Unintended consequence of complete briefings

[Let'sgoflying!]

Is everyone reading, interpreting, digesting and remembering the full content of every briefing, every flight? I have not seen this discussed before.
I suspect there is so much info, and much of it not easily decoded that many flights go without getting even the important info.
Have you ever sat down with a briefing and a stopwatch to see how long it takes? Do it without skimming, read every line and take the time to look up those rad/dist's for each VOR on the SUAs, the limits of bad weather, look up the code you are not familiar with.
I could be wrong but I think almost no one reads the full thing every time, and we need a better plan.

 

[Palmpilot]

There is a LOT of information in Internet briefings that is inapplicable to my flights. It's hard to find everything that's relevant when it is buried in a mass of irrelevant stuff. During one flight, Flight Watch called me out of the blue, on the chance that I might be monitoring the frequency. It's a good thing I was, because he told me that my flight planned fuel stop in Death Valley was closed for resurfacing or something like that. I had overlooked the NOTAM! Given the scarcity of places to refuel in that area, I would have been in a tough situation if he hadn't reached me.

Lately, I've been more likely to get telephone briefings because of this problem. And they may actually be faster.

 

[weilke]

That's why I call for a briefing. It is recorded, if the briefer doesn"t tell me, I have an out (there is ntsb appeals precedent for this). The downside of downloading this flood of code on duats, foreflight etc. Is that you are now expected to know all of it.

 

[James331]

That's why I call for a briefing. It is recorded, if the briefer doesn"t tell me, I have an out (there is ntsb appeals precedent for this). The downside of downloading this flood of code on duats, foreflight etc. Is that you are now expected to know all of it.

FltPlan also records what it shows you.

 

[Hank S]

This is why I quit using DUATS, got tired of reading through 40-50 pages of stuff for every airport within ~100 nm of my flight path, to say nothing of weather happening 300-500 nm to both sides. It's a set up made to cover the govt's backside while burying me in information that I can't digest, especially when much of it is based on radials off of VORs.

So now I usually call the 800-number and talk to someone. Just had the official "VFR not recommended" yesterday for a 77nm flight, and by the time I got there the low clouds and mist were all burned off. Never even saw any . . . no mist, low clouds, nothing but blue skies and summer haze. Found the airport about 12 nm out, not bad for a first time visit.

 

[Sundancer]

Weird! I thought I was the only Luddite! Yeah, I've reverted to phone briefings; it's just quicker, takes fewer cycles, less mucking about with electrons. I jot down the parts that matter, maybe ask for FDCs, if relevant to what I'm doing. I was doing it all from Foreflight, but it's just a simpler (and sometimes faster) process to pick up the phone.

The automated processes still need refinement; just not that sophisticated yet . . .,

 

[rocketflyer84]

On the one hand I like the online briefings... then someone said "you know you're legally required to know everything that's in that mess!" Now I just call and talk to the nice people on the phone.

 

[jkaduk]

Use DUATs to make it official but get your info where it is convenient. ADDS, EFB, TFR Check etc.

 

[flyingron]

There's nothing "official" about DUAT for most of us.

I use weathermeister as it organizes the entire briefing information into a relevant and legible format (their QICP is pending).

 

[ChemGuy]

for local-ish flights with good weather, i use the computer info.

For longer flights i use the computer for an overall picture, but call in for a more detailed discussion along route of flight, and to avoid the 100 page notam review.

 

[Palmpilot]

for local-ish flights with good weather, i use the computer info.

For longer flights i use the computer for an overall picture, but call in for a more detailed discussion along route of flight, and to avoid the 100 page notam review.

I think that's that's pretty much what I've started to do too.