How often do you get a weather briefing from FSS via the phone?

Do you call 1800WXBRIEF for Weather on IFR flight plan?

  • Regularly call for weather briefing

    Votes: 9 11.5%

  • Occasionally call for weather briefing

    Votes: 17 21.8%

  • Never call for weather

    Votes: 22 28.2%

  • Haven't called for a briefing in the last year

    Votes: 30 38.5%
  • Total voters
    78
J

John Collins

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Curious if you take advantage of discussing weather with an FSS briefer or not as part of your IFR planning.
 
Never have, but I've only been flying for 6 years. I read everything I can find; I hate talking on the phone. I also only fly for a hobby, so if the weather is even sketchy, I don't have to go. No issues just waiting something out or going a different day for me.
 
Every cross country. And very occasionally for local flights. And I don't even fly IFR. They're literally experts at interpreting weather reports. Some pilots are too, but I'm not. Plus NOTAMs, TFRs, etc., it's well worth the time and cost.
 
Called once and wasn't impressed with the briefer's WX knowledge. I use Windy and Aviationweather.gov. I have found the discussion section in the aviationweather.gov to be excellent and use that if briefing a flight where the weather is questionable.

Here's a sample
Screenshot 2026-03-21 at 1.03.37 PM.png
 
Also, an instructor once pointed out that if I ever bust a TFR, they'll look at whether I got a briefing. I don't know if that's true or not. But if it is true, I would expect the fact that a TFR didn't come up in a briefing would have more weight than if it didn't show up on foreflight..
 
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Never.

Well, once, due to an unclear notam or tfr.

Other than that, never.
 
Which vote corresponds to “almost never”?

There were a couple of times I was driving to the airport and said to myself “self, you should probably get a weather update.

Darned Foreflight does not show up in Apple CarPlay
 
I did one time years ago when I was staying somewhere with no internet and we used up the roaming data on my phone. I would again if I had no internet for some reason but that's pretty rare anymore.
 
A telephone WX briefing probably costs the FAA $40 vs $1 for an online briefing. The briefer is paid $39 an hour + generous benefits + infrastructure required + profit.
 
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I've done my share of calling them. Sometimes it's quite convenient when you're driving to a grass strip and want an up-to-date snapshot before takeoff. I really hate how they try to push you for an online briefing in those circumstances - like, duh, the reason I'm calling you is because it's more convenient to call than to set up an internet briefing, and to de-prioritize me because I didn't brief online in the last two hours (because I was driving) is literally insulting. Insult or not, I'll still be calling.
 
I'm actually surprised at the number of responses saying they do call. I expected a pretty solid stream of "never".

I honestly don't remember the last time I called. Years, maybe over a decade?
 
I called once. The briefer read me the same briefing I had received on the computer. Took so long the weather probably changed while he did it. Never again.
 
I think the last time I called for a briefing was around the same time I'd telnet into DUATS.
 
I call maybe once every few years, if there's something that's not clear to me online, like a complicated TFR or fast changing weather.

"Back in the day" the briefers would have local knowledge that the area forecast data didn't capture, but nowadays you won't get that local briefer who knew that the fog always rolls in at 5pm under certain conditions regardless of what the VFR forecast said.

Velocity173 said:
How many have actually walked into a FSS for a briefing?
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I did, just once. Only because I happened to be there (Millville, NJ) and the FSS was on the field, so I walked in "just because I could". Not that I needed to, it was the 1980s and TFRs were unknown and it was a severe VFR day.
 
Is there a way to pull up a briefing on Garmin Pilot and then have Siri read it to me while I'm driving?
 
Not since Private, back in the 80s, before DUATS. I did call to file a while back when Foreflight was glitching, and I didn't know all 10 attempts had gone through...:(
 
Jim K said:
I called once. The briefer read me the same briefing I had received on the computer. Took so long the weather probably changed while he did it. Never again.
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Ive had that experience as well. So bad I knew what they were going to say before they said it. If you query them a bit sometimes you'll get more information.

"What is expected of that occluded front west of Atlanta 5 hours from now?"
 
I really dislike the online flight planner available through 1800weatherbrief.com, so I only use the other services provided through that website/phone number on rare occasions. I call once in a while because I don't want the service to disappear. I feel like I get all the information I need faster through other websites like AOPA's flight planner (provided by iFlightplanner), the Aviation Weather Center's graphic forecast (https://aviationweather.gov/) and my EFB.
 
1774199341812.png

In our flying family, I'm more in favor of an online brief. The other PIC is the one that likes calling a briefer and chatting with him. I'd say we get about a 50-50 mix of briefers who just read the online stuff and briefers that go off the script and actually discuss important details. Saved us on a couple long XCs where I would've canceled based on my interpreration of the online brief.
 
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For me, actually seeing the weather graphically on line and the forecast predictions hour by hour gives me a much better feel for what’s ahead as opposed to someone telling me over the phone where the front is or what the conditions are. I’m a visual person I guess.

I do remember when there was Flight Service in person at Oshkosh during AirVenture. I really liked that. Much better speaking to a person face to face.
 
