1-800-wx-brief

I call them about 4 times a week. They know our tail numbers so it's never really an issue unless you said "Any" and it gives you to Hawaii FSS or something.

RD
 
In my experience, it was better. Not perfect, but much better. Bored civil servants who know what they're talking about vs. Bored keyboard monkeys who don't. For the most part.
 
I personally only had a few bad experience with the service, and that is when the briefer would get impatient with my pre-private student who was trying to take down as much information as possible. But otherwise they are okay, even though i usually get my all briefings from DUATS and weather from other sources. and yea thank god for blackberries and smartphones. :)
 
i really like when i am in the air and try to close a flight plan, and get put on standby for 15 minutes, then when i finally can talk with them they tell me i am overdue because i didn't call earlier. UM, hello, you put me on standby!
 
I always get a freindly person.

The only problem once, was they failed to close my flight plan and I had a very angry KBED tower and FBO to deal with.
 
No useful information from them anymore. They just read the TAF, METAR, and NOTAMS. Often they don't even read all the NOTAMS, or they read them wrong (dates and times, etc). DUATS and AWC are better. I hear fltplan.com is good too, I might have to try that out...
 
I noticed that more of my flight plans kept getting dropped. As a matter of fact, it happened on my instrument checkride. Lucky for me the examiner understood. He also expressed some dissatisfaction about the way things were run.
 
I called and closed a VFR one, then ten minutes later I get a call from them looking for me... which seems to be the trend.. That was my one and only VFR flight plan filed.
 
unclenobby said:
I've never had any problems with them.
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That is super rare. I got a wx briefing after the really bad weather moved through MEM on Friday and it took 15 mins for them to tell me that the weather was bad but had pushed east of Memphis area. Not that I hadn't be standing in a small blue shed the whole time that I saw it push through.

TFaudree_ERAU said:
Honestly, I don't believe there is anything WX-BRIEF can give you that isn't easily accessible on the internet. Unless you're out in Podunk, USA without the net, I see no reason to waste my time.
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:yeahthat:

AirmetTango said:
I avoid Lock-Mart flight service whenever possible.
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:yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat:

BCTAv8r said:
Having never used the service pre-LM, how was it? Was it more concise?
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It was staffed by people who were honest government employees that actually were taught by people who had done the job for 20+ years and not 2 months. The only thing that I am glad they got rid of with the old system is L NOTAMs. Having to call two or three different FSS stations sucked. Then again have a direct cell phone call list for all of the FSS stations around the US was awesome! I used to know just by looking at the L-Chart or Sectional which one I needed to call by the closest VOR that had a FSS station attached to it.
 
I had to be safety pilot for a really bad pilot (nice guy, but tried to kill me more than a pre solo student :) ) and we landed and I closed the flight plan. Needless to say they never closed it and my boss thought we crashed. He was glad I wasn't dead when we got back, tower wasn't happy, and I'm not a fan of Lockheed...
 
I've had pretty good luck with them, actually. I don't file too many flight plans with them, but I've found that if I ask for specific information only, that's what they give me, and then they offer to provide me more. I decline, everyone's cool.

Haven't even had a problem with the system recognizing me when I say "Texas" and "Eastern Texas."
 
I use wx brief almost daily and I never had a problem. Never had to wait more then 2 minutes. I usually file and get weather on fltplan's site as well, as well as avationweather.gov Am I the only one that uses 3 sources every single flight? hehe There are certain features I like from all three.
 
Could it be systemic to the area/region or perhaps the shift the briefer worked? In Texas, I've not had any issues.
 
The only time I've had a problem with them is when I was a pre private pilot I called to get a wx briefing before a flight (30 mile flight I might add)...the guy was pissed at me cause I didn't tell him stuff for the flight plan in the right order...I ended up hanging up and calling again to get a different briefer...pissed me off...to this day I havent used them unless I absolutely have to. I usually use DUATS to file because they always type something in wrong on my IFR flight plan.:mad:
 
DPApilot said:
I had to be safety pilot for a really bad pilot (nice guy, but tried to kill me more than a pre solo student :) ) and we landed and I closed the flight plan. Needless to say they never closed it and my boss thought we crashed. He was glad I wasn't dead when we got back, tower wasn't happy, and I'm not a fan of Lockheed...
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How often do you fly with pre-solo students? I also see you removed your sig.... your stories seem a bit advantageous....

RD
 
DPApilot said:
I had to be safety pilot for a really bad pilot (nice guy, but tried to kill me more than a pre solo student :) ) and we landed and I closed the flight plan. Needless to say they never closed it and my boss thought we crashed. He was glad I wasn't dead when we got back, tower wasn't happy, and I'm not a fan of Lockheed...
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rd757 said:
How often do you fly with pre-solo students? I also see you removed your sig.... your stories seem a bit advantageous....

RD
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You don't have to fly with a pre-solo student to know they're not that great of pilots...
 
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