Anybody still call for a brief?

It's not exactly an answer to the OP's question, but when I was a teenager hang gliding from Sandia Peak in the late 70s, every day I planned to fly I would call the FSS in the early afternoon to talk to a briefer.

I'd give him a made up N number, and tell him I was planning a local VFR flight around 1600. I think they caught on to me after a while, because I always asked for wind direction and speeds at 10,000 and 15,000 MSL and inquired about the temperature gradient.

:D
 
Yep. If nothing other than a "are you seeing what I'm seeing" kind of thing...
 
Yes, i have plenty of times in the last year. It is always nice to be able to ask questions, even if i am privy to most of the info they probably have as well.
 
I always self-brief, just to get smart about the weather. Then I’ll often follow that up with a call to a briefer.
I do the same thing. I'll go through everything, if it all looks good I'll go ahead and call the briefer to get a second opinion and make sure I didn't miss anything
 
Yes. Amidst all the time. Keeps their numbers up too, helping funding justification. Imo

Also keeps the service from disappearing . It's contractor run and costs the FAA money out of their budget. When they eliminated duat and duats, numbers and the 'well anyone uses foreflight anyway' was one of arguments made.
 
I pre-brief using a variety of electronic sources. I still often call, and when I do I'm listening for anything that doesn't match the mental model I've already built about the flight. Occasionally, they'll say something that jumps out as disagreeing with what I've got in my head. It's a good cross-check, and also a good last-minute TFR check. Nice to have on record for CYA just in case, too.

I've noticed a change in the last six months or so, though. I typically request an Eastern Texas briefer, and I used to almost always get one without a wait. Within the last year, I've started to notice that more and more often, I get put on hold for ~5ish minutes, and when I finally get a briefer they often say something like, "Hold on, I'm not familiar with Texas so let me review this information for a sec first." Not sure what's up with that.
 
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