Originally Posted by
Mr Approach
Isdon - the majority of airports overseas do not train their Tower ATCs as Met Observers but Airservices does. Hence the ATIS you get overseas is just the current METAR spoken onto the tape. In Australia you get the controller observations but only changed in accordance with a set of instructions, not every two minutes as you contend. That's why Australian Towers were not in the habit of giving a wind with every landing or take off clearance. The ATIS wind is accurate not what the MET man saw 30 minutes ago.
Yes. That may be all true.
From an end user perspective. i.e. The pilot. It's just another embuggerance to efficient operation.
If we're on the limit of performance we'll ask for a wind check. If we're not then the average wind over the last 30 minutes is just fine.
And it's not me who contends that the ATIS changes every two minutes. Even if it did, what makes a two minute old ATIS more valid than one issued 30 minutes ago?
The fact is the ATIS can be incorrect 5 seconds after it's recorded.
Far better to have general conditions in the ATIS changed every 30 minutes and changes to that issued with takeoff and landing clearances.
You may think you're helping, but you're not. Take the feedback or not. It's up to you.