8.4 Briefings and Go/No-Go Decisions
Key Takeaways
- 14 CFR 91.103 requires the PIC to become familiar with all available information: for a flight not in the vicinity of an airport that includes weather reports and forecasts, fuel, alternatives, and known ATC delays, plus runway lengths and takeoff/landing data for any flight.
- Request a standard briefing when you have not already briefed; an abbreviated briefing to update a previous briefing or to get specific items; an outlook briefing only when departure is six or more hours away — then get a standard or abbreviated briefing before takeoff.
- Flight Service is available at 1-800-WX-BRIEF and 1800wxbrief.com (Leidos). Specialists interpret products; they do not create original forecasts, and “VFR flight not recommended” is advisory — the go/no-go is still yours.
- HIWAS is retired in the contiguous U.S. Do not study it as a current inflight source. Use FSS, FIS-B/ADS-B weather, and PIREPs instead.
- Cockpit NEXRAD and FIS-B are strategic tools with latency — AIM says the mosaic may be 15 to 20 minutes older than the display suggests. They are not a storm-penetration radar.
ACS PA.I.C.K1 is sources of weather data (NWS, Flight Service, and the products those sources publish). PA.I.C.K4 is flight-deck displays of digital weather. Risk elements PA.I.C.R1 and R2 are the go/no-go, continue/divert decision, personal minimums, known icing and turbulence, and the limits of onboard weather, reports, forecasts, and inflight resources. Skill S1–S4 is obtain a briefing, analyze it, and make the decision. This section is where the products in 8.1–8.3 become a yes, a no, or a new route.
91.103 is not optional
14 CFR 91.103: each PIC shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight. For a flight under IFR or not in the vicinity of an airport, that information must include weather reports and forecasts, fuel requirements, alternatives available if the planned flight cannot be completed, and any known traffic delays of which ATC has advised the PIC. For any flight it must include runway lengths at airports of intended use and takeoff and landing distance information from the AFM/POH. A VFR cross-country is “not in the vicinity of an airport.” A pattern-work flight still needs runway and performance numbers. “I looked out the window” is not 91.103. Neither is opening a single METAR and skipping the TAF, GFA, AIRMETs, NOTAMs, and fuel math.
AIM 7-1-5 is explicit that you can obtain a regulatory-compliant briefing without calling Flight Service, using automated resources (see AC 91-92, Pilot’s Guide to a Preflight Briefing). If you do call, do a self-brief first so the specialist is translating, not introducing, the picture.
Three briefing types
| Type | When to request it | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | You have not already received a briefing (or only scraps of preliminary data) | Adverse conditions; VFR flight not recommended if the briefer judges VFR doubtful; synopsis; current conditions (omitted if ETD is more than 2 hours unless you ask); en-route forecast; destination forecast ±1 hour of ETA; winds aloft (true); NOTAMs; ATC delays; plus upon-request items |
| Abbreviated | You need to update a previous briefing, supplement mass-disseminated data, or get one or two specific items | Tell the briefer what you already have and when. You get changes and the items you asked for. If you ask for only one item, the briefer still advises if adverse conditions exist. |
| Outlook | Proposed departure is six or more hours from briefing time | Available forecast data for planning only. Get a standard or abbreviated briefing before you start the engine. |
Standard first. Abbreviated to refresh. Outlook only when the flight is still a day-planning problem. Requesting an outlook at 0700 for an 0800 departure is the wrong product. Requesting a standard at 0700 for a flight three days away wastes the current-conditions block and still leaves you needing another briefing on the day.
A specialist who says “VFR flight not recommended” is giving an advisory. AIM: the final go/no-go is solely the pilot’s. That sentence is not permission to launch into the conditions the briefer just described. It is a reminder that the certificate, not the briefer, is PIC.
1800WXBRIEF, Leidos, and Flight Service
Flight Service (currently delivered by Leidos) is the FAA’s pilot-weather-briefing service. Phone: 1-800-WX-BRIEF (1-800-992-7433). Web: 1800wxbrief.com — self-brief, file a flight plan, and set notifications for new adverse weather, NOTAMs, and airport closures. Specialists are certificated Pilot Weather Briefers. They translate and interpret NWS products; they are not authorized to make original forecasts. In the air, contact FSS on the published frequencies for an inflight update. En-route advisories are available on request.
