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Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

nco.ncep.noaa.gov

11–20 of 236 posts

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#12
Unlike the NOTAM outage, a METAR outage will and should actually affect flights. Without weather at your destination it becomes impossible to know if it’s safe to land there. The forecasts (TAF) are actually used more in flight planning, but actual weather is very valuable while enroute, when not close enough to hear weather over the radio from the destination airport.

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#13
post #3

[flagged]

Things I use as a pilot of a single engine piston: - Temp dew point spread - Barometric pressure - TAF / forecast - Wind shear - Freezing level - Cloud tops - Cloud level AGL - visibility measured in actual distance All of these things can’t be measured easily by a human. Visibility is probably the easiest, but can you tell me what the dew point is easily? If I use it, imagine the critical importance for airliners.

Wind shear is easy. feel the wind on your face, then jump as high as possible and feel the wind up there.

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#15
Serious question: At what point does the failure of government services warrant the partial withholding of taxes?

This isn't sufficient of course but when the FAA repeatedly demonstrates incompetence, when do we eventually just tell them no, you can't have any more of my money, you're obviously wasting it and making us worse off?

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#16
post #15

Serious question: At what point does the failure of government services warrant the partial withholding of taxes? This isn't sufficient of course but when the FAA repeatedly demonstrates incompetence, when do we eventually just tell them no, you can't have any more of my money, you're obviously wasting it and making us worse off?

That's basically the entire point of Congress

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#17
post #3

[flagged]

Things I use as a pilot of a single engine piston: - Temp dew point spread - Barometric pressure - TAF / forecast - Wind shear - Freezing level - Cloud tops - Cloud level AGL - visibility measured in actual distance All of these things can’t be measured easily by a human. Visibility is probably the easiest, but can you tell me what the dew point is easily? If I use it, imagine the critical importance for airliners.

I got curious and Google'd some of this:

> The dew point in relation to the temperature gives the pilots information about the humidity, and can affect visibility. If the dew point is close to the temperature, humidity is high, which can cause hazy conditions, or even fog.

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#18
post #15

Serious question: At what point does the failure of government services warrant the partial withholding of taxes? This isn't sufficient of course but when the FAA repeatedly demonstrates incompetence, when do we eventually just tell them no, you can't have any more of my money, you're obviously wasting it and making us worse off?

That’s not how taxes work. You don’t get to choose how the money is spent (other than indirectly, via elections).

If you did you’d be a consumer, not a taxpayer.

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#19
post #15

Serious question: At what point does the failure of government services warrant the partial withholding of taxes? This isn't sufficient of course but when the FAA repeatedly demonstrates incompetence, when do we eventually just tell them no, you can't have any more of my money, you're obviously wasting it and making us worse off?

Until the failure causes political embarrassment or change. It required the meltdown of healthcare.gov to kickstart the use of modern tooling and methodology in gov't IT.

Re: Nationwide FAA weather reporting outage

#20
post #15

Serious question: At what point does the failure of government services warrant the partial withholding of taxes? This isn't sufficient of course but when the FAA repeatedly demonstrates incompetence, when do we eventually just tell them no, you can't have any more of my money, you're obviously wasting it and making us worse off?

Is it them wasting money, or do they have a constrained budget with an ever growing number of responsibilities and scope? Do you think there are fewer planes in the air now then 30 years ago? 10 years ago?
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