by a Boeing 737 on climbout from the municipal airport will likely be something akin to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in a Cessna 182.

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