Pilotage,
Remember that the law requires that you base your desicion on both the
actual and the
forecast conditions. If you only check the TAFs you have not checked the weather!!
It must be decades since there was a forecaster at even the major airfields. Manchester does have the weather centre but as far as I am aware, that is located somewhere downtown miles from the airport.
The places I have recently come across resident forecasters (or atleast a human in the met office that could give an opinion on what was happening) are - RAF fields, Isle of Man and Jersey.
Haven't checked the exact requirement but I believe that the Met Office responsible for thinking up the TAF will wait until they have 3 METARS before transmitting the forecast............this means that at many part time airfields the met observer has to be in well before opening time. ................perhaps the guy at Blackpool prefers to lie in
For airfields that have no METAR reports it is possible in many areas of the world to get a "local area forecast" from the relevant met office...............similar info to what they give in an aftercast except the LAF will have the wind within limits and the aftercast following a runway excursion will be out of limits!!!!
The most important thing to remember is that any forecast is an "educated guess".........similar to betting on the horses......and the pilot should be equipped with enough skill and knowledge to either agree with the forecast or contact the forecaster if there is any reason for doubt - a common one being sat on the ramp with a TAF of CAVOK while waiting for the RVRs to lift to minimums but it is the more subtle ones that can catch people out.
Finally, before we complain about the forecasts given by the met office - how many pilots who having discovered that the forecast overcast base 3000 tops 12,000 is actually base 2000 tops 5000.......actually make a PIREP so that the met office have the actual conditions............if pilots can't be bothered to provide the info then the forecaster is being deprived of essential info.
Regards,
DFC