WTF is a forecast weather briefing?

JaceTheAce

JaceTheAce

Well-Known Member
Grand Forks FSS is confusing me. All I wanted was an "Outlook VFR weather briefing" for a flight 6 hours from now...simple enough right? The guy said he was confused as to what exactly I wanted. I said "well, an outlook VFR wx briefing since I'm going to be flying more than 6 hours from now". He said "then you need to request a Forecast Weather Briefing"... what the hell is this? Never heard of it. lol
 
A forecast weather briefing is for weather in the future. When you ask for one, the briefer will give you the area forecast, TAF's, general trends of pressure systems and fronts. He may in fact tell you "Outlook VFR" if thats what the forecast predicts. Your options with flight service are "Standard", "Forecast" and "Abbreviated" when it comes to briefings.
 
casey said:
A forecast weather briefing is for weather in the future. When you ask for one, the briefer will give you the area forecast, TAF's, general trends of pressure systems and fronts. He may in fact tell you "Outlook VFR" if thats what the forecast predicts. Your options with flight service are "Standard", "Forecast" and "Abbreviated" when it comes to briefings.
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But it's Standard, Outlook, and Abbreviated, not "Forecast". The FSS guy was trying to correct me that it was not "Outlook".
 
I have seen a noticeable change since Lockheed took over. Back in the day every briefer I talked to was very knowledgeable, friendly and professional. Since then a notice a mix of some that still are this way, those that are clueless about aviation but still attempt to do their job and are nice, and the total tools that are petty, rude, and act like pimple-faced CSR's for Fry's Electronics.
 
BrettInLJ said:
I have seen a noticeable change since Lockheed took over. Back in the day every briefer I talked to was very knowledgeable, friendly and professional. Since then a notice a mix of some that still are this way, those that are clueless about aviation but still attempt to do their job and are nice, and the total tools that are petty, rude, and act like pimple-faced CSR's for Fry's Electronics.
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I got my ear yakked off by a very helpful, though slightly annoying, FSS briefer.

He told me every bit of weather info. for every airport that was w/in 100 miles of my flight path...I kinda just wanted him to get on with it and give me the highlights and not EVERY SINGLE LITTLE DETAIL!!!

Anyway, the forecast still wasn't like predicted and I got halfway there before I had to turn back. What sucked is I was making such good time, gs was 165mph in a 172m. On the way back it was only 130 something but I've done a lot worse.
 
I have had no troubles with the new FSS's. I think the briefers are great, sometimes they give me too much info, but hey its all good.
 
The best is when you call for an "update on the radar picture", and they give you the current observations" for every airport within 90 miles.

At the end of the speech, you're still asking, "So . . . how does the radar look??".
 
mtsu_av8er said:
The best is when you call for an "update on the radar picture", and they give you the current observations" for every airport within 90 miles.

At the end of the speech, you're still asking, "So . . . how does the radar look??".
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YES, so true....it's happened to me a few times....when in short all I wanted was a general idea of the radar echoes...
 
There's a whole lot of other info out there if you don't want to get a full brief from the FSS. I haven't noticed a change in any of the FSS that I have contacted. Most of them are the same employee, now they are just under Lockheed Martin from what I understand.

If you don't want to talk to someone, punch up aviationweather.gov, decipher the picture yourself and then only call the FSS to flie...
 
N422NM said:
There's a whole lot of other info out there if you don't want to get a full brief from the FSS. I haven't noticed a change in any of the FSS that I have contacted. Most of them are the same employee, now they are just under Lockheed Martin from what I understand.

If you don't want to talk to someone, punch up aviationweather.gov, decipher the picture yourself and then only call the FSS to flie...
Click to expand...

enter, DUATS.

all the data, none of the chitchat.

i love it, use it every time.
 
Every flight!

I will say, however, that until I really understand how to interpret the weather information in a DUAT briefinf until I had a really strong understanding of WX products. So, break those books out, study hard, and DIY!!!
 
i like the "i'd like an abbreviated briefing, please. I'm looking for the TAF at KXXX between XXX and XXX" and get a full briefing. Thank you, helpful, but not what I asked for.
 
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