I don’t do much private pilot training anymore, but when I do, I always teach my students how to get a weather briefing from the Flight Service Station. Calling in the car alleviates the main complaint I hear about calling the Flight Service Station, which is it’s inconvenient and causes a delay since you have to call them on the phone. I get a great picture of what’s going on in my area or over my route, frontal movement, bad weather areas, and whether or not it’s a good idea to even take off. On the way to the airport is a great opportunity to get a weather briefing. I have over 5,000 hours and I still call a weather briefer before almost every flight. Pilots are not fully trained on interpreting Prog Charts and getting an overall weather picture for a flight. Why does a pilot even need to call Flight Service? Well, when’s the last time you tried to interpret everything the Briefing on Foreflight told you? As I said before, it’s a lot of information and a lot of it can be confusing. The briefing part of their Flights page is quite comprehensive, with lots of information, and counts as a legal weather briefing (which pilots are still required to get before a flight). Foreflight has come a long way since it’s inception. Since the advent of Foreflight, most pilots these days get their weather briefings digitally on the iPad. 1-800-WX Brief will get you connected with a weather briefer, but you’ll hear “Leidos Flight Service Station” now when the briefer picks up. Over the past 10 years, they went from FAA run, the being bought by Lockheed Martin, to now being privately run by a company called Leidos. When is the last time you talked to the Flight Service Station?īelieve it or not, FSS is still in existence.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |