What's still missing from the preflight workflow?

[HelloPilots]

Mostly fly piston singles in the southeast, been kicking the tires on a research question for a while and figured I'd put it to this group since you've all been at this longer than most.

Even with ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, the rebuilt aviationweather.gov, the new FAA NOTAM search - where do you still feel friction in your preflight workflow?

Not asking what's wrong with any specific app. Asking the bigger question: when you sit down to brief a cross-country, what's the part where you still mutter "this should be easier in 2026"?

For me it's NOTAMs. Half are irrelevant, the relevant ones are buried, and parsing the ones that matter takes more reading than the actual weather brief.

Curious what your version of that is. Not selling anything, not building a ForeFlight competitor — genuinely trying to understand where the workflow still has rough edges.

 

[wilkersk]

...
For me it's NOTAMs. Half are irrelevant, the relevant ones are buried, and parsing the ones that matter takes more reading than the actual weather brief.
...

^^ Ditto!

 

[luvflyin]

Mostly fly piston singles in the southeast, been kicking the tires on a research question for a while and figured I'd put it to this group since you've all been at this longer than most.

Even with ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, the rebuilt aviationweather.gov, the new FAA NOTAM search - where do you still feel friction in your preflight workflow?

Not asking what's wrong with any specific app. Asking the bigger question: when you sit down to brief a cross-country, what's the part where you still mutter "this should be easier in 2026"?

For me it's NOTAMs. Half are irrelevant, the relevant ones are buried, and parsing the ones that matter takes more reading than the actual weather brief.

Curious what your version of that is. Not selling anything, not building a ForeFlight competitor — genuinely trying to understand where the workflow still has rough edges.

Did someone say NOTAM’s….

 

[sarangan]

Mostly fly piston singles in the southeast, been kicking the tires on a research question for a while and figured I'd put it to this group since you've all been at this longer than most.

Even with ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, the rebuilt aviationweather.gov, the new FAA NOTAM search - where do you still feel friction in your preflight workflow?

Not asking what's wrong with any specific app. Asking the bigger question: when you sit down to brief a cross-country, what's the part where you still mutter "this should be easier in 2026"?

For me it's NOTAMs. Half are irrelevant, the relevant ones are buried, and parsing the ones that matter takes more reading than the actual weather brief.

Curious what your version of that is. Not selling anything, not building a ForeFlight competitor — genuinely trying to understand where the workflow still has rough edges.

NOTAM is the number one issue, as you pointed out. The weather data in coded form is much easier to decipher and read quickly. The NOTAMs go on and on in all CAPS and long essay like prose - it's easy to miss critical info. Try reading one of those during flight.

Another feature I wish I had is a real time predictive routing. I don't mean previously cleared routes. Based on time of day and known traffic in the air, it would be nice to know which routing are you likely to get when you call up clearance in the next few minutes.

 

[Av1ate]

SIDAs are not marked, mapped, or highlighted in any meaningful way in any documentation that’s easily available in the cockpit.

 

[M20K]

For me it's NOTAMs. Half are irrelevant, the relevant ones are buried, and parsing the ones that matter takes more reading than the actual weather brief.

The NOTAM system is being revamped as we speak. Now I wish I could say it will resolve all the issues with the NOTAMs, but I'm really not sure. But let's hope it is a major change and not just pretty new upholstery over the same lumpy broken smelly old couch.

 

[M20K]

Based on time of day and known traffic in the air, it would be nice to know which routing are you likely to get when you call up clearance in the next few minutes.

Wouldn't that be more the active runway and the SID rather than the Route? It may take a little time to get out of a big metro area, but then the Route is pretty much the same as those FF, WXBrief, etc. suggest.

 

[Clip4]

The issue is

91.103 Preflight action.​

Each pilot in command shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight.

Since the FAA doesn’t want to determine what information concerns your flight, you get all the available information in a rather poorly organized format and it’s to much to sort.

A private pilot student presented with IAP NOTAMs during an online briefing is probably the best example.

 

[TCABM]

Call me risky, but I like how FF/GP treat NOTAMS. I also use notams.aim.faa.gov and filter out the crap ones.

The idiotic pdf output of 1800wxbrief though. That thing kills me.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Apparently flying should have become this by now

 

[Initial Fix]

NOTAMS - I GET TIRED OF THEM YELLING AT ME

Seriously, why the all caps? Why the cryptic short words. Why the disorganized flow. Yes I know the FAA is actively working on these.

 

[Domenick]

Did someone say NOTAM’s….

Note the video is 7 years old. Despite raising the NTSB ire nothing happened for 7 years.

The NOTAM system is being revamped as we speak. Now I wish I could say it will resolve all the issues with the NOTAMs, but I'm really not sure. But let's hope it is a major change and not just pretty new upholstery over the same lumpy broken smelly old couch.

Hopefully, they won't make it worse.
(Though that is hard to imagine.)

 

[midlifeflyer]

Apparently flying should have become this by now

When it comes to unfiltered NOTAM repeatedly reminding me that birds hang out near airports, spoon feeding sounds like a great idea.

