Roy Smith wrote in
:

With DUATS, I know how to ask for exactly what I want, and how to filter
it. With a human briefer, I have to rely on the judgement of somebody
I've never met to pick and choose, and sometimes I have to play 20
questions with him. I'll take the computer any day.

Why briefers think I care about an unlit crane 240 feet AGL 4 miles from
the runway, on a day VFR flight, I have no idea.

In today's world, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system could replace
the briefers, and you could still call for weather from your car. Instead
of talking to a briefer, you could dial or talk to the voice response
system and get appropriate responses. A small amount of additional
categorization of things like NOTAMS would also improve this issue and
wouldn't really take much.

For example, if they know my aircraft type is a BE35/R and I'm planned for
7000', why do they give me NOTAMS about STARs and DPs that are only
authorized for Jets or for flights planned for FL180 or higher? The answer,
obviously, is that these criteria are listed as "notes" printed on the
page, instead of in fields in the system. If they were fields in the
system, NOTAMs could be filtered better automatically, and the human factor
in weather briefing would be less critical...

But if they password protect it, I won't do it.
"Big Boy." "BIG BOY!"