I retired in “09” (777 IAH) and at that point in time the cockpit crew would meet in the WX Room, pick up the papers, review the info and weather, and then proceed to the aircraft.

I was wondering… Is that still the drill, or do you guys receive all of your weather and dispatch paperwork on iPads now? (They were just starting to talk about it back when I retired.)

Second question… Do you guys ever use the various toolsets available at the government’s NOAA - Aviation Weather Center website or do you just stick with your Dispatch brief?

( https://aviationweather.gov )

If you’re not using it already… you might want to check out the NOAA - Traffic Flow Management Portal as well. Tons of interesting info at the touch of a button.

( https://aviationweather.gov/trafficflowmgmt/ )

 

International flights still meet in ops, look over everything, talk to dispatch, etc, and then proceed to the aircraft. Still have to have a paper flight plan for flag flights. They are supposedly working towards paperless for everything, but that check in the mail. Domestically, some meet in ops, some meet at the jet. We just use the company-provided weather (WSI, Jepp, etc) as those are the authorized sources.

 

Right lots of good stuff. WSI and it’s associated app has a lot of the same charts to reference, it will just be displayed slightly differently either way with their graphics (think like apple vs Samsung)

In addition we have this app now called skypath, which uses crowd sourcing to show areas that aircraft experienced anything other than smooth conditions. Opinions on it will vary, it does have its limitations. I find it does take the subjectivity out of verbal reporting, however I feel it over estimates how bad the conditions are……as well as its crowd sourcing, so just like garbage in garbage out……if nothing goes in, nothing will come out. So depending on time of day,city pairing, along with participating/not participating carriers, your internet not working there may not be anyone else contributing to it……potentially erroneously thinking conditions will be smooth and won’t be and you aren’t not confirming this with other resources (radar, pireps, and wsi)

I will say the AADC tool is very useful, for those in the back row that’s the airport arrival demand chart (accessible on the FAA website) , is a great way to predict if there will be a GDP…hours ahead, a great resource for those 3 leg domestic days. It’s more of a dispatch tool, but once again they may see the same data, but might not think like us when it comes to fuel.

 

One can look at weather wherever they want, just so that ‘company approved’ is controlling. It can be a thing, for one to gather a tidbit from an uncommon source.

With the various tools available one can end up with slight overload, ‘need to know’ factors in. If things develop, delays, weather, crew times, may be a reason to look in that direction.

There are a handful of ways to contact other crew members before the original brief. At times one runs late, or issues may come up.

IDK, maybe I’ve regressed to a ‘1-1’.

 

Enjoy retirement !

 

Everything… literally everything is available on the iPads…

 

You don’t even need the paper flight plan. As long as it’s on the iPad you can use the ACARS log for the class 2 record keeping.

 

Yup. The ACARS MFL is what I'd say 90% of CAs use for the ETOPS flights I've done (admittedly I have only done about 80 etops legs, so my experience is quite limited compared to most.) I can remember maybe one guy who insisted on stopping by the CPO to print out the paper plan.

 

Only been here 18 months but I can count on one finger the number of capts who preferred to meet at ops instead of the airplane. In indoc they told us to always text the CA beforehand to find out where they preferred to meet. Most of the IAH guys were like "meeting at Ops is a legacy United thing, we don't do that here in Houston." Which was just fine with me

 

I dial into DUATS for my weather briefing.