How do you check Weather / NOTAMs / TFRs?

[WardHolbrook]

Personally, if I've got access to a computer I will go to FltPlan.com for everything - Flight Planning, Weather, Notams, TFRs, etc. It's one stop shopping. Once I've completed my flight planning it's a simple matter to print it all out. I do it at home, at the FBO or at the hotel as the occasion dictates. I can't remember when the last time I called Flight Service to get a briefing, that's always my fall back position. There is one other consideration that pilots of turbojet aircraft have to deal with. Takeoff and Landing Data (TOLD) cards need to be filled out for each takeoff and landing. The Vspeeds can vary greatly and must be calculated for each and every takeoff and landing. I've found that the hourly temperature forecasts on Weather.com are quite accurate and certainly accurate enough for planning takeoff performance on those occasions when you need to know prior to getting to the airport.   

[Marauder]

I get and check everything on my Garmin Pilot. As you go through multiple sources over the time you find out that they all produce the same results. It make sense of course. It is just the way how you use the product. Diffrent people peel bananas different way with the same result.

Notams are hardest. I go through them as much as I can and I still missed McGuire clearence delivery frequency outage this morning. It took me pretty long time to realize that before I call them on the phone.

Bob -- I'm a Garmin Pilot user as well. Most of the pertinent NOTAM information for your departure and destination can be found in the "Terminal Weather" section of the briefing section. Does a pretty good job of the important ones. Much easier than going through the pages of NOTAM.

[N601RX]

I'd disagree. The reg differentiates between IFR and VFR but not short or long (however that might be defined)

Aim 7-1 defines vicinity as 5-10 surface miles in regards to weather. 91.103 also uses the phrase "in the vicinity of AN airport", which is not necessarily the same as saying your departure or home airport. This would suggest that as long as the airports you are flying between are not more than 20 miles apart you would be legal to fly between these or even on to a 3rd airport which was no more than 20 miles past the 2nd airport.

[schule]

Both seems to work well. Apps are great for graphical depictions of the info an FSS briefer gives you.

BTW you can talk to those guys in person at most big (>4000' long) Alaska airports. Ketchikan FSS has a great view of the harbor and airport if you stop through.

[flyboy0681]

Of all the sources available, I still go to DUATS first since it officially logs your request. Of all the products out there, I'm not sure which could serve as an office source of information in the unlikely event the feds come knocking at my door.

 

After my official DUATS briefing I use Weathermeister, which is truly a remarkable site. It allows me to get a very clear picture of the route by reporting current conditions along the way. And their fuel estimates are accurate almost to the ounce. 

[mooniac15u]

Of all the sources available, I still go to DUATS first since it officially logs your request. Of all the products out there, I'm not sure which could serve as an office source of information in the unlikely event the feds come knocking at my door.

 

After my official DUATS briefing I use Weathermeister, which is truly a remarkable site. It allows me to get a very clear picture of the route by reporting current conditions along the way. And their fuel estimates are accurate almost to the ounce. 

 

The FAA canceled the Qualified Internet Communication Provider program in 2013 so DUATS is no longer an "official" weather source(http://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/Cancellation_Memno_AC_00-62.pdf).  The only guidance on briefings is now FAR 91.103 which is pretty ambiguous.

 

DUATS is still probably a good idea since they presumably still retain a record of your briefing even though they are no longer required to do so.

[1964-M20E]

DUATS and other soruces.

I make myself aware of the things necessary to conduct a safe flight.

[midlifeflyer]

The FAA canceled the Qualified Internet Communication Provider program in 2013 so DUATS is no longer an "official" weather source(http://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/Cancellation_Memno_AC_00-62.pdf).  The only guidance on briefings is now FAR 91.103 which is pretty ambiguous.

 

DUATS is still probably a good idea since they presumably still retain a record of your briefing even though they are no longer required to do so.

 

I think it's slightly more than that. QICP was a program that gave a stamp of approval to providers for the quality of their online distribution systems. There is still plenty of FAA guidance on what a weather briefing involves, from the AIM to the PHAK to AC 00-45G - Aviation Weather Services. And a whole series of FAA weather products. Don't check an FAA TAF and have a problem because of missing something that was in it, and one will quickly find out what a "official" briefing is. ForeFlight just came out with MOS-based forecasts, a very useful tool with a big diclaimer - don't use it for alternate planning purposes. That's what TAFs and Area Forecasts are for.

 

"Official weather source" has never meant that much. AFAIK, there has never been a "requirement" to have a recorded weather briefing. Recording is merely evidence in an enforcement proceeding that you looked at the group of FAA weather products in preparation for your flight. That hasn't changed.