HIWAS (Hazardous Inflight Weather Advisory Service) was discontinued in the contiguous United States on January 8, 2020. Do not list HIWAS as a current way to hear AIRMETs and SIGMETs over a VOR. Current inflight paths are FSS, FIS-B/ADS-B weather, ATC, and other aircraft’s PIREPs.
Digital weather in the flight deck — PA.I.C.K4
FIS-B (Flight Information Services–Broadcast) is a free weather and aeronautical uplink on 978 MHz UAT to ADS-B In receivers. It is not a substitute for a preflight briefing. AIM 7-1-9: FIS products such as ground-based radar mosaics are not appropriate for tactical avoidance (a typical timeframe of less than about 3 minutes) such as picking a hole through a storm. FIS supports strategic decisions (about 20 minutes or more) such as choosing a route that avoids the hazard entirely.
AIM 7-1-27 on thunderstorm flying is even blunter: do not use data-linked NEXRAD mosaic imagery as the sole means for negotiating a path through a thunderstorm area. The mosaic shows where the weather was, not where it is. Depicted conditions may be 15 to 20 minutes older than the time on the display. Use FIS-B NEXRAD to stay away. Use it to decide on a diversion airport 40 miles north. Do not use it to split two red cells 8 miles ahead. Airborne weather radar in a transport category airplane is a different tool; a typical training airplane does not have that radar, and a tablet NEXRAD picture is not that radar.
Other K4 limits: line-of-sight to a ground station, coverage holes at low altitude, product-specific update intervals (AIRMETs, Convective SIGMETs, METARs, and radar do not refresh on the same clock), and display scaling that can hide a narrow line. If the tablet dies, you still need the briefing you did on the ground and the FSS frequency.
Personal minimums, known icing, diversion
Legal VFR (91.155) is the floor, not the plan. Personal minimums are the higher ceiling, visibility, wind, and crosswind numbers you will actually accept given currency, terrain, night, and the airplane. Write them down before the briefing so a green TAF does not talk you below them.
Known icing: a typical training airplane is not certificated for flight into known icing. An AIRMET Zulu plus a PIREP of ice in the cloud you would have to occupy, or a forecast of icing at your altitude in cloud, is a no-go or a reroute/altitude change that keeps you out of the icing layer — not a “climb through and see.” Frost on the airframe before engine start is a ground de-ice problem, not a takeoff problem you solve with extra speed.
Diversion is the ACS continue/divert skill. If the destination TAF TEMPO is TSRA at your ETA, the GFA shows a line on the last 80 miles, or a Convective SIGMET covers the destination, the competent answer is often a new airport with fuel and a rental car — not a 200-foot “look.” Brief the alternate while you still have time and fuel. 91.103 already required you to know those alternatives before you started.
Scenario: Maya’s Saturday call
Maya self-briefs on 1800wxbrief.com at 1300Z for a 1900Z departure: standard-briefing elements, not an outlook. METAR is VFR. TAF FM 2000Z is 4 SM and BKN025 with TEMPO TSRA. GFA shows a broken line of storms on the last third of the route. G-AIRMET Tango covers moderate turbulence below 12,000. Convective Outlook is a slight risk. She calls 1-800-WX-BRIEF for an abbreviated update at 1800Z; the specialist adds a new Convective SIGMET and says VFR flight is not recommended after 2000Z on that route. In the airplane the tablet still shows a tempting dark-green gap. Maya treats that gap as 15-to-20-minute-old NEXRAD, not a hole. She files to the north alternate she already briefed, or she stays on the ground. That is PA.I.C.K4 plus R1, not cowardice.
A pilot last received a full standard briefing three hours ago and now needs only the new Convective SIGMETs and the destination METAR. Which briefing should the pilot request?
For a VFR cross-country not in the vicinity of an airport, 14 CFR 91.103 requires the PIC to become familiar with which of the following?
Why must a private pilot not use cockpit FIS-B NEXRAD as a tool to pick a path between thunderstorms?