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4 Answers

Official Weather Briefing

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General Aviation

I hope this post starts up a discussion.  I attended a weather seminar this week and learned some interesting facts.  One of which I didn't know is that there is an "Official Weather Briefing".  I asked the presenter if Flightplan.com or aviation weather.gov is considered an "Official Weather Briefing".  I was surprised to learn that flightplan.com nor aviationweather.gov are considered "Official weather Briefing".  It was suggested that I check out and join 1800wxbrief.com if I wanted to use a website to obtain an "official weather briefing". 

 

After getting home I joined 1800wxbrief.com so that I could be getting an "official WX briefing".  Frankly the website isn't as easy to use as flight plan.com or aviationweather.gov.  Since I didn't like the layout of 1800wxbrief.com I did a little google search for what is considered an "official weather briefing".  I also tried searching for a list of website that provide "official weather briefings".  A few days have gone by I have turned up nothing DATED material and no luck finding answers to my  questions.

I have been flying for a long time not calling in to talk to a briefer and getting an official weather briefing.  I have never had trouble viewing Notams, Weather, TFR's, etc without going through a phone briefer or official website.

My question is:  1) What is considered an Official weather briefing?  2) What websites can be used to count as an official weather briefing (I didn't like 1800wxbrief.com)?  3)  Why is it important to me to obtain an "official weather briefing" as long as I get one and satisfy the rest of FAR 91.103?

If anyone can point me to an good article or regulation that would clear up this answer I would appreciate it.

 

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4 Answers



  1. Wes Beard on Sep 10, 2014

    Other sources for official weather is duat.com or duats.com.

    From my understanding all sites that have official weather keep a record of what weather was presented to the pilot and all of them require the pilot to sign in.

    This allows the FAA to review the weather the pilot received in case of an aircraft accident or other situation.

    Conceivably they will ask you if you received a weather briefing if you fly into a TFR. If you’d gotten an official briefing it may be that the TFR wasn’t mentioned so the infraction may be less.

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  2. Mark Kolber on Sep 11, 2014

    What is considered an Official weather briefing?

    It’s a good question without a good answer. There is nothing in the FAA materials that defines what an “official” weather briefing is. There is language in an FAA publication or two that refer to FSS and DUATS as the only “official weather” sources. One that comes to mind is the “Balloon Flying Handbook” but bear in mind that this is also the only FAA publication that mentions “with you” as part of standard communications with ATC (really!). AFAIK, there are a total of 2 FAA publications that even use the phrase.“official weather brief” site:faa.gov and see what you get

    There are a number of FAA publications that refer to “official weather” as the formal weather you hear from official weather observers and facilities like AWOS.

    And, for a time, the FAA licensed “Qualified Internet Communication Providers” (QCIP) in a program designed to expand the offerings of standard weather briefing products. What differentiated the QCIP was the existence of a log-in to track what the pilot looked at when. The program ended.

    To me, a “official” weather briefing is simply a preflight weather briefing that (1) covers at least the items in an FAA “Standard Briefing” (which is defined in many FAA publications including the AIM) and (2) provides a mechanism to prove that you got it. There are a number of providers who do that including many of the EFB iOS and Android apps.

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  3. Matt Nelson on Sep 13, 2014

    DUAT, DUATS, Lockheed Martin Flight Service (Phone or online). Be careful with TFRs and Restricted Airspace though as FSS has been known to forget/neglect to mention active restricted areas and TFRs before. Contacting the nearest ARTCC is the only way to know 100% if a TFR or Restricted Airspace is active.

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  4. Heather McNevin on Sep 18, 2014

    Think of it the way the FAA and NTSB do: If it can be tracked that you got information, then its official. When you call in to FSS, you give your N number. That is logged. When you use DUATs, you are signed in as a specific user and that is logged. Saying “I looked at Aviation Digital Data Service” prior to departure is not official. Its all about tracking and being able to prove you were responsible and got the information needed.

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