[segillum]

I instruct at a UK airfield a few miles from an RAF station. They send us an area forecast each morning "as a courtesy" but apparently there's no contractual obligation on them to do so and they won't send us a cross-section. The airfield manager makes the area forecast available in the briefing room together with the 214 and 215 and we teach the students how to use the material before they go flying.

I'd be interested to know where other airfields get their met from and whether they do something similar. Or in this smartphone era, is it generally considered the responsibility of individual pilots to obtain their met briefing material?

[Paul_Sengupta]

At my farm strip if the cows are lying down it's going to rain.

[Rob P]

Paul. How do cows in Wales get on? Or will their legs eventually atrophy?

Rob P

[RisePilot]

Haven't looked at the Met 214's and 215's in years. Get everything on computer/laptop/iPhone and I can hit the "refresh" button far faster than an airfield manager can pin scraps of paper to a bulletin board.

[lobstaboy]

At my farm strip if the cows are lying down it's going to rain.

...and if they're standing up it IS raining...

Yes to smartphone and individual responsibility. But I do like the F214 and F215 - and being able to get them and interpret them is part of the training syllabus

[muffin]

IPad, Orbifly and TV breakfast news. Can’t even remember what the Met forms are these days.

[Nomad63]

Or in this smartphone era, is it generally considered the responsibility of individual pilots to obtain their met briefing material?

Umm?, was this ever not the case? (the individual responsibility not the smartphone)

Personaly I look up at the sky, then at the met office site and combine this with the Tafs and metars that Skydemon coughs up for nearby and en-route aerodromes and sometimes if available webcams of enroute places for insight into actuals

The airfield itself does not produce/provide any forecast, I always assumed this was the case for all but the big
operations like Staverton and up.

[ChrisGazzard]

A lot of our pilots will use the Farnborough forecast as it’s so close.

But we also now have our own Skyview weather station providing some basic information which we link to from our website. Link is: https://skylink-pro.com/remote-index-sitemap.php?domainname=blackbusheairport.co.uk&keyword=svblackbushe

[segillum]

>Umm?, was this ever not the case? (the individual responsibility not the smartphone)<

Yes, of course it is/was. Perhaps I could have phrased that better. I was really wondering whether civil airfields in general received any formal forecast data from anywhere or whether we were unusual in that respect -- as it seems we are.

[Balliol]

Self briefing via apps is really easy now, the met office online resources are still really good and work well on ipad as well.

In my opinion, the downside is a worsening lack of awareness of the overall met situation and associated threats - which the 215 is actually brilliant for - often on tests I ask about the general situation of the day and get totally blank looks / no awareness of important frontal movements etc

[chevvron]

I instruct at a UK airfield a few miles from an RAF station. They send us an area forecast each morning "as a courtesy" but apparently there's no contractual obligation on them to do so and they won't send us a cross-section. The airfield manager makes the area forecast available in the briefing room together with the 214 and 215 and we teach the students how to use the material before they go flying.

I'd be interested to know where other airfields get their met from and whether they do something similar. Or in this smartphone era, is it generally considered the responsibility of individual pilots to obtain their met briefing material?

The cross section is usually produced by the forecaster specifically for morning briefing and is not transmitted anywhere.

[segillum]

The cross section is usually produced by the forecaster specifically for morning briefing and is not transmitted anywhere.

Interesting -- I didn't know that. They were a standard feature of our morning met brief back in the day and I always found them very useful.

As Balliol says, it's very easy to obtain high-quality met information nowadays but in my experience you have to teach students to assimilate the big picture.

[tomshep]

BBC weather is usually spot on for my field with hour by hour prognoses.
214 and 215 from the met office are a distant memory since their login system takes an hour to fail to log me in, by which time I am too frustrated to be fit to fly!

[PeteSpencer]

I use Avbrief for 214/5 and look at them and Metars/Tafs before every flight , even a local bimble : I always also look back through the previous 6 hour radar recordings.

Then I make the go/ no go decision

Peter

[Balliol]

I instruct at a UK airfield a few miles from an RAF station. They send us an area forecast each morning "as a courtesy" but apparently there's no contractual obligation on them to do so and they won't send us a cross-section. The airfield manager makes the area forecast available in the briefing room together with the 214 and 215 and we teach the students how to use the material before they go flying.

I'd be interested to know where other airfields get their met from and whether they do something similar. Or in this smartphone era, is it generally considered the responsibility of individual pilots to obtain their met briefing material?

The cross section is usually produced by the forecaster specifically for morning briefing and is not transmitted anywhere.

All the cross sections and other specific charts are online on MOMIDS - which is the military spec version of met office online, it’s excellent but I dont think available to civilian users.