Don't fly weather briefing

Kevin& Donna Sanders, M.D. wrote:
Yes they did that Thursday and all we had was a little stuff along the coast
of NC. He advised against VFR flight several times

Kevin



As part of my checkride for the private ticket, I had to get a briefing as if I was flying
XC to this little airfield in Florida. The weather down there was bad (heavy rain, 1/2 mi
visibility) and the briefer kept saying "you can't fly down there." It took me three or
four minutes to get it through his head that I wasn't _actually_ going to fly there, I
only needed to get the briefing as part of showing the examiner I knew how to plan such
things.

I wonder what they would have said about our flying Sunday afternoon? We went to a little
fly-in at a private strip about 10 min away. Coming back, we had to stop for gas, and
there were various little scattered popcorn showers all around the area. We dodged around
a couple of them coming home.

On Sun, 13 May 2007 22:22:06 -0400, Bob Martin
wrote in :

the briefer kept saying "you can't fly down there."

The way I see it, it is the FSS briefer's role to provide information
and deal with flight plans. The briefer is not a Dispatcher, so it
would seem that the sort of admonish you received is inappropriate.

If they want to start having input about what you can and can't do,
then they can share in the responsibility of the airman's flight
planning for those flights for which they do not tell airmen what they
can't do, otherwise the should limit such statements to professional
opinions or suggestions, after all briefer's have no authority to
approve or deny aircraft operations.

Is that an unreasonable point of view?

Recently, Larry Dighera posted:

On Sun, 13 May 2007 22:22:06 -0400, Bob Martin
wrote in :

the briefer kept saying "you can't fly down there."

The way I see it, it is the FSS briefer's role to provide information
and deal with flight plans. The briefer is not a Dispatcher, so it
would seem that the sort of admonish you received is inappropriate.

If they want to start having input about what you can and can't do,
then they can share in the responsibility of the airman's flight
planning for those flights for which they do not tell airmen what they
can't do, otherwise the should limit such statements to professional
opinions or suggestions, after all briefer's have no authority to
approve or deny aircraft operations.

Is that an unreasonable point of view?

I think that is quite reasonable as a standard for professional practice.

However, I don't quite understand what one would have such a discussion in
the first place. When I call WXBrief, I ask only about the conditions that
are of interest to me. I do not disclose any other information regarding
my intentions. Though I have never been asked for the details of the
flight unless I was filing a flight plan, if I was asked and as a result
was given that kind of response, I would tell the briefer that I didn't
ask his/her opinion, and that I just want the weather information. If s/he
chose not to provide that information, I'd ask for his/her supervisor and
carry on from there.

Neil

Here in the middle of Texas, you can't swing a dead cat around by its
tail without hitting an isolated thunderstorm in the springtime. The
little ones are easy enough to go around them. The big ones are
frightening enough to be self evident to stay the hell away from them
as far as you can get.

You should be fortunate you actually got to speak to a briefer at all.
Everyone around here has just given up completely on them after
waiting on hold too long, too many times.

We've got WiFi Internet all over our airport so I can get my WX data
online before flying, my favorite site is

http://www.usairnet.com

Click on the aviation forecast link on the right site of the home
page. It lets you select by state and city, and uses the raw data
straight from the National Weather Service, but formats it into really
nice easy to read color charts for pilots.