Getting weather on the ground with no internet

cowman

cowman

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Cowman
So I normally do my pre-flight planning using internet sources but I may be in the position soon of having no internet access and needing weather information.

The only two methods I really know of are to call the phone numbers for the AWOS stations or call a briefer. Well that and the weather channel...

Any other good ones that I'm missing? How in the world did you old guys manage to plan cross countries back in the pre-internet days? :D
 
I think they used the telegraph at the western union station.
 
Mark I eyeball.

The briefer will tell you forecasts, but current conditions will be no better than AWOS (and might be old). But "scattered at 1000" doesn't make for an easy decision without a human observer. It depends where the clouds are, whether it's a go or a no-go.
 
I can get XM weather on the MFD on the ground. But it's pretty rare that I wouldn't have 4G on my iPhone (AT&T) or iPad (Verizon) or Wifi. How often would that happen?
 
cowman said:
So I normally do my pre-flight planning using internet sources but I may be in the position soon of having no internet access and needing weather information.

The only two methods I really know of are to call the phone numbers for the AWOS stations or call a briefer. Well that and the weather channel...

Any other good ones that I'm missing? How in the world did you old guys manage to plan cross countries back in the pre-internet days? :D
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No Stratus or GDL to plug into your tablet to get ADS-B weather? Call FSS.
 
RudyP said:
I can get XM weather on the MFD on the ground. But it's pretty rare that I wouldn't have 4G on my iPhone (AT&T) or iPad (Verizon) or Wifi. How often would that happen?
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Go out west and it will happen all the time.

I can't get a weather briefing from some parts of Palo Alto Airport at all. There is a dead spot north of the tower.
 
MAKG1 said:
Go out west and it will happen all the time.

I can't get a weather briefing from some parts of Palo Alto Airport at all. There is a dead spot north of the tower.
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I go to some pretty remote parts of Montana, the Dakotas, Colorado, etc... and I can recall plenty of times where I don't have signal out in the wilderness but very rarely don't have it at the airport - even if that means a runway and a couple of tie down spots with no buildings. I don't fly in to grass/dirt strips though.

Either way, XM would still get coverage.
 
cowman said:
How in the world did you old guys manage to plan cross countries back in the pre-internet days? :D
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We had to call and actually talk to someone.

In the old old days, we had to use these things called payphones!

IMG_5555.jpg


Then, once we were in the air, we'd call up Flight Service on the radio to get weather updates on the longer cross-countries.
 
RudyP said:
I go to some pretty remote parts of Montana, the Dakotas, Colorado, etc... and I can recall plenty of times where I don't have signal out in the wilderness but very rarely don't have it at the airport - even if that means a runway and a couple of tie down spots with no buildings. I don't fly in to grass/dirt strips though.

Either way, XM would still get coverage.
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True. While there are certainly a few in spotty coverage areas, I haven't found too many airports out west where I couldn't at least get a cell signal to call a briefer and usually can access the internet via my cell phone.
 
"You got a bank of pay phones? Not getting a sig on my beep"
 
I live in the country, there is no cell phone signal at my house... you can walk up the hill and get voice only, no data. However, I have wireless internet service in the house so that isn't a problem.

My in-laws though are also in a very spotty area for service and I just switched carriers so there's a good chance I won't have signal and they don't have internet access out there at all. As I'm flying in there(I hope) tomorrow afternoon and will be stranded there until such time as weather clears to something VFR between KY and FL. So... I'm gathering my resources now as best I can.

I have a first generation stratus, I can try it but I've never seen it actually receive anything below around 1500' AGL....
 
What's really bugging me is normally when I'm trying to see if I can make a long cross country flight, I obsessively check the METARS and TAF data from airports along the route. Aside from making me feel better, I also get a feel for how fast things are changing, the general trend, etc.

With this it's going to be gather what I can probably by phone, load up, have them drive us the 40-some minutes back to the airport(where I'm sure I'll have data) and hope the info I got syncs up with what I think looking at my ipad at that time.
 
cowman said:
I live in the country, there is no cell phone signal at my house... you can walk up the hill and get voice only, no data. However, I have wireless internet service in the house so that isn't a problem.

My in-laws though are also in a very spotty area for service and I just switched carriers so there's a good chance I won't have signal and they don't have internet access out there at all. As I'm flying in there(I hope) tomorrow afternoon and will be stranded there until such time as weather clears to something VFR between KY and FL. So... I'm gathering my resources now as best I can.

