AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2019 - 92

P&E

WX WATCH

MAKING IT BETTER
Behind AOPA's effort to improve VNR

ON THE RECORD
Phone call, web, or app?

AOPA continues to advocate for preserving and improving "VFR not
recommended." "In a positive response to AOPA's concerns regarding
proposals to eliminate VNR, the FAA has been researching improvements
that would make VNR consistent and even available via web briefings,"
said Rune Duke, AOPA senior director of government affairs. AOPA representatives have been participating in the research group, which hopes
to publish their findings later this year.
-AOPA publications staff

Pilots have more weather and
flight-planning information at
their fingertips than ever before.
That's great for awareness, but
the vast array of information
available online and through
sophisticated apps presents a
quandary for pilots faced with
proving they did due diligence
in the event of a potential
enforcement action. How can
you comply with FAR 91.103's
requirement to become familiar
with "all available information"
concerning a flight when so
much is available, in so many
places?
Although the traditional
source for weather briefings has been a phone call to
1-800-WX-BRIEF, there's no "required" or "approved" weather
source for Part 91 operations.
One advantage to calling flight
service, however, is that a
recorded line makes it possible
to review what information was
presented to a pilot and what
questions were asked. Briefings also are available-and
archived-through 1800wx
brief.com and through some
third-party vendors, although
without the capability for
logging pilots' questions. But
browse the weather on a public
computer in a pilot lounge,
and you may have more difficulty proving you familiarized
yourself with the appropriate
weather reports and forecasts.
Bottom line? Make sure there's
an exact record of your briefing, whether audio or linked to
your digital account. And when
in doubt, go ahead and make
the call.
-Sarah Deener

general area. Besides, many pilots now
take advantage of datalink weather services that give near-real-time updates on
weather-updates that are invaluable in
making weather avoidance decisions on
the fly.
Under today's flight service system in
the continental United States, Hawaii, and
Puerto Rico, which is operated by Leidos
Flight Service, you can create a profile that
briefers can see when you get a weather
briefing by telephone. It shows your
name, your aircraft's registration number,
home airport, and address and contact
information.
Some question the abilities of briefers to make an in-depth analysis of
weather. They are not meteorologists,
after all. They are trained in the basics,
then the emphasis is on interpreting and
passing along the aviation weather products-METARs, TAFs, and so on. And as I
understand it, briefers have a fair amount
of latitude in how they review weather
products.
Of course, you could say the same
thing about pilots. This brings up the
overwhelming popularity of preflight selfbriefing via the many sources of weather
information on websites and apps. The
Aviation Weather Center's offerings
(aviationweather.gov) are great examples of ever-evolving improvement in
the way preflight weather information
is being presented to pilots. This means
a steady progression away from textual
weather information and toward more
graphics. Now, even the least-weatherwise, or weather-curious, among us can
look at, say, the AWC's convection, icing,
or Graphic Forecast for Aviation (GFA)
tools and see detailed, graphic forecasts
92 | AOPA PILOT June 2019

of adverse weather for the next day-and
at various time frames and altitudes. And,
increasingly, pilots are obtaining full briefings through electronic flight bag apps
or online through Leidos' web portal
(1800wxbrief.com).
It all seems like part of a plan. Years
ago, we had in-person, walk-in preflight
briefings at flight service stations located
on select airports. Then the FAA moved
toward a privatization of sorts for some
flight service functions with the FAA
DUATS providers. Now, the internet and
datalink weather are king. With each step,
the responsibility for obtaining and interpreting weather shifts more to the pilot. It
seems to be working: VFR-into-IMC accidents are down.
Through it all, there has been one
constant: weather briefings over the telephone. It's the last bastion of human
contact in preflight weather decisionmaking, even if the VNR advisory pops up
from time to time. Briefing by telephone
seems old-school these days, but its value
for complicated weather scenarios can't
be denied. That voice at the other end can
respond to your every question, spend as
much time as necessary to paint a useful
picture of the weather at hand, and even
file your flight plan. That goes double for
student pilots and low-time, newly minted
pilots launching on their first cross-country flights.
Automation's march continues. The
current FAA flight service contract is
almost up, and a new one is due to be
awarded later this year and implemented
in 2020. Will the VNR advisory survive
under the new contract? We do know the
telephone briefings will be required in the
next contract. They may not have a snazzy,

automated aura about them, but they're
interactive-and a great help to those of us
who want a double-check on the weather
we just saw on a website.
AOPA
EMAIL tom.horne@aopa.org

https://www.1800wxbrief.com/Website/#!/ https://www.1800wxbrief.com/Website/#!/ https://www.1800wxbrief.com/Website/#!/ http://www.aviationweather.gov

AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2019

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