FAA Weather

[bob turner]

I have used FSS since 1962. They are still very polite folks, but it seems like all they can do is read stuff off of a computer screen. I can get more of an overview from the stupid newspaper.

I have tried the FAA computer sites, but they too are set up for METAR/TAF, whatever that is. I used to be able to get the big picture from the wad of sequences the dispatchers attached to the release, and dropping in to an FSS would give a wonderful overview, with that full color chalkboard they had and the weather savvy each briefer seemed to have.

What do you guys who do long Cub cross-countries use for extended weather guesstimation? Is a 496 the only answer now?

[Clyde and Susan]

Try this one. It is what we use in additional to the 396 with XM radio/weather. http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/ ...Clyde

[d.grimm]

Fltplan.com

[bob turner]

Clyde - I like it. Added to favorites.

I'll check on fltplan.com. Thanks!

[oldbaldguy]

Go to your browser and type in ADDS, then select the aviation weather site from whatever comes up. There is most likely a simpler way to get there, but that is how I've been doing it for years. ADDS lets you look at current weather radar, satellite, prog charts, winds and temps and so on for the entire country all at once or in segments. It will also allow you to put radar maps in motion which helps determine what is headed where and how fast. The site also will allow you to access airport weather if you have the 3 or 4 digit designator. It's pretty intuitive and I like it a lot for planning long cross countries.

[Clyde and Susan]

Oldbaldguy, I like that one also. I made an icon for my desk top to bring it up. Thanks, ...Clyde

[Clyde and Susan]

Duplicate deleted...

[JP]

intellicast.com

Terrific and timely information all in one place. The charts are excellent and you can run the surface analysis forward in time for forecasting.

Seems like most of the airports we hit have a computer with WSI and the internet, so we're always checking as we go along to help make decisions. In a Cub you've got some time to do that...

When I fly with a buddy who flies for one of those fracs he brings his Company Crackberry, which gives us airborne access to real time radar, METARS etc. Kind of nice when skirting showers in a Cub.

I think the old Richard Collins truism about weather being what you are flying in right now is even more true when you are going cross country in a Cub.

As for briefings, last one I got for a cross country included cities and airports thousands of miles from my 200 mile route....and I sure do miss the briefing summary recordings that the folks at the local FSS used to put up throughout the day. They are sorely missed. It's tough to believe you can't get the best regional weather experts on the phone anymore...

[willyb]

I use the NOAA site and aviation weather.gov.We should have never let them close the Flight Service stations.We had the best information system and we let the morons in Washington mess with it.
Lockheed has done a disservice to the aviation community with the way they have handled this.
The ONLY reason I call now is to be on record for TFR and Notam info.I certainly have not received a good weather briefing since the changeover and most don't seem to know much about aviation.
Bill

[Seaworthy]

http://aviationweather.gov/

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/aviation2.shtml

http://adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov/metars/

http://adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov/radar/

http://www.weather.gov/outlook_tab.php

(ABOVE URL) Excellent for seeing what's happening in 1,2,3,4,5 days

http://aviationweather.gov/std_brief/

Hope this helps. I don't bother with FAA weather briefs since last spring due to a REAL bad experience as the result of this consolidation debacle. I do my own.

The above URL's will answer any weather question you may have. You can also go to your own NOAA weather office and see if they have a "discussions" section/tab on the left of the website. This is where your local forecasters write their own professional opinions and forecast summaries. Here in Boston/Taunton our forecasters are very candid and interesting. You will pick up the weather shorthand after a while. I'll put the Boston/Taunton URL in as an example.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/product.php?...&highlight=off

[Seaworthy]

Willy and others.