[Marauder]

The FAA canceled the Qualified Internet Communication Provider program in 2013 so DUATS is no longer an "official" weather source(http://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/Cancellation_Memno_AC_00-62.pdf). The only guidance on briefings is now FAR 91.103 which is pretty ambiguous.

DUATS is still probably a good idea since they presumably still retain a record of your briefing even though they are no longer required to do so.

I didn't realize this was the case. If the DUATS providers decide not to continue recording your access, the only actual documentation of your attempt to obtain a briefing would be a FSS. Since Garmin Pilot, ForeFlight and WingX (and others) all connect through DUATS, I wonder if they maintain a record of the interaction somewhere in the app.

[flyboy0681]

I remember reading about this very subject recently in AOPA Pilot and here is what an October 2014 article had to say about the subject:

 

Let’s start with FAR 91.103, which requires pilots to become familiar with “all available” information regarding the flight. That’s reasonable enough, but where should we go to find aviation-specific information about the weather? The short answer is through the FAA Direct User Access Terminal (DUAT) system or a flight service station, although this raises a question: What if you receive weather information via a third-party provider or a website that offers aviation weather? Even though you complied with the federal aviation regulations, there may be no record of you having obtained a weather brief prior to going flying.

Therein lies the rub. In recent months, AOPA’s Air Safety Institute has analyzed an increasing number of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) aviation accidents where the NTSB was unable to determine whether the pilot obtained a weather briefing for the flight. The language reads similar to this: “Direct User Access Terminal system records show the pilot filed an IFR flight plan with the FAA. However, there was no record that the pilot obtained a weather briefing from DUATS, or from flight service. According to the pilot's wife, the pilot typically obtained preflight weather information from aviationweather.gov, but that web site does not retain records of user access. The investigation was unable to determine whether or how the pilot obtained weather information regarding his planned flight.”

The point is this: If your weather briefing (including notams) isn’t recorded or “provable,” it’s difficult to defend yourself if, let’s say, you busted a temporary flight restriction (TFR) or didn’t comply with a notam that had been issued affecting your route of flight.

Here are some general rules of thumb to keep in mind:

• Any call to an FSS briefer is recorded.
• Any briefing that you obtain through your individual DTC DUAT or CSC DUATS account is recorded.
• Briefings from websites or apps that require you to log in with a unique username and password to obtain a full briefing for a flight will most likely be recorded.
  • Anytime a briefing gets emailed to you, retain it in your records.
• Briefings from websites or apps that do not require you to log in with a unique username and password will not be recorded.
• If you’re just looking up local weather and notam information on the Internet, take screen shots of that information to keep in your records—it might be helpful to prove that you looked up the information and the date and time you did.

[Marauder]

I remember reading about this very subject recently in AOPA Pilot and here is what an October 2014 article had to say about the subject:

Let’s start with FAR 91.103, which requires pilots to become familiar with “all available” information regarding the flight. That’s reasonable enough, but where should we go to find aviation-specific information about the weather? The short answer is through the FAA Direct User Access Terminal (DUAT) system or a flight service station, although this raises a question: What if you receive weather information via a third-party provider or a website that offers aviation weather? Even though you complied with the federal aviation regulations, there may be no record of you having obtained a weather brief prior to going flying.

Therein lies the rub. In recent months, AOPA’s Air Safety Institute has analyzed an increasing number of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) aviation accidents where the NTSB was unable to determine whether the pilot obtained a weather briefing for the flight. The language reads similar to this: “Direct User Access Terminal system records show the pilot filed an IFR flight plan with the FAA. However, there was no record that the pilot obtained a weather briefing from DUATS, or from flight service. According to the pilot's wife, the pilot typically obtained preflight weather information from aviationweather.gov, but that web site does not retain records of user access. The investigation was unable to determine whether or how the pilot obtained weather information regarding his planned flight.”

The point is this: If your weather briefing (including notams) isn’t recorded or “provable,” it’s difficult to defend yourself if, let’s say, you busted a temporary flight restriction (TFR) or didn’t comply with a notam that had been issued affecting your route of flight.

Here are some general rules of thumb to keep in mind:

• Any call to an FSS briefer is recorded.
• Any briefing that you obtain through your individual DTC DUAT or CSC DUATS account is recorded.
• Briefings from websites or apps that require you to log in with a unique username and password to obtain a full briefing for a flight will most likely be recorded.
  • Anytime a briefing gets emailed to you, retain it in your records.
• Briefings from websites or apps that do not require you to log in with a unique username and password will not be recorded.
• If you’re just looking up local weather and notam information on the Internet, take screen shots of that information to keep in your records—it might be helpful to prove that you looked up the information and the date and time you did.

