DUAT and DUATS - What's the Difference?

VWGhiaBob

VWGhiaBob

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VWGhiaBob
Forgive the dumb question, but what's the difference between aviation weather / planning sites www.duats.com and www.duat.com. I have registered and navigated around both. Why are there two sites with such similar functions? :confused:
 
Different government contractors.

I suppose there are two for competition? Though it doesn't seem to have done much. They are the same since the 90s.

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Just as above. Pick one and go with it...no need to agonize over it. My instructor used DUATS, so that's what I started with and am now comfortable with.
 
Seems like tax dollars being wasted???? Why fund two sites with nearly the same purpose? I don't get it.
 
VWGhiaBob said:
Seems like tax dollars being wasted???? Why fund two sites with nearly the same purpose? I don't get it.
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You've never had an Internet site go down on you? Redundancy, this is a safety critical system for the NAS.
 
My understanding is that the FAA pays per pilot use, so it's possible that it costs them little or no more to have two vendors than it does if they only had one.

To add to the mix, Lockheed Martin is working on their "online FSS". It's similar to DUAT/S, but goes through the FSS service, and you can use it to open flight plans.
 
Yeah I just p;icked one, been using DUAT forever.
 
Henning said:
You've never had an Internet site go down on you? Redundancy, this is a safety critical system for the NAS.
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So why a single LockMart doing flight service? That seems far more mission critical than DUAT.
 
So further to the OPs question, CSC is one site and DTC is the other? No real difference?
 
The basic service is pretty much mandated to be identical. The only difference is the steps you get the basic plan to come up. DTC makes you enter an N number at login, CSC has it in the briefing request. The presentation is more or less the same.

Extra services (which originally they envisioned might be charged for), are different. CSC was the premier one adding plain language translation. Both have different graphical product presentations.
 
flyingron said:
The basic service is pretty much mandated to be identical. The only difference is the steps you get the basic plan to come up. DTC makes you enter an N number at login, CSC has it in the briefing request. The presentation is more or less the same.

Extra services (which originally they envisioned might be charged for), are different. CSC was the premier one adding plain language translation. Both have different graphical product presentations.
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And really, how long before they are irrelavent given ForeFlight, XM in cockpit, etc. Now?
 
Bill Jennings said:
And really, how long before they are irrelavent given ForeFlight, XM in cockpit, etc. Now?
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I tried to sign in to one of them this year, no iPad, and couldn't remember my password, I just called FSS.:dunno:
 
Bill Jennings said:
And really, how long before they are irrelavent given ForeFlight, XM in cockpit, etc. Now?
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Well, since I'm not usually in the cockpit when doing preflight planning, my XM Weather has had ZERO impact on my DUATS use. Further XM weather does NOT give a complete briefing such as DUAT and FF do.


What has changed is that I get my ground briefing using WEATHERMEISTER who has a superior presentation. While I carry ForeFlight, I only use it when I'm at an enroute stop typically.

The relevance is that unlike the things you mention, they are still free and pilots are by and large cheap bastards.
 
bqmassey said:
My understanding is that the FAA pays per pilot use, so it's possible that it costs them little or no more to have two vendors than it does if they only had one.

To add to the mix, Lockheed Martin is working on their "online FSS". It's similar to DUAT/S, but goes through the FSS service, and you can use it to open flight plans.
Click to expand...

I beleive the contract is written in such a way that the total contract between the two vendors is a fixed amount. The percentage each vendor gets of the that total is based on a percentage of usage. It was done that way to instill competition.

LDJones said:
So why a single LockMart doing flight service? That seems far more mission critical than DUAT.
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That model doesn't work as well when you have to staff multiple call centers and interact with ATC.

When the Digital Access contracts were first established, the FAA handled FSS. I beleive the long term plan is to bid out the next FSS contract with digital access, so it is integrated.

eman1200 said:
So further to the OPs question, CSC is one site and DTC is the other? No real difference?
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They each have slightly different interfaces, smart phone apps, additional products and plain english decodings.

Bill Jennings said:
And really, how long before they are irrelavent given ForeFlight, XM in cockpit, etc. Now?
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Not sure about others, but ForeFlight uses DUATS in its app to get briefings and file flight plans.
 
Brad Z said:
Not sure about others, but ForeFlight uses DUATS in its app to get briefings and file flight plans.
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That used to be the case, but not anymore. Foreflight is now a QICP in its own right.
 
You old guys have your old-fogey ways, now doncha? You using rotary dial or Princess for those calls? :p

I call them most of the time too, mostly as a hole-card for TFR's. What else am I going to do while driving to the airport?



N747JB said:
I tried to sign in to one of them this year, no iPad, and couldn't remember my password, I just called FSS.:dunno:
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Henning said:
You've never had an Internet site go down on you? Redundancy, this is a safety critical system for the NAS.
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Horsefeathers. You've never heard of mirror sites on separate servers? Cyclic redundancy between multiple sites?

That doesn't hold water. Besides, I don't care for the interface from either one.

Jim
 
flyingron said:
That used to be the case, but not anymore. Foreflight is now a QICP in its own right.
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Hmm. It still asks you for your DUATS username and password, but notes that it is optional. I though FF had it's own generic account that it logged in with and would just add your name to the remarks. I discovered this one night at White Plains a year ago, when after checking in with the tower, the controller replied with "Oh, Hi Brad!".
 
weirdjim said:
Horsefeathers. You've never heard of mirror sites on separate servers? Cyclic redundancy between multiple sites?

That doesn't hold water. Besides, I don't care for the interface from either one.

Jim
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No need to use it. IIRC both services have been around since 1989 or so and get paid the briefing. Personally, I still call 1-800-WX-BRIEF, I have never like the computer based briefing model, I preferred walking into the FSS and having a cup of coffee with my brief.
 
As a computer guy, I remember 25 years ago when sites looked like these two. I agree the interfaces are horrible. However, keep in mind that Foreflight interfaces with DUATS (and not DUAT), presenting the information in a more readable format.
 
VWGhiaBob said:
As a computer guy, I remember 25 years ago when sites looked like these two. I agree the interfaces are horrible. However, keep in mind that Foreflight interfaces with DUATS (and not DUAT), presenting the information in a more readable format.
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First time I used the system it was in a DOS format IIRC.
 
For flight plans it appear you are right. They just pass things into DUATS for filing. The weather part is an independent product from Weather Decision Technolgies.
 
Henning said:
First time I used the system it was in a DOS format IIRC.
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That old 1-800 dial up number for your zesty fast 1200 baud modem was just the ticket!

Before DUAT(s), you could get limited aviation weather information on the computer from CompuServe. Beyond that, it was TWEB and if I remember right, there was a touch tone based system you could get weather over the phone. It was OK if you wanted to save yourself a trip to the airport, but for a real briefing, you still needed Flight Service.

Richman
 
LockMart - www.afss.com Under the Pilot Portal:
Release: September 24, 2013


  • METAR and TAF Auto-Summarization
  • Sectional Base Layers
  • Interpolated Winds
    Coming Soon:
  • Sky Connect Support (Coming 10/8/2013)
  • Local Time Zone Support (Coming 10/17/2013)
  • NextGen Briefing (Coming 11/11/2013)
  • EasyClose™/EasyActivate™ Service (Coming 11/11/2013)

You can also use the site if you have a kudo or complaint for them.
 
Note that many services like AOPA that provide online flight planning use either DUAT or DUATS to obtain current weather. In many cases, you do not have a choice as to which service to use.
Both services have peddled their own flight planning tools. DUAT is now pointing to Seattle Avionics but at one time they used Golden Eagle Flight Prep.
I cannot imagine that either make much money on the basic service. It's the add-ons and other associations where they make their money.
 
Hello everyone,

I was hoping to chime in on this discussion as I am currently the Operations Manager for the CSC DUATS program and have been for the past 4 years.

There have been a few things said here and I am hoping to clear some stuff up and also answer some questions.

I signed up for DUATS 12 years ago when I first started flying and if you told me it would be the same website when I started working here I would have never believed you.

From joining the program my focus has been to update the system, starting with adding a mobile site and new web interface. We are bound by our requirements so most of the data presented to you cannot change however the way we present the data to you can. The new website is that attempt with tabbed weather briefings and pdf tripkits. Also a new home screen with customized weather to get the most important information to you right when you log in.

In the future we also have an iPad app planned as well.

It's taken 4 years just to get it to where it is now and we still have a lot to do.

I'm trying to not make this sound like an advertisement though it may be difficult to make it sound anything but.

As for our third parties,

We do not charge third parties for access nor do we have any "premium" features that we sell. We have an open API that any developer can access. For the techies we have a SOAP XML interface available now as well as a REST interface that will be available soon.
Access can be requested through our email address duats@duats.com

I hope this clears a few things up. Fire away with any other questions.
 
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silver-eagle said:
Note that many services like AOPA that provide online flight planning use either DUAT or DUATS to obtain current weather. In many cases, you do not have a choice as to which service to use.
Both services have peddled their own flight planning tools. DUAT is now pointing to Seattle Avionics but at one time they used Golden Eagle Flight Prep.
I cannot imagine that either make much money on the basic service. It's the add-ons and other associations where they make their money.
Click to expand...

Negative. Golden Eagle was always aligned with GTE/CONTEL/CSC (i.e. duats.com) rather than DTC.
 
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