wxbrief.com format has changed

eman1200

eman1200

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Bro do you even lift
Go check it out, the output format is different now.
 
Not a fan of the new style. Thankfully you can still select the old style, but for how long....?
 
Just noticed this today. The briefing output is now static, either PDF or HTML format. What I like about the old web briefing, which is still an option, is the ability to easily look ahead on several of the weather depiction and winds aloft tabs.

The interactive planning map is a nice feature though.
 
upload_2022-3-20_14-35-52.png

that kinda sux, I like the tabular formatting. I'm trying to get used to the new formatting but it's just not as good. no interactive maps, you lose the winds aloft feature where you can click on altitudes above/below your filed route, etc...
 
I wondered when that would happen. I guess it makes sense...I mean it's obvious that the most effective way to receive information is to scroll through an endless wall of text.

I think I'm going to start filing a NASA report after every flight with a copy of the briefing and "TLDR"
 
Jim K said:
I wondered when that would happen. I guess it makes sense...I mean it's obvious that the most effective way to receive information is to scroll through an endless wall of text.

I think I'm going to start filing a NASA report after every flight with a copy of the briefing and "TLDR"
Click to expand...

lol they do seem to be taking the 'brief' out of briefing.
 
It's ok (lowercase).
Someone decided to re-image the brand, or re-brand the image to justify their employment/impress their manager/spouse/significant other.
Everything becomes bloatware over time.
Eventually it will become so unusable no one will bother with it.
 
Is what you now get from the online 800wxbrief that much different than a FFlight brief?
 
My strategy has always been to log into wxbrief so there’s a record of my receiving a briefing. Then I ignore it and use AviationWeather.gov, Windy, and Skyvector, where the same information is presented much more clearly.
 
Yeah, the new format sucks. It's just a raw data dump. The tabbed web format is much cleaner.

Calling makes sense. I can get weather anywhere, I need a log that I checked weather, and I need to know the notams that matter and any special use airspace.
 
The tabbed version is still available, at least on my laptop. You can toggle between the old and new versions.

upload_2022-3-20_21-18-8.png
 
AlleyCat67 said:
My strategy has always been to log into wxbrief so there’s a record of my receiving a briefing. Then I ignore it and use AviationWeather.gov, Windy, and Skyvector, where the same information is presented much more clearly.
Click to expand...
Does any of those give you NOTAMs?
 
Interesting. I don't use the site often for my own flights but I did an area briefing for my home base to look at both old and new. I don't really understand the "data dump" and "infinite scrolling" comments. Personally, I find the new drop-down menu much easier to navigate to what I want to see than the tabs.

upload_2022-3-21_6-50-35.png
 
Holy ****! Just tried the 'new' format for the first time, looked at it for about 15 seconds....already hate almost everything about it. Where do they come up with this crap?
 
Yikes - boy does that ruin a good product. The tabular format was great for going deeper in areas where they had the best information like NOTAMs, and elsewhere for things like weather. Garmin Pilot has really upped their game on NOTAMs, may be switching to doing all planning on GP.
 
didn't even know this still existed........government incompetence at its finest.
 
It's the best kind...government subcontracting work out to private sector, which gives you the worst of both worlds. There should be a way to push back on this, though. With the new system being worse, and more people just calling them on the phone, that might do it. Unless they're able to do computer voice response as part of their contract. That would be unfortunate.
 
Racerx said:
I guess back to calling...
Click to expand...

Albany Tom said:
Calling makes sense. I can get weather anywhere, I need a log that I checked weather, and I need to know the notams that matter and any special use airspace.
Click to expand...
Have you guys actually tried calling lately? Last time I did (around the holidays last year, I think), I got a recorded scolding that told me I was being placed at the end of the queue and given a random briefer because I didn't visit the website first, or something to that effect. Sure enough, it took like ~5+ min before a briefer picked up, and the person I got was obviously unfamiliar with my area. I've kind of been waiting for the shoe to drop that live-human-briefings were being discontinued, and wondered if this change was a harbinger of the end.
 
Jim_R said:
Have you guys actually tried calling lately? Last time I did (around the holidays last year, I think), I got a recorded scolding that told me I was being placed at the end of the queue and given a random briefer because I didn't visit the website first, or something to that effect. Sure enough, it took like ~5+ min before a briefer picked up, and the person I got was obviously unfamiliar with my area. I've kind of been waiting for the shoe to drop that live-human-briefings were being discontinued, and wondered if this change was a harbinger of the end.
Click to expand...

It's been a couple of months, but yes. I called from the truck via the hands-free on the way to the airport. It took a few minutes, but I was driving anyway, so not a big deal. Briefer was friendly, gave me the standard spiel then when I asked about the weather he ran the flight for an hour later and it was better.
 
Jim_R said:
....I've kind of been waiting for the shoe to drop that live-human-briefings were being discontinued, and wondered if this change was a harbinger of the end.
Click to expand...

