I have just been watching this interesting video on a vac pump failure killing a pilot (he didn’t have a TC but possibly did have some crude T&B instrument, and there is a long list of other factore in this case – another discussion) but the first thing which struck me was that he had obtained the traditional US phone wx briefing.
I had to do that when doing the FAA IR in Arizona in 2006, and found it really hard to form a picture from it.
Surely, most US pilots today use graphical data from the internet?
I was with an experienced US pilot last week in the US and he too called that briefing number. Very hard to understand why people do this. The briefer was looking at charts that everybody has access to and going on and on. Much more effective to do it yourself on a mobile. It seems very archaic to me, back when the alternative was to receive a fax transmission with charts.
Canada has a very similar system to the US, although perhaps more helpful. In Canada you are connected to a local briefer; in Vancouver this is fantastic because almost all of you flights are either towards small islands with fog or rain, towards the mountain passes, or to remote places in deep valleys. The local briefer talks to pilots all day long and have access to weather cams and PIREPS (and might even act as an FSS for remote stations in the background).
You might be asking about the highway 3 pass through the mountains vs the highway 5 and the briefer will come back with “Weather cams show highway 3 socked in, but there are PIREPS that the cloud base over highway 5 is 1500”. If you decide to launch they often ask you to call on the radio when you are there with a PIREP. They will also have the PIREPS from the local airlines.
In this case, you will get the big picture from your own online briefing, but quick call to the briefer will finalise your view on any local details. Helpfully, in Canada, you can also store a pre-filled flight plan template on file (with aircraft and equipment codes and emergency contact info), so once you have chatted with the briefer you can ask them to file the flight plan with a minimum of fuss (as you have already given the route details!). All very helpful. I definitely call when the weather is dodgy.
In the states, I have found that Lockheed Martin, who administer the system are very helpful, but you might not get transferred to the right person. I think I spoke with someone based in Missouri whilst I was flying in Oregon. That said, I find them very useful to confirm that there are no Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) and to try and establish if any military areas are hot. On the coast you can probably raise flight services on the radio in the air, but if you are inland radio reception can be sparse and it is nice to sort it out on the ground before you leave. That being said, Foreflight is pretty sweet these days…
So yes, I think these telephone services are great (and I use them), but maybe not for the ‘big picture’ weather.
I use 1-800-wx-brief every time. Of course I can and do see the charts for myself, but it’s always good to have someone else’s input and the briefers are often able to contribute good info. Unfortunately they are not local anymore, but still often have local knowledge and occasionally recognise my home base as somewhere they trained at. Anyhow, it’s a good way to simultaneously file a VFR fpl, get the Notams and be really sure there’s no Presidential TFR anywhere along your route.
(Once the guy said “Have you heard of a place called Crawford? It’s about 50 mi off your route. Don’t go there”. I had, and I didn’t, but thanks for the reminder!)
Recently they’ve been slotting in questions prior to connecting the call about “are you aware of the Internet” and so on, so I suppose like all good things the personal briefing will come to an end.
I guess there are some old timers that dont use the web. It may seem surprising until you see just how many there are in the UK who never bother to get NOTAMS or much of a weather brief in which case the service is very convenient. Earlier this year I didnt use the telephone service at all, but for those that are web savy there are occasions a conversation with a forecaster can provide useful detailed information that might / would be difficult to establish otherwise. I have done this a few times in the UK where you pay to talk to a forecast or do so under the guise of wanting clarrifcation of a TAF and they have been absolutely brilliant and far more accurate in terms of the detail than the TAF, mostly in terms of timing and severity where, as I think we all know, and understandably the TAFs tend to be unduly cautious.
One of the reasons pilots still do is because it leaves a record of you receiving a briefing. This can prove to literally get you out of jail, should you fly into icing or inadvertent IFR and end up creating an emergency or bend something. If there’s a record showing you’ve received a briefing, and was not flying into known icing (or whatever it is), you can get out of the FAA catch-all 91.13, which is “operating an aircraft in a careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another, whether on the ground or in the air.”
There is no record when you check online.
According to the internet DUATS does record the briefings too. As avbrief.com said it does (though almost nobody uses them anymore, I reckon).
autorouter records weather briefing interactions as well and was approached by authorities for such evidence as part of aircraft accident investigations.
I think it is pretty common for an online service to keep such records.
It’s a good point. But equally, when they say “VFR flight not recommended”, which is quite often in my experience, where do you stand then? If it is due to mountain obscuration, which seems the most common reason in the West, and if I can stick to the valleys, then I’m likely to go because conditions are still better than most days in the UK!.
Otherwise, I’ll certainly pay attention to the recommendation, which might concern a low cloud base or something, and decide accordingly. But in some parts of the US, if you always stay on the ground because of ‘not recommended’, you would not fly much.
Oh and I still use Avbrief! Partly for the reason stated, ditto using the NATs AIS Notam site.
What is the qualification of the people behind 1-800-WX-BRIEF? Are they meteorologists? Do they have pilot certificates?