Hmmm. Still doesn't answer if a specific app does record the briefing. In Garmin Pilot it asks for my CSC DUATS login information, so I guess that would make it recorded with CSC. Thanks for posting this.

[scottfromiowa]

DUATS on Ipad. Never use a live briefer anymore. Garmin Pilot for current terminal conditions and inflight weather. I much prefer my own briefing. A LOT of extraneous in a live briefer that I do not value. YMMV.

[scottfromiowa]

Bob -- I'm a Garmin Pilot user as well. Most of the pertinent NOTAM information for your departure and destination can be found in the "Terminal Weather" section of the briefing section. Does a pretty good job of the important ones. Much easier than going through the pages of NOTAM.

BINGO!!!!

+1

[mooniac15u]

I didn't realize this was the case. If the DUATS providers decide not to continue recording your access, the only actual documentation of your attempt to obtain a briefing would be a FSS. Since Garmin Pilot, ForeFlight and WingX (and others) all connect through DUATS, I wonder if they maintain a record of the interaction somewhere in the app.

 

Any app that accesses DUATS with your ID should end up creating a record in the DUATS system.  The DUATS providers will almost certainly continue to keep records of briefings as long as the program is funded by the FAA.  Unfortunately, the future of DUATS funding is uncertain at the moment.  The contracts were scheduled to end last fall and were only extended to March of 2015.  I don't know how much of that was related to general budget uncertainty in Washington but the cancellation of the QICP program is not a good sign for the future of DUATS.

[Bob_Belville]

I moved from CSC DUATS to FltPlan.com. It is a one stop site for everything I need. Plan flights and store for future use. Get flight specific wx briefings several times before flight. File flights, get email notification confirming flight is on file, get email advising probable routing. (I need to program FSS into phone just in case... have not talked to a live briefer in 25 years.)

[jlunseth]

I use a bunch of resources, it depends on the nature of the flight and the probable weather.  First I look at the weather on Foreflight to get a general idea.  Foreflight has a very handy feature that lets you put in a course and then pull up the winds aloft on that course at every altitude, which will often determine what altitude you will fly at.  The Surface Analysis and Prog Charts plus a look at radar and satellite will generally tell me how deep I am going to have to dig.  If there is a big "H" over the upper Midwest and it is summer, I don't need to look much further.  If there are fronts over the route, or something on radar, or a big blossom on the route showing on satellite, then I know I am going to have to dig further.  If it is winter, icing is always going to be a concern regardless of pressures and clear skies, and I always dig further.  Digging further means looking at TAFs at airports along the route, the Area Forecast, some Skew T's, and likely the Adds Flight Path Tool.  Cloud tops are really important to me.  Being turbocharged, my most frequent strategy is to get above whatever weather is going on except the large convective tops that I can't beat.  So I want a really good read on cloud tops all along the route, and that is what the Skew T's and Flight Path Tool are good for.  Infrared also helps.  Once I have my route planned and a good handle on the weather, then I call FSS.  FSS has gotten a lot better in the last five years, meaning that their briefings seem to be much more route specific than they used to be, but I still find that I can't always figure out what is relevant in the FSS briefing unless I have done my homework in advance.  For example, there might be a huge thunderstorm front that has just passed the airport and my route of flight is into the clear weather to the west.  FSS will still spend a lot of time on that front that is 20 miles east and no longer relevant, so if you don't know the details and just listen to FSS, you will scrub some flights for no good reason.  On one notable occasion when I was still VFR only, we were at a friends cabin in northern Minnesota wanting to fly home to Minneapolis about 150 miles south.  FSS was reporting low ceilings over pretty much the entire state, including our location.  Looking out the window, the "low ceilings" were just morning burn off, there was no cloud cover at all and just some wisps to get to blue sky.  But they can only report what they are given I guess.  FSS is excellent for NOTAMS and TFRs however, and I always make the call to them before flight so I have a record of what I was told.  There are so many pop up TFRs now that you can't just go out and lark around for any reason without that briefing, even on an excellent weather day.  I heard another pilot get a radio call with the fateful phone number to call on landing once, he had taken a course on my exact route of flight, but about ten miles east of me, and blundered into a stadium pop up TFR that was new in our area at the time.  We have had so many VIP TFRs in the last couple of years, I just don't go anywhere without a TFR report from FSS, and you still need to be careful, they typically don't tell you about stadium pop up TFRs unless you ask. 

 

I have SatWX on the panel, and the panel also shows TFR's.  I have to say that other than cloud tops, once I am in the air, where I go and what I do to deal with weather is dictated virtually 100% by the Mark I eyeball and what I see on the panel.  The pre-flight weather reports are just background and not very useful after the first ten minutes of flight, they have already expired as far as I am concerned.