T
RAINING
M
ANUAL
–
L
ANCAIR
IV/IVP
Also important to note is that when you call AFSS to get a telephonic brief that
you ask for the appropriate brief. Often times a rambling out loud thought process
is frequently heard on audio tapes of accident pilots attempting to get a brief with
AFSS. It is clear that the pilot has not spent any time in preflight planning prior to
picking up the phone. The time to begin preflight preparation for a long cross
country in difficult weather conditions does not start ten minutes before the
proposed flight. Remember, there are three types of briefs: standard, abbreviated
and outlook. A standard brief contains all the elements of the brief: hazards, area
forecast, terminals (current and forecast), winds aloft, local and distant notams
TFRs, etc. An abbreviated brief is a condensed brief to brief you on significant
changes from your original brief. An outlook gives you forecast conditions for a
proposed flight in the future. A good practice is to first do some preflight planning
for your trip including a check of internet weather resources like
http://aviationweather.gov/ or http://www.duats.com/ or
http://www.aopa.org/members/wx/
before calling the Lockheed Martin AFSS.
When you do call the AFSS it is recommended you first file the flight plan and
then ask for a standard weather brief. That way the briefer knows all the
information they need from you (route, altitude departure and arrival times, etc) to
conduct a proper weather brief. Let the briefer conduct the brief without
interruption. Numerous interruptions may cause the briefer to skip or miss an
important part of the brief. Save your questions for the end.
As a side note on flight planning, it is important to remember that the PIC is
responsible to file an alternate airport if the forecast weather at the destination
plus or minus one hour of arrival is less than a 2000 foot ceiling or 3 miles
visibility. Forecast weather at the alternate must be at least a 600’ ceiling and 2
miles visibility for a precision approach and 800’ ceiling and 2 miles visibility for a
non precision approach. If the alternate does not have an approach procedure
the weather must be such that you can descend from the MEA and land under
VFR conditions. A smart pilot always has a “Plan B”.
Once you have received your brief, it is important that you maintain your mental
picture of the weather along your flight path. In years past the only way to
maintain this mental picture was via the radio with calls to AFSS’s along the way
or to Flight Watch on 122.0 MHz or listen to EFAS.
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31
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©
Copyright
2007
LOBO
May
not
be
copied
without
permission.