Bizjet/Netjets pilots and weather briefings

[IO540]

Hi All

I am a private (PPL/IR) pilot, 700hrs, SE piston but do IFR airways flight in Europe.

I am curious as to what exactly light jet / turboprop pilots do in the way of weather briefings, and where does the data come from.

Airlines have ground ops departments which, I believe, deliver a complete package to the pilot. But light jets are in a sort of in-between land and most have to do their own briefings.

If you do get the briefing from a commercial provider, what exactly is in it? I can imagine you will get TAFs/METARs for the two ends, SigWx (weather above 10k), and what else? Do you get weather radat images for example?

[vintage ATCO]

Avbrief provide a service to some airlines and biz operators, as do Weather Services International (WSI). I procured WSI into Luton some 8-10 years ago for a Briefing Service but I believe the airlines now contract with them directly (I no longer work for the airport so don't know). WSI's idea was that each pilot in a company would have his own log-in so wherever he was, even a hotel room, he could log in for a briefing.

As for what is provide, it can be anything they put on the system, inc NOTAMs, sat and radar imagery.

Mods: I have no connection with either company but if you feel this constitutes advertising please feel free to remove/amend.

[GDSD]

Hi
Personally, I use http://www.homebriefing.com. This system is free for the first 3 months and therafter only costs €35 or so for 12 months. Weather, Notams, flight plan submission and reply to mobile/email, slot notifiction to your mobile/email etc. (Can't get it to work on my Blackberry - yet - but seen it work on other PDAs)
It is Austrian but there is a good English interface. What's more, it stores your historic flight plans so you can repeat routes etc.
Worth a look - this has saved me soooooo much time I may even send them a Christmas card!
G

[G-SPOTs Lost]

Indeed Homebriefing.com is excellent, many companies also use crewbrief.com which is the Crewfacing side of the very efficient pps flight planning package.
Typically this will give you 1/2 a rainforest's worth of FIR notams, and local notams for all suitable airports en route, winds aloft charts for every flight level and then a summary sheet of the same information :ugh:
As MJ says if you get caught out whilst away with poorly websites then a good backup is www.ippc.no which is sponsored by the Norwegian Govt and in my experience very reliable.
This post does make me wonder about all the paperwork that we generate and being honest only refer to half of. Certainly as far as Im concerned perhaps ashamedly so i'm interested in dest/alt actual/forecast wind chart at FL340/FL390 destinationalternate notams and perhaps the upper winds summary to ensure there isn't a glaringly better level than that filed.
Considering the packed folder you normally get thrust at you, you would think that somebody would standardise this into a front and back piece of A4 that you could fold in 4 and pop in your top pocket. Think of the benefit to the environment - just imagine..........weather and notams left in the bath will be replaced with some new met, met hung up can be used again the following day ........ :E

[LRdriver II]

I use
www.wxsupport.com

Sign up and log on for free, and also do an SMS request service (at a cost). I can access wxsupport via my blackberry also.

Again we get a weather package from the handling agent to back it up.

[airmen]

We are provided with the handling agent or wx guys with all met requested, or we use jetplan.com or homebriefing.com on the local computer, to retrieve Taf, Sa, Wind charts, SigWX and not to forget enroute Notams as SAFA is asking them...so we end up with a lot of paper which is not very green...!

[IO540]

Interesting. I use homebriefing.com too, for flight plan filing.

The reason I asked the original Q was because I wondered if bizjet pilots ever look at any more "advanced" data e.g. tephigrams / skew-t etc. As a nonpressurised piston pilot with a 18-20k ceiling (but with oxygen) I find that an idea of the cloud tops, and icing potential, is an essential flight planning aid.

I suppose turboprops and jets tend to have good anti-ice so the pilots don't worry too much about it.

The SigWx shows only > 10k feet so how do you work out the ice situation for climbs/descents?