I have a first generation stratus, I can try it but I've never seen it actually receive anything below around 1500' AGL....
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www.1800wxbrief.com

Bob Gardner
 
MAKG1 said:
Go out west and it will happen all the time.

I can't get a weather briefing from some parts of Palo Alto Airport at all. There is a dead spot north of the tower.
Click to expand...

And there seems to be no cell phone coverage at all at Ocean Ridge (E55), and no pay phone anymore.
 
This is where XM satellite weather has an advantage. I got good signal and weather data with a Garmin 496 even at the bottom of a deep canyon in the Idaho backcountry (ID28), where there was no phone, cell or internet.
 
Takeoff and fly to another airport that has coverage and better facilities?
 
Fearless Tower said:
True. While there are certainly a few in spotty coverage areas, I haven't found too many airports out west where I couldn't at least get a cell signal to call a briefer and usually can access the internet via my cell phone.
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Last month I flew into West Yellowstone KWYS and spend a week in Yellowstone Park. If you have AT&T you will be out of luck for cell service. The town of West Yellowstone has no AT&T service. Verizon will have a signal in some of the area.
 
I have that problem at my cabin. Cell service works but no data. I call family or a friend and ask them to check aero weather and Alaska weather cams for me. When out in the sticks I've called FSS on my sat phone and asked them to do the same. I don't want a briefing, just a description of my preferred weather sources.
 
How in the world did you old guys manage to plan cross countries back in the pre-internet days? :D
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Here are two I did not see; many times as a young pilot I would use the FBO phone or payphone to call the airport of destination or someone I knew, for trips back to home base. Back then it was usually a pilot or someone knowledgeable about flying that would answer and they would be helpful. (no so much anymore)
Once in Mexico we had no phone or internet and needed to go 500mi to get back home so the only thing I had was CNN. They had TV and I watched the front pass, made a good guess as to cloud cover etc.

Thinking back to the old days, it's difficult to not say 'we is spoilt now!'

Old Guy.
 
Before crApple completely f***ed up my iPad with iOS8, I had cellular data and could pull weather from online sources, often even in flight.
So now I just use my cellphone to call for weather.
 
Call Flight Service. That still works. And if you get a good briefer, its better than your one head, you have his also! Also, if its legal to talk on a cell phone while you drive in your state, you can do it while you drive a car. Ive done it on the way to the airport.
 
For in flight weather, you have ATC, FSS and listening to the automated weather on the ground station, AWOS and ATIS and ASOS. There are still plenty of pilots that do it that way. And use paper charts too.
 
1-800-WXBRIEF

You haven't lived until you've listened to a radar summary over the phone or had them read off the radial coordinates of multiple AIR/SIGMET boxes. Get your scars and tell your grandchildren stories of yore. And it will make you appreciate EFBs that much more.
 
As others have said, you have 1-800-WxBrief if you have voice phone available. If not (and there are many places where this is true), you must have satellite weather (e.g. XM). It's possible, albeit very unlikely, that you'll have ADS-B on the ground somewhere that you don't have phone service.
 
coloradobluesky said:
Call Flight Service. That still works. And if you get a good briefer, its better than your one head, you have his also! Also, if its legal to talk on a cell phone while you drive in your state, you can do it while you drive a car. Ive done it on the way to the airport.
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Ha, I still mainly use the phone call for my weather and sometimes I do it on the way to the aiport in md (no handheld phone law). I live in pa (you can legally talk on the phone). If I get a long winded briefer I start to hope there aren't any cops for the 4 miles I'm in MD before I get to the aiport

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk
 
Used to be required to have a phone (an accessible regular phone or a semi-convenient pay station) at a field that uncontrolled fields with instrument approaches.

I used to have a list of 800 numbers for various flight service stations back before the 800-VFR-NOT-RECOMMENDED days.
 
Palmpilot said:
And there seems to be no cell phone coverage at all at Ocean Ridge (E55), and no pay phone anymore.
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This is a necrothread, but I just wanted to provide an update that the last time I went there, I was able to use my cell phone. Apparently, I was misinterpreting the fact that there were no bars to mean that there was no service, but when I actually tried to make a call, it worked fine.
 
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