Flight Planning / Weather product

Danny Dub

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Feb 7, 2018
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Danny Dub
Hi everyone. I am looking to plan a flight from Western North Carolina to somewhere warm (Florida most likely) and I'm wondering what you guys feel like is the best product for for weather planning? I am going to be able to fly IFR if necessary but the main point is that we want to go to somewhere that is going to be warm. What the best product is to know the weather in approximately one week for our return. If anyone has any suggestions I am open to it. I use Garmin pilot for flight planning but I find that the Outlook features with that as far as future weather is fairly limited or possibly I don't know how to use it to its full extent. Thank you for your help or suggestions!

Dan

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Ditto what hang said.... I also like windy. Recently I have also been using the ForeFlight daily forecast to look at weather a week or so out. Those in addition to the prog charts. But it's all a bit of a crapshoot that far out.
 
Windy.com

it’s a data aggregator and has model data out 10 days. Granted most models become less accurate the longer out the forecast goes. But you can get a general idea of the weather patterns and predictions on clouds, etc.
 
I use EZWeather Brief https://ezwxbrief.com/. It used to be an app called Weather Spork but the creator upgraded it into a progressive web app.
Actually, WeatherSpork still exists.

ScottD and the Spork folks split ways about 2 years ago and EZ Weather Brief went live soon after that.
 
Actually, WeatherSpork still exists.

ScottD and the Spork folks split ways about 2 years ago and EZ Weather Brief went live soon after that.

Did not know that - interesting. Well you can't go wrong with either then, assuming WeatherSpork hasn't lost any capability with Scott's departure.
 
Did not know that - interesting. Well you can't go wrong with either then, assuming WeatherSpork hasn't lost any capability with Scott's departure.

Thanks @tsts4, WeatherSpork is alive and well and we are continually adding new features. If you ever find a capability is lacking that you'd like to see added, please reach out here or via our support email.

Regards,
David B.
 
Windys 5 day (you scroll the forecast sideways).

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Best thing is you can change model it’s using.
 
Windys 5 day (you scroll the forecast sideways).

Best thing is you can change model it’s using.

Very cool. We were previously using MOS but have recently switched to NBM.
 
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Very cool. We were previously using MOS but have recently switched to NAM.

These are the models available, I think in order of accuracy (ECMWF is considered more accurate than GFS), they range 2-10 days.
I wait until they generally agree before I take the forecast seriously.

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I aliken this to computational fluid dynamics for developing aero databases for aircraft design. Many different models each with different underlying assumptions to reduce the Navier-Stokes equations into something that can be solved in a reasonable amount of computational firepower AND time. Compressible or non compressible flow. Heat transfer or adiabatic, laminar or non laminar flow, thick or thin BL, etc etc. depending on what flow phenomena you are interested in capturing, dictates which model you use. Same with atmospheric flow.
 
FlowX is a nice Android app that displays various weather models for long-range weather projections as well. Just beware that weather models become much less accurate more than 72 hours out. But the progression of weather systems is usually fairly reliable, but not necessarily the exact timing or precise locations. For long trip planning, model display apps like Windy or FlowX (or publicly available web options) are good for searching for likely good weather "windows" to complete trips.
 
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