METAR notation as a foreign language. Was: Iowa Aviation Weather...en Espanol

Because lets face it, METAR code is a foreign language which originated
from aliens from a another planet

For sure!

What I find hilarious is when the FAA says they use these
abbreviations because of "limited computer capacity"...

We actually had an FAA geek state that at a Safety Seminar a few years
ago. Even then, before the days of 400 gigabyte PC hard drives, the
room erupted in laughter.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
Because lets face it, METAR code is a foreign language which originated
from aliens from a another planet

For sure!

What I find hilarious is when the FAA says they use these
abbreviations because of "limited computer capacity"...

We actually had an FAA geek state that at a Safety Seminar a few years
ago. Even then, before the days of 400 gigabyte PC hard drives, the
room erupted in laughter.

If only they WERE using 400GB PC's instead of the vacuum tubed, 1970's
models relics they do :~)

I'm amazed the FAA does ATC in real-time, rather than as an overnight batch
process.

On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:37:58 -0800, Jay Honeck wrote
(in article . com):

Because lets face it, METAR code is a foreign language which originated
from aliens from a another planet

For sure!

What I find hilarious is when the FAA says they use these
abbreviations because of "limited computer capacity"...

Originally, it was limited bandwidth. The system was developed for ancient
Teletype machines working at 400 baud. That is no excuse for not fixing it,
of course, and you can now get plain language weather reports if you want
them. But they can't get rid of the old ones because too many of us
old-timers find reading the abbreviations is actually faster. So, they have
to keep the decrepit old system around as long as there are decrepit old
flyers. :-)

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 15:13:15 -0800, C J Campbell
wrote:


Originally, it was limited bandwidth.

If they want to reduce bandwidth requirements why not eliminate all
the boiler plate in the TFR announcements so you can actually find the
restricted area, altitude, and time. Now when I try to read them I am
faced with a solid block meaningless text that requires multiple
screens to get through.

On 2007-02-15, C J Campbell wrote:
Originally, it was limited bandwidth. The system was developed for ancient
Teletype machines working at 400 baud. That is no excuse for not fixing it,
of course, and you can now get plain language weather reports if you want
them. But they can't get rid of the old ones because too many of us
old-timers find reading the abbreviations is actually faster. So, they have
to keep the decrepit old system around as long as there are decrepit old
flyers. :-)

Well, that and everyone in the world (and every weather station) would
need to change all at the same time to remain compatible, or at least
have lots of 'workaround' code to cope with two incompatible systems!

There's really no need for anyone to read raw METAR if they don't want
to.

However, it is useful to do so. Notwithstanding that GPRS has plenty of
bandwidth for 'text only' applications, a raw undecoded TAF for even the
filthiest weather forecast will fit on one screen on my cell phone. This
is extremely convenient (especially since my home airfield is a farm
airfield and doesn't have electricity, let alone a computer - but
there's a cell tower about 1/4 mile away). Even if my cell phone had
4 GBps bandwidth, undecoded TAF would still be much better than plain
language due to the constraint of the screen being so small.

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

However, it is useful to do so. Notwithstanding that GPRS has plenty of
bandwidth for 'text only' applications, a raw undecoded TAF for even the
filthiest weather forecast will fit on one screen on my cell phone.

This is true. Once you've learned the lingo, "METAR" is a very handy
language to know. (I get it on Pilot MyCast, too...)

Unfortunately, IMHO it's just another stupid thing that needlessly
weeds out potential pilots. Newbies look at the gibberish on the
screen, are told they must learn to understand it, and find somewhere
else to spend their disposable income.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Newbies look at the gibberish on the
screen, are told they must learn to understand it, and find somewhere
else to spend their disposable income.

Maybe that's not a bad thing. Remember, you'd be sharing the sky with
people for whom a little study is too much.

Jose
--
Humans are pack animals. Above all things, they have a deep need to
follow something, be it a leader, a creed, or a mob. Whosoever fully
understands this holds the world in his hands.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Recently, Jay Honeck posted:

However, it is useful to do so. Notwithstanding that GPRS has plenty
of bandwidth for 'text only' applications, a raw undecoded TAF for
even the filthiest weather forecast will fit on one screen on my
cell phone.

This is true. Once you've learned the lingo, "METAR" is a very handy
language to know. (I get it on Pilot MyCast, too...)

Unfortunately, IMHO it's just another stupid thing that needlessly
weeds out potential pilots. Newbies look at the gibberish on the
screen, are told they must learn to understand it, and find somewhere
else to spend their disposable income.

Perhaps you underestimate the amount of time and attention to such details
that you have spent in pursuit of your interest in flying? The information
is not incidental to flying, and I'm glad that regulations related flying
aren't taken as casually those for driving an auto. It weeds out a lot of
folks that really have no business in the air space.

I agree with the other point of view that METAR is a much more efficient
communication than native languages. Perhaps because of decades of
computer programming, I even find it to be a logical and (for the most
part) predictable language. You can guess the meaning of an abbreviation
and much of the time be right. However, the most compelling reason to
learn METAR is that native language translations that I've seen have
sometimes been incomplete (I use ADDS).

Neil

"Neil Gould" wrote in message
et...
I agree with the other point of view that METAR is a much more efficient
communication than native languages. Perhaps because of decades of
computer programming, I even find it to be a logical and (for the most
part) predictable language. You can guess the meaning of an abbreviation
and much of the time be right.

With the exception of BR, unless that has some historical that I'm not aware
of.

In article ,
"Mike Young" wrote:

With the exception of BR, unless that has some historical that I'm not aware
of.

As I understand it, the UK folks wanted Fog to mean real fog (i.e., you can't
see ANYTHING) not the wimpy fog us in the USA call fog.

wrt non-obvious abbreviations for us Americans, remember that these
abbreviations came from a committee of people from a variety of
countries.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate