Sources of Weather Information

Sources of Weather Information

by Ronnie Brown

Several weeks ago, Bill Repucci and Dale Ensing were discussing what the best aviation weather sites were. The following is a compilation of the suggestions offered on EAA 309’s Google discussion group http://groups.google.com/group/eaa309/

The Cadillac of the weather sites has to be www.weathermeister.com - but it has a price, $4.95 per month or $49.95 per year. Just take a look at http://weathermeister.com/sample_route_briefing.jsp And you’ll have to agree – this is the most comprehensive listing of aviation weather I have ever seen. One feature I have never seen anywhere else is winds aloft along your planned route of flight with predicted headwinds/tailwinds at various cruise altitudes.

New member Jim Sisco recommends http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

Scott Stout says, “I use the following for prediction of ceiling heights and visibilities for both long and short range. It's model info, so sometimes its good, sometimes not so good. But, when the forecast for 5 days out says mostly cloudy I get a feel for what the ceiling heights and visibilities could be and can decide early in the week if a nice weekend flight will be possible or will it be more of a challenge.
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/forecast/graphics/MAV/index.html As for notams and tfr's, I still use www.duats.com
Day of flight weather is as others have mentioned: http://adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov/

Ron Schreck and I like http://usairnet.com/cgi-bin/launch/code.cgi?sta=KRUQ&model=avn&state=NC&Submit=Change+Location

Bob Perkins says “I’d like to add that the basic Golden Eagle Flightprep is free. FAA is paying for it. Download page is here http://www.flightprep.com/rootpage.php?page=gefp_dl_pgmdata . I saw it at Oshkosh this year. It has a nifty little graphic at the bottom of the program page that shows elevations with winds and cloud cover in a graphical format for flight planning.. the Jeppson program has similar features but costs $ and no, I don’t get anything from the free advertising! It does require a DUATS account to fully function though. All in all it is quite similar to the AOPA program outside of the graphic I mentioned before.”

1. For the big picture - NOAA ADDS at http://adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov/ This will give you translated METARs and TAFs, SIGMETs, winds, graphics, etc, etc.

2. For detailed trip flight planning and all the METARS and TAFs at any airport enroute (I think you need to be an AOPA member for this one) - AOPA Enflight http://www.enflight.com/ . This is an excellent flight planning tool. If you plug in your a/c profile (fuel consumption, speeds, height, etc) it will give you all the headings, block times and fuel usage based on forecast winds.

3. For a different kind of view which includes projected total area rainfall for 7 days - US Navy NOGAPS forecast at http://www.nwmangum.com/NOGAPS.phtml#12

4. Pilot My Cast is a cell phone product ($9.95 per month)- http://www.digitalcyclone.com/products/pilot-my-cast/ I used this product last year and found it very useful while doing cross country flights.

For NOTAMS and TFR's: www.duats.com and www.duat.com

Day of flight weather is as others have mentioned: http://adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov/

Interestingly, not one person submitted the 800 weather number.

Here is a compilation of the weather sites sent in:

http://www.aopa.org/members/wx/ (Free to AOPA Members)

http://members.eaa.org/home/flightplanner/flightplanner.html (Free to EAA Members)

http://www.aopa.org/flight_planner/intro.html

http://www.digitalcyclone.com/products/pilot-my-cast/ $

www.duat.com

www.duats.com

http://www.duats.com/cirrus.shtml

http://www.enflight.com/