I personally don't see how this change has anything to do with moving closer to dropping the calls. it's mostly a layout formatting change along with a few features dropped.
 
eman1200 said:
I personally don't see how this change has anything to do with moving closer to dropping the calls. it's mostly a layout formatting change along with a few features dropped.
Click to expand...
By "this change", I was not referring to the OP of this thread, but to my experience calling the briefer that started off with a recorded scolding that I didn't use the website first and was being punished for it by being sent to the back of the queue and given a random briefer instead of one familiar with my area.
 
Jim_R said:
By "this change", I was not referring to the OP of this thread, but to my experience calling the briefer that started off with a recorded scolding that I didn't use the website first and was being punished for it by being sent to the back of the queue and given a random briefer instead of one familiar with my area.
Click to expand...

Ahhh, gotcha, my bad.
 
Jim_R said:
Have you guys actually tried calling lately? Last time I did (around the holidays last year, I think), I got a recorded scolding that told me I was being placed at the end of the queue and given a random briefer because I didn't visit the website first, or something to that effect. Sure enough, it took like ~5+ min before a briefer picked up, and the person I got was obviously unfamiliar with my area. I've kind of been waiting for the shoe to drop that live-human-briefings were being discontinued, and wondered if this change was a harbinger of the end.
Click to expand...
Last time I called (which coincidently was the first time), the guy just read me the briefing off the website. Since I am in fact literate, I decided calling was a waste of my time.
Jim_R said:
one familiar with my area.
Click to expand...
I don't think that exists any more.
 
Jim K said:
Last time I called (which coincidently was the first time), the guy just read me the briefing off the website. Since I am in fact literate, I decided calling was a waste of my time.
Click to expand...
I usually request a standard briefing, and I agree that 80+% of the time I don't learn anything I didn't already know from my pre-flight review. Even so, it's a warm fuzzy to hear a confirmation of my mental model, and I also launch knowing I got the most up-to-date TFR info I could (and that there's a record that I did so).

But just often enough, I get nuggets of gold that keep me from giving up on the phone call. Once, I missed a NOTAM that a runway was closed (still not sure how I managed that, but I did). Once, destination weather much worse than forecast developed in the 90 min between my last online access and me getting ready to hop in the plane, and I ended up scrubbing in time to make alternate arrangements to get where I wanted to be. It would have been a blown day if I got airborne and waited for the moving map to scroll enough to reveal the surprise storms and then turned around. And more than once, I've gotten a briefer who's been over-and-above helpful, with stuff like, "Looks like we're stuck in a rut...the last few days we've seen x, but it's broken up by zz:zz and I expect the same today," or "KZZZ's AWOS has been saying blah blah all day, but I just saw a PIREP from someone who took off from there and they say conditions are actually blahdyblah," etc.

Your mileage may vary...
 
Jim_R said:
By "this change", I was not referring to the OP of this thread, but to my experience calling the briefer that started off with a recorded scolding that I didn't use the website first and was being punished for it by being sent to the back of the queue and given a random briefer instead of one familiar with my area.
Click to expand...
The "random briefer" rather than a local one started at least 15 years ago, long before the website and even before LockMart took over the function.
 
midlifeflyer said:
The "random briefer" rather than a local one started at least 15 years ago, long before the website and even before LockMart took over the function.
Click to expand...
Well, right, there've been changes in the system over many years, and yeah I remember in the early 90s my buddy making an unplanned landing and ducking into a truly local weather office once so we could take refuge from a passing storm, and talking to them for the next 15 min about my best options for the rest of our flight. Certainly that's no longer possible.

But still, in the last 10 years, I've been used to talking to someone who had some familiarity with my region. Maybe they live 4 states over, but they're routinely assigned to support my locale and have gotten familiar with it from afar, I dunno. Regardless, I've been able to have intelligent conversations with them about regional trends and use local geographical references to communicate effectively, as if they were "local".

When I say I got a "random briefer", I mean one who admitted up front that they don't usually brief my region, and asked forgiveness in advance for any mispronunciations or for not knowing where airports were in relation to each other. That was an unexpected change from what I've been used to in recent years.
 
This is a result of the Apple - effect.


Someone is ALWAYS trying to reimagine the product and most of the time end up ****ing it all up. Just look at ForeFlights new Weight and Balance and it’s the same thing.
 
OK, I think I figured out how to make the "new" version workable (for my personal preferences). When asking for the web briefing, turn off NextGen and graphics content. This gives a streamlined quick-to-load briefing, then you can use the Table of Contents or the pull-down menu that midlifeflyer shows, to go to the items you wish to view, similar to clicking the tabs in the old version. I'd still prefer the old format. (Typically, for me, I've already looked at prog charts, winds aloft, icing airmets, etc., on ADDS or other websites, and all I need is a quick scan of NOTAMs, pireps, and current METARs and TAFs for significant changes, but, as they say, YMMV.)
 
So whats up with wx brief, anyone else having issues. I tried a support ticket but so far no reply, even checked my spam. I had a account setup and password saved and now cannot sign in. It says password wrong. I tried to reset and cannot get the email and i even tried to create a new account and it shows email already used. tried it again and is says email not found. That place is messed up.
ON edit i noticed under my screen name it show filing flight plan, it would be nice to be able.
 
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