Last April I flew down to South Texas from MA. I'll just relate that THIS was the weekend that the FAA began closing the FSS and all of the FSS in SW, USA. The only briefer I could get was a guy in Virginia and this is the God's gospel truth, he did not know where Houston or Corpus Christi, Texas was located (I was flying this particular leg from Alexandria, LA). He gave me a long rambling incoherent brief. I launched based on the info provided----it wasn't that bad.. Houston is class B so I was talking to approach control. Twenty minutes from destination I'm down to 700 feet (ceiling 1000) and and two miles vis in rain showers. The controllers were very accommodating and were aware that the FSS had closed. Apparently I was not the first customer that day that got bum info. The following day was was worse. I have never called FSS for info other than TFR and NOTAMS since. AOPA got all over FAA about this. Apparently some improvement was made, but from what I gather, no one calls FSS any longer. This FSS consolidation has been a catastrophe. FORGET calling on 122.2. If you get someone on the radio, they have no idea where on the planet you are and have zero local knowledge . What in God's name were they thinking?

[oldbaldguy]

Seems to me that the folks in charge got exactly what they wanted -- out of the business. And Lockheed got what it wanted -- another fat government contract for nothing. Lockheed subbed the FSSes out to Computer Sciences Corporation which was looking for another big gov contract of its own at the time because it was losing a pretty big one at the Missile Defense Agency. CSC is an organization known mainly for its geeks and for sponsoring a high dollar bicycle team, so there should be no surprise why nobody they hired knows anything about aviation weather. I mean, after all, how much of a factor is weather when the only flying you've done is Microsoft Flight Sim? I use the products everyone listed above and my own MkII Eyeballs and do just fine.

[willyb]

Tom I have had similar issues with the weather briefers.Several times I have had briefers that had no clue where I was geographically even after giving them the airport Identifier and city and state.
One day I had a briefer tell me it was 14,000 scattered as I stood under my wing to stay out of the rain.
OUR tax dollars in action.
I would settle for a TFR hotline answered by a real person who not only understood aviation but really cared about doing a good job.
Anybody know if Lockheed is paying more than minimum wage?
Bill

[oldbaldguy]

Lockheed paid CSC less than the value of the overall contract because they had to make a profit. CSC pays its employees less than what Lockheed agreed to pay the company because CSC can't lose money on the job either, so the piece of the pie gets smaller the farther you are down the food chain. I'm betting the guys in the cubes staring at computer screens all day don't make much at all -- remember the whole plan here was to take warm bodies out of the equation in order to save money and increase proficiency. When I worked for CSC, they paid me very well and offered decent benefits but I was a rocket scientist of sorts. I'm betting they don't pay the geeks they hired for this gig very much at all.

[Seaworthy]

On my return trip from TX to MA on two occasions I spoke with folks who English was a second language. One briefer became indignant because I could not understand her and asked to speak with an English speaking briefer. I was very polite about it. She finally relented and let me speak with someone more proficient in English.

I'm to understand that they are "losing" flight plans at an alarming rate as well. I don't suppose FAA would cave and re open FSS in areas with very changeable areas, like the east coast and Pacific NW.

[mvivion]

The FSS System will never return to government operation, I'd bet.

It's finally nice to hear someone on a public forum note that the service provided by government workers was actually superior to that provided by a private contractor.

Unfortunately, it's too late. I've still got a bug in my blanket with AOPA on this one, cause those folks pushed real hard to make the privatization happen, and it was just wrong, in my opinion. The management there in their jet/twin/bonanza's could care less, cause none of them had called FSS in a while, I'd bet. They were big advocates of DUATS, and you could see the writing on the wall then, that the FSS system was being sold down the river by FAA and AOPA.

As to the recent disconnects, Lockheed Martin has gotten the message, and service has improved over the last few months. Part of the problem was the further consolidation. You guys do understand that the ultimate goal is to have ONE big AFSS, right?

In any case, the only way you can get on record as having received a briefing (and TFR's loom large on that issue) is with DUATS or AFSS.

I use the ADDS site to pretty much self brief, then call FSS to get it on record, and in the event I missed something.

Sometimes they catch something I miss.

But, it will never be like the "old days" again.

I remember pulling into Tanana on skis in a Cub, at around -30 or so. Parked next to the FSS, used their restroom, then jumped back in the Cub. Got it started, but skis froze down. Grrrr...

