Just curious. How many of you subscribe to Weathertap.com and what do you think of the new HDRadar and FAA approved pilot weather site?
I use the ADDS weather page, and also the FltPlan.com weather. FltPlan.com weather is also FAA approved as an official weather source.
I’ve never heard of weathertap.
We use Weather Tap here outstanding site, Much better then ADDS and any FAA site on the net. For a small price you get huge value.
Tony Mondaro
Harrison, NJ
You told me you use fltplan.com for nav logs. How much of them do you use? I use their winds aloft for the routes I fly on FSX. I really like that part. They just added fuel burn but I would never trust a computer with that, especially on an IFR flight. They also give freqs and phone numbers to FBOs and AWOS/ASOSs from the DEP and DEST airports. And it’s all free.
You wouldn’t trust a computer for flight planning and fuel caculations??? Dang, I haven’t seen my EGB6 and plotter for 4 years.
Either you cut your reserves waaaaaaay toooo close or you spend waaaaaaay too much time with paper and pencil.
I will take a computer comp with winds aloft and fuel burn rate over paper and pencil any day.
For my flight planning, I use seattleavionics.com/default.asp (the free version)
This little gem shows flight path, profile, ceilings of clouds in profile, airspace, MOA’s SUA’s in profile and map view, does all the math, fuel comps EVERYTHING after opening the program and selecting the flight plan.
Selecting optimal altitude is a matter of dragging the profileflight line up or down to another alitude and duration of fligth and burn rate will change automatically. Can’t get much simpler then that!
Takes about 1 hour learning time, and depending on your bandwidth, gets your weather data in minutes.
Mine takes less then 20 seconds to download everything I request. Interfaces with ADDS for icing and freezing levels and airmets and sigmets, DUATS with my account.
Flight planning with this software takes a matter of 5 minutes tops and that includes filing the plan.
Allen
When it comes to aviation weather I am very careful using anything out there for free. Just my 2 cents.
Tony M.
Harrison, NJ
Why? It’ doesn’t replace the intuition and eyes of the pilot? The operative word is planning.
Are you discounting DUATS and NOAA weather because it’s free too?
Allen
Well I am not a pilot so I can’t comment on a pilots intuition, But I would consider myself an expert on Weather Data and what is out there on the net today, I have seen duwats and was not impressed. Weather Tap has come a long way in my eyes I did not work for weathertap but I highly recommend there products.
Have a good weekend !
Tony Mondaro
Harrison, NJ
OK smart… I wasn’t talking about E6Bs or calculators. I meant final computer software calculations. The kind that Fltplan.com gives you. Fltplan.com just spits out a number that you should have in your tanks. I’d like to know what everything is. 6.5 gal to altn, 15 for dest, etc… Not 33.3 gal.
Tony-
You mentioned that you are a weather expert, so perhaps you can point me to an answer to a basic question about weather forecasting. Each day, NOAA makes a large number of very specific forecasts by geographic location and time. As time passes, there are accurate records of the actual weather for each of these locations and times. Can you show me publications or analyses of the accuracy of aviation forecasts based on these data? Years ago I saw a paper by the newly retired head of the NWS that said forecasting accuracy beyond 12 hours was 50/50. With the billions of dollars spent on satellites, computers, etc., I’d like to see if we’ve gotten any more accurate in forecasting, but can’t find any data.