Preliminary Weather Briefing

T-45C TS & IUT INav-11

Practical Problems

Preliminary Weather Briefing

You have determined that you want to go to a particular destination, NAS JAX. The first thing you should

do prior to beginning your preflight planning is to stop by the weather office. It would be pointless to plan a

flight to your destination only to find that the weather there is unsuitable. You can get a preliminary

weather briefing up to a week in advance of your flight. The forecaster can give you a general idea of what

kind of weather to expect depending on the time of year, as well as probable en route and surface winds.

An OPARS could be run based on historical data. At this time an OPARS request can be made for your

ETD (which should be made at least 24 hours in advance if at all possible).

You will be looking for the following information in the weather office:

Severe weather warning (WW) areas: found on the WW board

Surface weather depiction chart: areas of IFR (red) and marginal VFR (blue) weather

NOTE: Use this information to determine the direction to fly for emergency fields if the need for one

occurs in flight.

Surface analysis chart: locations of weather fronts along your route

Ask for:

Your destination forecast weather based on estimated time of departure (ETD) and estimated time en

route (ETE). If it appears that an alternate is required, ask for the forecast weather at suitable fields in

your destination area and within your range of flight.

The flight level of most favorable winds, weather permitting, along your intended route of flight

The forecast surface winds at your destination and alternate fields in order to plan for a particular

approach

DD-175-1 flight weather briefing

Weather Briefing Information

Altitude: The most favorable winds and weather en route are at FL370.

Climb winds: Training squadrons do not use climb winds in type C class (tactical jet) aircraft. Refer to

the climb data in Figure 10 of this workbook and read distance, time, and fuel directly from the chart

for the appropriate altitude.

Winds aloft:

Meridian to Montgomery

280 degrees/60 kts

Montgomery to Seminole

280 degrees/60 kts

Seminole to Taylor

270 degrees/50 kts

Taylor to NAS JAX

270 degrees/50 kts

NAS JAX to Moody AFB

270 degrees/50 kts

NAS JAX IAF altitude

FL200; 250 degrees/30 kts

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