NWS changing weather reporting points

[TangoWhiskey]

You know those "FROM 20NM SE OF BLI to 40 SSW OF XYZ" messages? I have a printed chart of those waypoints in my flight bag. NWS is changing some of them:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/notification/tin07-83aim_update.txt

What I find funny is they're changing them from identifiers that you might be able to "guess" at to ones you'd only know if you fly regularly in the airspace.

DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) > TTT (Maverick VOR identifier @ DFW)
AUS (Austin TX) > CWK (Centex VOR near Austin)
etc.

It's going to get more cryptic... gotta go print a new chart.

 

[gprellwitz]

Ugh! It's bad enough with the identifiers they have!

 

[Steve]

It's about time they referenced navaids.

 

[EdFred]

Ugh.

Like I know the freaking navaids on a 1000mile XC. Someone needs to be shot.

 

[Steve]

They happen to depicted on most, if not all, aerial navigation charts. Along with the ease of access to this kind of information on the internet there's really no excuse not to know the relevant ones on a planned route.

Unless you just hop in the plane and push "Direct".

I expect the new format to make it easier for ATC to integrate wx info into flight advisories for those that use them, IFR & FF.

Ugh.

Like I know the freaking navaids on a 1000mile XC. Someone needs to be shot.

 

[t0r0nad0]

maps.avnwx.com - they have them drawn out for you

 

[EdFred]

They happen to depicted on most, if not all, aerial navigation charts. Along with the ease of access to this kind of information on the internet there's really no excuse not to know the relevant ones on a planned route.

Unless you just hop in the plane and push "Direct".

I expect the new format to make it easier for ATC to integrate wx info into flight advisories for those that use them, IFR & FF.

Except the "relevant ones" are never on my route, especially when it's an area that I have no clue where its boundaries are. Could be something only a few hundre square miles, or it could be something that runs from INL to RSK

 

[TangoWhiskey]

it could be something that runs from INL to RSK

From where to where??

 

[EdFred]

Exactly!

 

[gprellwitz]

They happen to depicted on most, if not all, aerial navigation charts. Along with the ease of access to this kind of information on the internet there's really no excuse not to know the relevant ones on a planned route.

Unless you just hop in the plane and push "Direct".

I expect the new format to make it easier for ATC to integrate wx info into flight advisories for those that use them, IFR & FF.

Yeah, but availability on the Internet doesn't help me when I'm flying from Chicago to Florida and hear an airmet described whose vertices are located in a 6 or 7 state area, none of which are even ones I'm flying through!

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Yeah, but availability on the Internet doesn't help me when I'm flying from Chicago to Florida and hear an airmet described whose vertices are located in a 6 or 7 state area, none of which are even ones I'm flying through!

Plus, when they read it on HIWAS, they say "60 miles NNE of Centex VOR to 120 miles NW of Maverick VOR..."

They don't say "60 miles NE of CWK to 120 miles NW of TTT". And the internet chart you printed off and stuck in your flight bag shows "CWK" and "TTT", not "Centex" and "Maverick".

Good luck finding that in the air, IMC, bouncing around.

Call up FSS and say "which way to the NON-convective weather", or check your GPS Nexrad for a strategic end run around--not through--the weather area. Much simpler.

Airmets/Sigmets defined this way are for ground planning, in my opinion. I'll call Flight Watch or see them plotted on a GPS before I'll attempt to deconstruct that arcane verbiage in flight.