Back In the day

S

Skyway

Well-Known Member
As a captain living in this period of time, I’m very grateful for the modern technology we have available to us. It is great to be able get on my smart phone hours before a flight to check weather, radar, flight releases, MELs, and such. This subject has me wondering though, how did pilots of yesteryear do all of this stuff before this technology existed?

Please excuse me for seeming like a moron, but was just hoping if anybody on here could shed a little light on this subject, I am genuinely interested, thank you.
 
dot_matrix.jpg


The art is in knowing how to cleanly tear the flight attendant section off using the can.
 
Oh my goodness, you just made a bunch of guys feel oooold! Time is an illusion or something, right Einstein?
All I did back in my "back in the day" was learn to fly. As a kid, I was hanging out at the airport by '87 or so and we'd call the briefer quite a bit. We didn't have a flight service nearby, so there was no walking in and getting the weather and NOTAMs in person. Not sure when it came out, but I distinctly remember good old Billy Gibson walking into the flight school with a computer system and hooking up our DUATS. Blue screen and stacks of dot matrix printer paper!
 
Heck, even in 2007 I remember having to run across the ramp DSM to look at a radar picture in ops that was on dial up apparently. It is amazing what we can do nowadays with our new cellular overlords.
 
There used to be 4 or 5 manned FSSs in AZ, and way back in the day as a young pilot, i can remember visiting them if i happened to be at the airport they were located in (i usually was) and would talk to the briefer face to face; as well as review the printouts of the radar summary or prog charts, which had been pulled off a teletype, marked up with different color markers, and tacked to the wall on top of the last few ones, so you could look and see wx trends in relation to elapsed time between them. Flight Watch was used often, as was contacting the FSS via the VOR if you couldnt get them airborne through an RCO or one wasnt available nearby. If the FSS was at an uncontrolled airport, the briefer also gave airport advisories over the CTAF. And in a pinch, they all had DF steer capability to help out the lost pilot.
 
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Skyway said:
As a captain living in this period of time, I’m very grateful for the modern technology we have available to us. It is great to be able get on my smart phone hours before a flight to check weather, radar, flight releases, MELs, and such. This subject has me wondering though, how did pilots of yesteryear do all of this stuff before this technology existed?

Please excuse me for seeming like a moron, but was just hoping if anybody on here could shed a little light on this subject, I am genuinely interested, thank you.
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Read "Fate is the Hunter"
 
MikeD said:
There used to be 4 or 5 manned FSSs in AZ, and way back in the day as a young pilot, i can remember visiting them if i happened to be at the airport they were located in (i usually was) and would talk to the briefer face to face; as well as review the printouts of the radar summary or prog charts, which had been pulled off a teletype, marked up with different color markers, and tacked to the wall on top of the last few ones, so you could look and see wx trends in relation to elapsed time between them. Flight Watch was used often, as was contacting the FSS via the VOR if you couldnt get them airborne through an RCO or one wasnt available nearby. If the FSS wat at an uncontrolled airport, the briefer also gave airport advisories over the CTAF. And in a pinch, they all had DF steer capability to help out the lost pilot.
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This still exists in AK. I stopped at the MCG FSS about 4 years ago to check on rapidly changing fire TFRs that might have been relevant.

DF steer may still exist up here, can't recall, but I have done it in the airplane before.
 
bike21 said:
Heck, even in 2007 I remember having to run across the ramp DSM to look at a radar picture in ops that was on dial up apparently. It is amazing what we can do nowadays with our new cellular overlords.
Click to expand...

I remember my girlfriend bought me a smart phone in 2009 or 2010. It fundamentally changed the aviation world for me.
 
MikeD said:
There used to be 4 or 5 manned FSSs in AZ, and way back in the day as a young pilot, i can remember visiting them if i happened to be at the airport they were located in (i usually was) and would talk to the briefer face to face; as well as review the printouts of the radar summary or prog charts, which had been pulled off a teletype, marked up with different color markers, and tacked to the wall on top of the last few ones, so you could look and see wx trends in relation to elapsed time between them. Flight Watch was used often, as was contacting the FSS via the VOR if you couldnt get them airborne through an RCO or one wasnt available nearby. If the FSS was at an uncontrolled airport, the briefer also gave airport advisories over the CTAF. And in a pinch, they all had DF steer capability to help out the lost pilot.
Click to expand...

Was Orville a cool guy or nah?
 
Man, you're making me feel old. But, here goes:

I started flying in 1986. At the time, the state of Alabama had SIX Flight Service Stations. Although we had relatively little "direct" access to weather products (i.e., real-time radar and METARs), it was extremely easy to just call FSS over the phone or radio and discuss the weather with a trained briefer. Many of the guys and gals working at Flight Service had thousands of hours looking at (paper) weather charts and reading METARs, TAFs, and NOTAMs, and were often able to provide keen insights into the weather situation. It was great having that kind of weather expertise when you needed it.

Not to get off topic here, but it's that "information versus insight" thing. In the information age, data is cheap but knowledge is priceless.

(Edit: I used the newer acronyms in my post above, mainly because I'm pretty sure nobody remembers the old ones. SA's anyone?).
 
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