A good briefer will realize he doesn't need to read you the NOTAM about a taxiway light being OOS at an airport 49 miles off your planned route.
 
I have Garmin Pilot get me a 1800wxbrief digitally. Nice graphics and the system records that I got it. Windy app is great as well.
 
texasclouds said:
I have Garmin Pilot get me a 1800wxbrief digitally. Nice graphics and the system records that I got it. Windy app is great as well.
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Is there a way to get that to display on Apple CarPlay?
 
AV8R_87 said:
In our flying family, I'm more in favor of an online brief. The other PIC is the one that likes calling a briefer and chatting with him. I'd say we get about a 50-50 mix of briefers who just read the online stuff and briefers that go off the script and actually discuss important details. Saved us on a couple long XCs where I would've canceled based on my interpreration of the online brief.
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Last time I called to get a brief the briefer literally read me word for word what I had in front of me in FF and didn’t want to discuss anything about the what if. That was the last time I called. Perhaps 5 years ago.
 
Back when I first started as a student, calling FSS was the only option. Toured the McAlester, OK FSS once before I started taking lessons. However, when I was less than 20 hours into my training, my CFI tasked me with obtaining a brief before our local flight later that day. The briefer chewed my ass for not having the initial at the top of a flight plan form for him. It wasn't good enough to simply say "N737GR Newport News local." Kinda turned me off from calling them after that. To be fair, I'm a much different person today and would have approached that whole ordeal differently but today I prefer to absorb information at my own pace and in my own way. My entire day job revolves around weather (albeit at the surface level) and I'm a weather nerd on top of that so there's not usually a weather situation that doesn't make sense to me. I think I'd be ok with calling them nowadays but I haven't found a reason to do so. The tools available on 1800wxbrief.com and supplemented with other tools is just fine for me.
 
Up until about 6 years ago, literally every time I flew. That was because Leidos (and previously Lockmart) were responsible for filing FRZ flight plans, which must be done by telephone. More recently, a ZDC D-side controller takes those calls, meaning a call to FSS would be an additional call.

I do occasionally still call FSS, typically when convenience dictates (I.e. no access to internet or while driving) or the weather is right on the bubble of a go/no go where talking it out might be beneficial. I think the expertise of weather briefing is not quite as strong as it was in the 90s when I first started flying, but that could also be due to the litigiousness of society and the motivation to err on the side of “VFR not recommended” whenever there’s a cloud reported in the sky.

As it is, the FAA is slowly pulling back on the labor intensive flight service contracts. Many core services were removed years ago, such as monitoring guard and providing emergency services to pilots. That’s 100% an ATC function now.

I don’t think that necessarily a bad thing; we’re very much in a different place in 2026 than we were in 1986. As long as there’s a place to access the information provided by FSS online for free, I think long-term that money is probably better spent elsewhere. Remember, FSS is nearly 100% solely utilized by light GA.
 
KE5BM said:
Back when I first started as a student, calling FSS was the only option. Toured the McAlester, OK FSS once before I started taking lessons. However, when I was less than 20 hours into my training, my CFI tasked me with obtaining a brief before our local flight later that day. The briefer chewed my ass for not having the initial at the top of a flight plan form for him. It wasn't good enough to simply say "N737GR Newport News local." Kinda turned me off from calling them after that. To be fair, I'm a much different person today and would have approached that whole ordeal differently but today I prefer to absorb information at my own pace and in my own way. My entire day job revolves around weather (albeit at the surface level) and I'm a weather nerd on top of that so there's not usually a weather situation that doesn't make sense to me. I think I'd be ok with calling them nowadays but I haven't found a reason to do so. The tools available on 1800wxbrief.com and supplemented with other tools is just fine for me.
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I remember pre consolidation when Newport News FSS had a desk at PHF that you could walk up to and get your briefing. It seemed old-school even at the time (it was 1993).
 
Brad Z said:
I remember pre consolidation when Newport News FSS had a desk at PHF that you could walk up to and get your briefing. It seemed old-school even at the time (it was 1993).
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Oh wow! Yeah, I think that was long gone by the time I started flying there in 2001. Otherwise, I would have walked into that office. I'm fairly certain my calls went to Wakefield back then but that was many beers ago.
 
KE5BM said:
Oh wow! Yeah, I think that was long gone by the time I started flying there in 2001. Otherwise, I would have walked into that office. I'm fairly certain my calls went to Wakefield back then but that was many beers ago.
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I think by 2001 they were consolidated into Leesburg (using NWS data out of Wakefield) but still answering the phone and radio as Newport News.
 
I can’t remember the last time I got a phone briefing. The advent of duats pretty much removed the need.
 
I do an online briefing with every flight and then follow that up with a phone briefing in the car while driving to the airport for the flight. The online briefing provides more detail to consider, but I also do the phone briefing because a typical 1800WxBrief briefing is between 75 and 85 pages long and that means that there is a reasonable chance that I might miss a relevant piece of information buried in that mountain of irrelevant information. The phone briefing gives me a second chance to find all that's relevant.

It seems, though, that waits are getting longer to speak with a phone briefer. Are the FAA and Leidos trying to discourage use of the phone?
 
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