ForeFlight updated this morning and...

timwinters

timwinters

Ejection Handle Pulled
Joined
Feb 23, 2008
Messages
13,732
Location
Conway, MO
Display Name
LTD
Home Airfield
KLBO---Lebanon, MO
...the extended forecasts (out to 84 hours IIRC) for ceilings and visibilities are GONE!

WTF?

I had them saved in my favorite images...when I click on one, it just says not available.

WTF?

They were great long range planning tools.
 
Yup, liked them and they’re gone. Boeing at work...
 
Not Boeing. It appears they are doing some streamlining of the product and how it goes about things as some of the source items were discontinued last year.

this blog entry should provide some insight: https://blog.foreflight.com/2019/12...replaces-gfs-mos-ceiling-visibility-products/
 
Here is an email response from ForeFlight. It actually happen Wednesday evening. Nothing to do with the new update. I went to the NWS website and sure enough there is a notice there that the great product is no longer distributed.

Hello Craig,

Dominik here.

The National Weather Service removed GFS MOS products from their distribution library today, and they have not provided a replacement product. We are investigating alternative data sources for ceiling and visibility forecasts.

Best regards,

Dominik
Pilot Support Team
[email protected]
www.foreflight.com
 
I am looking at MOS on FF (iphone) right now...app is current including today's dl-s.

By that I mean:

Airports/Forecast/MOS

Mine is different than yours, or there is something else which was d/c'd?
 
Well, that sucks! They were a great planning tool.
 
And you used to be able to pull up a list of ADSB towers you were receiving and see the signal strength and error rate for each tower.

Now that's gone. :mad:
 
Interesting, as I just was able to get it from the following site:

https://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/forecast/graphics/MAV/

Nothing on that web site indicates the product is NLA. Is it that the product is still available via the NOAA but just not available for distrubution to other providers?

Example:

MAV.BCIG.000.gif
 
I'm told we can expect a replacement graphical product early next year.
 
GeorgeC said:
I'm told we can expect a replacement graphical product early next year.
Click to expand...
Source?

A replacement exists now, as the Graphical Forecasts for Aviation (GFA) tool ... https://aviationweather.gov/gfa

It is a good tool and has a bit more "power" and flexibility than the older product.

Screen Shot 2019-12-20 at 4.25.03 PM.png Screen Shot 2019-12-20 at 4.27.21 PM.png

Several good YouTube Videos exist to explain how to use this.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Source?

A replacement exists now, as the Graphical Forecasts for Aviation (GFA) tool ... https://aviationweather.gov/gfa

It is a good tool and has a bit more "power" and flexibility than the older product.

View attachment 81101 View attachment 81102

Several good YouTube Videos exist to explain how to use this.
Click to expand...
Hopefully ForeFlight will resurrect something. It's nice being able to go to one place to obtain almost all forecast data instead of needing to hop all over the internet. Having to do that would be a big step backwards...
 
What a dirty trick NOAA played on pilots.

In the winter especially, that graphical MOS ceiling was a very important product for my flight safety.

When they pulled it Wednesday, I was away from home on a long trip, and I needed to plan my date and route to return home 24 hours in advance, and to my complete surprise, I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t decide whether to plan on staying another night, which is a pretty big decision we often need to make 24 hours in advance.

the Gridded LAMP product is good only for 18 hours, and that’s not enough to make plans for tomorrow when it’s still morning.
 
Although I used the long range ceiling/visibility forecasts, it was a love/hate relationship. I found they were constantly, majorly, wrong.
 
Progs help, but really it’s pretty damned sad that we can’t get something decent that goes beyond the forecast range of the TAF.
 
Initial Fix said:
Give windy.com a try. It pulls in the euro model data and has ceiling (and other) forecasts for what looks like 9 days. Also has the GFS and NAM data too. This has been my go to WX site for over a year.
Click to expand...
I looked at that site, and it appeared to me that the demarcation of ceiling heights between 1500 and 5000 was harder to decipher.
 
timwinters said:
Mine too, I don't know where he's at...
Click to expand...
Great Lakes region. I found for short term (like TAF range) they were fine, but beyond that they were horribly inaccurate. Like I said before I used them, but now that they’re gone I don’t think I’ll miss them.
 
wow, i just looked at windy.com. it does look like a very comprehensive and interactive tool. best I've seen
 
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Barry said:
wow, i just looked at windy.com. it does look like a very comprehensive and interactive tool. best I've seen
Click to expand...

If iPads there is an app of course. I was more than happy to donate when they asked, only downside is it does use a lot of CPU for those with older iPads.


Tom
 
Weekend Warrior said:
Great Lakes region. I found for short term (like TAF range) they were fine, but beyond that they were horribly inaccurate. Like I said before I used them, but now that they’re gone I don’t think I’ll miss them.
Click to expand...

I dunno, the 3-day ones are pretty good. The 8-day ones... Well, it's an 8-day forecast and should come with an entire salt lick regardless of the source.
 
Services down
Prices up

Also why I wait for the pireps before I update.

9-CDAAD5-E-1-D31-4-AC9-B432-A5-C5-C3228-DE5.png



Being a pioneer has its draw backs
Oregon_Trail_1280w.jpg
 
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James331 said:
Services down
Prices up

Also why I wait for the pireps before I update.
Click to expand...

If you actually paid attention to the thread, ForeFlight had nothing to do with this product being removed - It was a government product, and they're the ones who removed it.

And, it was removed whether or not you did the update.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
If you actually paid attention to the thread, ForeFlight had nothing to do with this product being removed - It was a government product, and they're the ones who removed it.

And, it was removed whether or not you did the update.
Click to expand...

Well my comment to what we pay vs what we get still applies and my last check had the same amount of taxes, as did the AVGAS.
 
bkspero said:
Is the "Select Forecast Time" selection (eg. select from 1 to 77 for Ceiling Height) the number of hours after the "Select NBM Cycle" time that the forecast is valid?
Click to expand...
Looks that way.
 
GeorgeC said:
As promised:
https://sats.nws.noaa.gov/~nbm/nbm_graphics

Select ceiling height or visibility from the weather element pulldown. Goes out 3 days.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that, it is quite helpful.

The last few days I’ve been using Windy. Compared to this new NOAA product, for ceiling forecasts three days out, there are some differences, but not enough to change my plans a lot. Maybe a hundred mile difference, in the edge of a low-ceiling region, at a particular time as a front goes by.

Windy goes out 9 days vs 3, and it has a lovely user interface. Maybe I’ll start my planning with Windy, then within 3 days also check this new NOAA site for confirmation.
 
Has anyone found additional longer term graphical ceiling forecasts? I like windy.com, but dearly miss the mav-mos gov’t. graphics that were discontinued. During the colder months, they really helped me plan the likely success of returning home from WI to IL after a weekend visit. When icing is in play, I liked to have at least MVFR ceilings as a backup to be able to stay out of the clouds and away from the ice. This product used to let me have an educated guess for a long weekend and really worked well.
 
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