Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
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By Boswell
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1707117
On the early Brize METAR this morning.

Any clues? Some military weather code? Blue becoming Green?

Phoned Met Office, they assumed it was military as well.

Just curious....
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By Irv Lee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1707121
Shorthand summary but you cannot tell if vis or cloud is the issue
http://www.higherplane.co.uk/metcol.jpg

Image
Blue is best, green means either vis or cloud has come down a bit.
Edit: vis and cloud only. Wind could be dangerous! Black means closed for other reasons
Last edited by Irv Lee on Fri Jul 19, 2019 7:30 am, edited 2 times in total.
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By TLRippon
#1707123
It means it’s getting worse. RAF colour codes. Blu- Wht-Grn- through the yellows to red. Reducing cloud base and/or vis.
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By Cub
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1707336
Boswell wrote:Thanks, guys....appreciate replies. Just never come across it before.


Slightly worrying you say that the Met Office hadn’t, they issue them!
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By James Chan
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1707476
Not sure I like these colour codes as it requires another lookup table.

Why not use absolute values so that we know if it’s vis or cloud?
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By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1707484
The military cling to all sorts of anachronistic stuff, like QFE and pilots in military jets :twisted:
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By Irv Lee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1707495
@James Chan what's wrong with it for "good weather only" GA pilots? If not blue or white, will investigate. The Germans (GA pilots) love a similar idea based on 3-6-9 hour outlook - you can see it on SD
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By Cub
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1707498
James Chan wrote:Not sure I like these colour codes as it requires another lookup table.

Why not use absolute values so that we know if it’s vis or cloud?


It is actually a very effective way of giving a clear indication of fly-ability together with a trend. I really like the concept which is not a million miles from the GAFOR concept seen in European countries. I would personally far rather see met office resource directed at producing colour coded actuals and forecasts for areas rather than Regional Pressure Settings.
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By PaulSS
#1707511
I always found it very effective. We never bothered to find out if the colour code was for vis or cloudbase but just took the colour as read. If you had to have an alternate (diversion airfield) then it had to be above a certain colour. You only needed an alternate if your base went below a certain colour. Blue was lovely, white was good, yellows meant you'd be dodgy getting down some of the valleys in Wales, amber was a good day for instrument flying and red normally meant milk and two sugars.

Originally the idea was military instrument ratings were associated with the colour codes. If it was green weather then you needed a Green instrument rating to go flying. Somewhere along the line (before my time) that changed but the instrument rating colour system remained and, depending on whether you were a White, Green or Master Green determined the limits you could fly to.

As a Master Green (maybe it was Command Master Green) you could get airborne in 0/0 but you were supposed to know better. I do remember doing it once on the weather guesser's promise that things were improving ( and a necessity to test something out before we took the aircraft to sea the next day) but he lied (again). Unfortunately all the other airfields around my base decided to do the same and it was a very big relief when I shut down at RAF Brawdy with not very much fuel, having conducted a PAR to minimum minimums ( and slowing RIGHT down so I could get a better look for the approach lights) :D

AHHhhhh, this is great. 53 years old and boring like the very best of the clubroom old gits :mrgreen:
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By Irv Lee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1707514
Cuts down a lot of wasteful voice traffic on phones and radio frequencies
Ring ring
"LyneNorton Ops"
"Hi, weather please"
"Yellow but blue by lunchtime"
"Thanks, bye, will call at noon"
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