Then a voice came on the radio...."N724, standby a minute, I'll be right out". The FSS guy put on his coat, came out and jostled the wing till my skis broke loose, and off I went. I called on the way out to thank him, and his response was "Just remember, if this consolidation thing goes through, that'll never happen again".

Amen.

MTV

MTV

[nanook]

That sounds like something that Dave would have said, he's retired... John is still at it down in the room with no windows in FAI where they "consolidated" /transferred them from Tanana....

[Seaworthy]

The guys at FSS Bridgeport, CT knew all of the idiosyncrasies of our local weather, and we have a bunch. They were promised that would remain one of the sole outposts because of the local weather and the amount of traffic generated and the myriad airfields. They were in fact one of the first to be closed. Another chapter in GA has closed.

[hooligan]

This site is different Bob and a great place to start. All is in simple English. You do not have to refer to the cheat sheets to decipher the information...LOL!


http://weather.noaa.gov/weather

I have tried the FAA computer sites, but they too are set up for METAR/TAF, whatever that is.

[Torch]

The FSS System will never return to government operation, I'd bet.

It's finally nice to hear someone on a public forum note that the service provided by government workers was actually superior to that provided by a private contractor.

Unfortunately, it's too late. I've still got a bug in my blanket with AOPA on this one, cause those folks pushed real hard to make the privatization happen, and it was just wrong, in my opinion. The management there in their jet/twin/bonanza's could care less, cause none of them had called FSS in a while, I'd bet. They were big advocates of DUATS, and you could see the writing on the wall then, that the FSS system was being sold down the river by FAA and AOPA.

As to the recent disconnects, Lockheed Martin has gotten the message, and service has improved over the last few months. Part of the problem was the further consolidation. You guys do understand that the ultimate goal is to have ONE big AFSS, right?

In any case, the only way you can get on record as having received a briefing (and TFR's loom large on that issue) is with DUATS or AFSS.

I use the ADDS site to pretty much self brief, then call FSS to get it on record, and in the event I missed something.

Sometimes they catch something I miss.

But, it will never be like the "old days" again.

I remember pulling into Tanana on skis in a Cub, at around -30 or so. Parked next to the FSS, used their restroom, then jumped back in the Cub. Got it started, but skis froze down. Grrrr...

Then a voice came on the radio...."N724, standby a minute, I'll be right out". The FSS guy put on his coat, came out and jostled the wing till my skis broke loose, and off I went. I called on the way out to thank him, and his response was "Just remember, if this consolidation thing goes through, that'll never happen again".

Amen.

MTV

MTV

Mike,

Those guys that helped you at Tanana work in the Fairbanks AFSS today. Alaskans should take note, they still have the government AFSS and FSS's. If you want to keep your AFSS's and FSS's you should let your elected officials know immediately. It doesn't hurt to let them know how much you need their services. I work the Fairbanks AFSS, Kotzebue FSS and the Nome FSS. I just spent about a half hour briefing a new Bering Air pilot on the procedures at Kotzebue. That isn't available in the lower 49 anymore.

I was working in the Kotzebue FSS one day when a call came in from a pilot to help him assist in rescuing a guy that was being washed out to sea in heavy surf. My coworker and I discussed who should go. My coworker is 13 years younger than me and is a weight lifter. We decided it would be best if he went because he has better upper body strength than I do. Jim rode out to the scene with the float plane pilot. They landed in such heavy surf the pilot thought the C206 was damaged. Because of the high winds and the heavy surf the pilot had to remain at the controls to keep the float plane facing into the wind. My coworker Jim got out on the floats and was able to haul the individual onto the floats and eventually into the aircraft. The victim had tried to cross a stream on his 4 wheeler and was washed out into the heavy surf. The currents were taking him out to sea. The guy was hanging onto his 4 wheeler which was barely afloat. When Jim pulled the guy onto the floats of the plane the 4 wheeler sank. In Alaska we will not only help you push your ski plane but if we have to we will risk our lives to save yours. Jim was sent to Washington D.C. after that and received a medal from the Director of Transportation. He also received a maritime rescue award from the Red Cross and the Governor of Alaska. I just gotta figure you will NEVER get that kind of service from a contracted FSS. We also have helped pilots remove bear attack victims from their planes and assist getting them to the hospital. Several times we have caught pilots before they landed gear up. I can go on but a contracted AFSS/FSS isn't going to do that. They don't have the people on the airfield like we do in Alaska.