 

[nauga]

Apparently flying should have become this by now

If you really mean "flying" and not "flight planning" the gif should have a dog, not a baby.

Nauga,
manually overridden

 

[MikeNY]

use notams.aim.faa.gov and filter out ...

Notams by Location, by Flight Path, with options: Filter, Sort, Plain Language, etc.

FNS NOTAM Search

 

[Dana]

Hopefully, they won't make it worse.
(Though that is hard to imagine.)

Never underestimate the power of a government agency.

 

[sarangan]

Never underestimate the power of a government agency.

Here are a few useless NOTAMs that simply clutter the system.

!DAY 04/168 DAY TWY S, R, T, U, M, G, TWY Z BTN RWY 06L/24R AND TWY R, TWY E BTN RWY 18/36 AND TWY D SFC PAINTED HLDG PSN SIGNS NOT STD 2604200614-2605292300
!ARB 04/007 ARB AD AP ALL SFC WIP GRASS CUTTING 2604171009-2610311300

 

[M20K]

Here are a few useless NOTAMs that simply clutter the system.

Actually, I don't mind those NOTAMs **IF** that's the airport I'm going to. But if it is 50nm away, then it should not show up in my briefing. Or if it is in my briefing it should be off in a LIOFYI section... Low Importance Only For Your Information.

This is something AI would actually be good at - once trained properly (vs with what ever cr*p ChatGPT would come up with now ). For every briefing look at all the NOTAMs and group them in priority. Departure important stuff, Enroute important stuff, Destination important stuff then dump all the crap in a section at the bottom.

 

[Albany Tom]

I'm kind of wondering if the NOTAM problem is because everyone is trying to transfer the risk to the pilots. People driving around in trucks inspecting the runway? People cutting the grass and they might cross the runway without warning? Rather than address the risk, let's just dump it on the pilot. No, how about either close it or decide it's OK and the airport can deal with the risk.

So my suggestion would be to limit the things that could be in a runway to 5 or fewer specific things, that can only relate to things in the path of the aircraft, or what they need to land.

1 - airport closed
2 - runway X closed
3 - instrument approach X unavailable
4 - FBO now only has Coke products

Anything else? Doesn't matter, or they can figure it out when they're on the ground and they don't get assigned taxiway 'c'. Problem with the runway or the airport? Airport management gets to figure out if they want to close the runway or airport or not.

Nobody needs to know that X VOR from 13.5 degrees west to 34 degrees east is only available above 500' unless it's raining and you're wearing polarized glasses. Or that someone put up a construction crane that's not in the approach path. Etc.

Just my rant for the day. I agree with the NTSB chairman in the video above.

 

[asicer]

So my suggestion would be to limit the things that could be in a runway to 5 or fewer specific things, that can only relate to things in the path of the aircraft, or what they need to land.

1 - airport closed
2 - runway X closed
3 - instrument approach X unavailable
4 - FBO now only has Coke products

Anything else?

Yes.

Checking Airnav's fuel section: "$5 Avgas!"
Checking NOTAMS: "Fuel pump U/S".

 

[MackMooney]

Mostly fly piston singles in the southeast, been kicking the tires on a research question for a while and figured I'd put it to this group since you've all been at this longer than most.

Even with ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, the rebuilt aviationweather.gov, the new FAA NOTAM search - where do you still feel friction in your preflight workflow?

Not asking what's wrong with any specific app. Asking the bigger question: when you sit down to brief a cross-country, what's the part where you still mutter "this should be easier in 2026"?

For me it's NOTAMs. Half are irrelevant, the relevant ones are buried, and parsing the ones that matter takes more reading than the actual weather brief.

Curious what your version of that is. Not selling anything, not building a ForeFlight competitor — genuinely trying to understand where the workflow still has rough edges.

between TWC and 1800wxbrief, i'm pretty good, really not much to be desired. 1800wxbrief gives a quick summary, aftwhich i read ource/destination notams then scan the rest, usually takes about 5 mins. don't really bother with briefings in gp and foreflight. Actually, the largest pain point i still have is navigating large airports, esp at night, thinking gp or foreflight should be able to give me breadcrumbs or something.

 

[midlifeflyer]

Actually, the largest pain point i still have is navigating large airports, esp at night, thinking gp or foreflight should be able to give me breadcrumbs or something.

Both apps let you draw in the airport diagram. In addition ForeFlight Labs (a Premium add-on) has a taxi route piece (iffy).
This was my taxi for departure from PHL in FF.

 

[MackMooney]

Both apps let you draw in the airport diagram. In addition ForeFlight Labs (a Premium add-on) has a taxi route piece (iffy).
This was my taxi for departure from PHL in FF.
View attachment 152100

I know about drawing on the map, but that's kinda cool. you guys have no idea how bad the taxi of shame can be when you go the wrong way

 

[midlifeflyer]

I know about drawing on the map, but that's kinda cool. you guys have no idea how bad the taxi of shame can be when you go the wrong way

Oh I don’t, eh? That pic I posted is the taxi for departure and it was pretty complex. On arrival on runway 35 it was dead simple and I screwed it up. It’s in the last 2 minutes or so of this video.