Met Office "Upgrade Subscription"

[Cosmic Star]

Was wondering how many of you out there in PPRuNe land have paid for the full subscription on the Met Office? I have been using the basic package for a while, and having done the majority of my flying in a place were everything is provided for free, I am a bit resistant to paying 56 odd quid a year for the full service.

If you don't use this service what do you use? I find this one pretty usefull, its got all the charts and info I need.

Link (http://www.pilotfriend.com/new%20site/frames/europe_aviation%20weather_frame.htm)

[Genghis the Engineer]

For what it's worth, I use

http://ows.public.sembach.af.mil/wxcharts/wxcharts.htm

and

http://www.weatherweb.net/aviation.htm

plus occasionally

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/

and for local weather condition

http://www.weatherstations.co.uk/aws_map.htm

(in addition to the free met office service).

G

[EddieHeli]

I paid for the upgrade as I used to get the 5 day forecast in the old expensive fax days and get it each day towards the weekend along with the synoptic charts so I could work out what the weather was doing and plan my weekend jaunts. The upgraded service is not as comprehensive as the old Fax system used to be (or at least I haven't found it as good).
So I also subscribed to avbrief as they do the longer term forecasts in a more useful fashion and also supply notams and route briefings in teh one place.
Having checked out your link though I probably won't renew the met office subscription, unsure about the avbrief one now that the notam site has been sorted out. I'll see how flush I am feeling when renewal time comes around.

I paid for the upgrade as I used to get the 5 day forecast in the old expensive fax days and get it each day towards the weekend along with the synoptic charts so I could work out what the weather was doing and plan my weekend jaunts. The upgraded service is not as comprehensive as the old Fax system used to be (or at least I haven\'t found it as good).
So I also subscribed to avbrief as they do the longer term forecasts in a more useful fashion and also supply notams and route briefings in the one place.
Having checked out your link though I probably won\'t renew the met office subscription, unsure about the avbrief one now that the notam site has been sorted out. I\'ll see how flush I am feeling when renewal time comes around.

[Cosmic Star]

Right well then another two questions, and theres no way to avoid sounding like a tight git, but:

Why on earth are we getting European weather provided to us by the US government!

Why does it cost 55 Sterling a year(80 odd units of our European Money) for a fairly basic service. I would consider it a flight hazard to not have easy access to weather. The FAA went down this route a long time ago and realised if they made it so easy to get weather that people couldn't avoid doing it and that would be good for safety. Or has flying in the states just spoilt me on another angle.

P.S Excellent Links Genghis, especially the first one.

[stuartforrest]

I like that first one by Ghengis also.

I have some useful weather and other links on my website for my personal use and for people who hires my plane(or indeed anyone who finds them useful) which is at

Beech Bonanza Hire Site Links (http://www.gotoair.com/links.htm)

I also paid Avbrief for a year but then decided that the free service was fine once I had discovered all these useful links. I am going to add some of these suggestions to my links page.

[Algirdas]

I use this one - it has great live weather, plus excellent links.
http://www.wellesbourneairfield.com/wxoffice.htm
I also use this one for forecasts
http://www.metcheck.com/48hrforecast.asp?lat=52&lon=-1&locationID=16

A

[Cosmic Star]

Algirdas, thats very interesting indeed. Those are the actual charts from the Met Office that you pays the extra dosh for. I bet they wouldn't be too happy about that!