[mghallen]

For the record I am the new Bering pilot Don, and I will expect....
1 help deicing
2 help loading
3 maybe you running the ground cart
4 brief the pax
5 a SVFR
6 a cup of warm coffee, when you are doing all of that.

Well privatization don't always work, call your Rep.! or figure out an upgrade to your wx eye.

[Torch]

For the record I am the new Bering pilot Don, and I will expect....
1 help deicing
2 help loading
3 maybe you running the ground cart
4 brief the pax
5 a SVFR
6 a cup of warm coffee, when you are doing all of that.

Well privatization don't always work, call your Rep.! or figure out an upgrade to your wx eye.

Mike are you really coming back to work for Bering? It would be good to hear you back out in the BUE. I was issuing a bunch of SVFR's yesterday. Right up til the time the blizzard hit hard. Alaska Airlines had to get the state boys out to sand the runway just so they could takeoff yesterday afternoon. State boys always do a great job here. They worked their azzes off so the jet could get out of here. We still have lots of snow piled everywhere around the ramp after the blizzard. If you are coming back out west let me know when you will get here.

[JP]

This site is different Bob and a great place to start. All is in simple English. You do not have to refer to the cheat sheets to decipher the information...LOL!


http://weather.noaa.gov/weather

I have tried the FAA computer sites, but they too are set up for METAR/TAF, whatever that is.

Last time I took an FAA test (commercial and LSA CFI) I noticed that those strange weather thingies called METARS and TAFS were on it, along with a whole bunch of other outdated information. Wouldn't it be great if the FAA worked in the same flying environment we do? Then I wouldn't have to own a 1947 airplane just to keep up with them... :P

[bob turner]

Thanks to all. I am at least struck by the fact that most of you have found the same problems with the new FSS. The folks who answer the phone are very nice, but they are actually a hinderance now. The 496 is going in the Cub for the next cross-country. And I have stored the sites I find easiest to use from the above selections. Thanks again!

[gdrean]

I have had similar problems as those posted above. I finally broke down and subscribed to Weathermeister.com. Accessible through any internet connection the information is all in english, with graphics, with current Atis (Metars) and terminal forecasts (TAF) out as far as a 200 mile radius. This is an enhanced version of the old rvproject.com/wx. there is a cost, info here;


http://www.weathermeister.com/about.jsp


There is still a free version, but lacks some of the features of the pay version. (Has ads and stuff I believe)

www.weathermeister.com/free

I was impressed that the guy that put this together had info for free for quite some time, and as more folks started using it, he kept upgrading his equipment on his own nickle until he finally had to charge. Basically brings many weather sources together in one place.

I bet if enough folks were interested Steve J could set up something with the guy for a supercub.org discount, maybe get him as an advertiser, or at least have any referral $$ go to supercub.org.


Gary

[mvivion]

As an aside, it is interesting to note that for many years, the FAA's own flight department used a contract weather provider, rather than their own FSS system. I don't know if that's still true, but I'm betting it is.

MTV

[bob turner]

I just looked at Gary's suggestion. Payment is almost trivial - five bucks a month. But the ADDS system seems easy enough, even though I haven't mastered the long-term forecasting bit yet. I am gazing at the west coast as I type, and am seeing VFR, but low ceilings and snow showers in lots of places. Certainly is easier than dealing with FSS.

I was surprised at how difficult it was to get FSS weather, but as somebody above noted, the changeover was apparently very recent. I seldom have need for weather beyond the pattern or the aileron roll airspace, which is ten miles from my hangar.

I will probably join the checkoway site for a month - just so I can instantaneously pull the entire route up multiple times a week. No more scud running for this guy . . .

[jls]

Another one to check TFR's is:

http://tfr.faa.gov/tfr_map_ims/html/index.html

Jerry in NC