"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
oups.com...
On May 12, 4:34 pm, "Danny Deger" wrote:
Has anyone else noticed a tendency for FSS briefers to give you a "stay
on
the ground" weather briefing for isolated thunderstorms? 90% of the time
on
a summer day in Texas there are some storms. Usually easy to see and
avoid.
But I have in the past had a controller that obviously didn't want me to
fly. The worst case was a VFR flight between Houston and Austin with a
single cell between the two cities. All the controller would tell me
about
was how bad the weather in the cell was. He refused to provide me with
any
weather information outside of the cell. I ended by hanging up and
calling
back. The next briefer told me about the very good weather outside of
the
single cell and I had a good flight. This is only the worst of my
experiences with briefers and thunderstorms.

Anyone else had a similar issue with a briefer not doing his job because
he/she thought you shouldn't fly that day.

Danny Deger

You just need to be direct. "Do you not have weather outside of the
cell or are you refusing to give me weather outside of the cell".


Good point. This was the only time I actually gave up on a briefer and
called back to get another one.

One thing I don't understand is when I got my instrument rating and started
to go IFR, the briefers didn't have any trouble with thunderstorms. For
some reason they would chug right along with an IFR briefing with isolated
t-storms in the area.

I recall one time trying to get from middle Wisconsin to Texas about the
time the weather channel was new. The briefer was giving me doom an gloom
about a line of thunderstorms. It was great VFR where I was and iI nformed
him I was willing to deviate to get around the line. He would not give me
any information on how to get around the line. The weather channel poped up
the radar picture on a TV I was watching and I could see the line was very
short and a deviation less than 100 miles would get me around. When I asked
the controller his opinion on the diviation he replied, "Where did you see
that?"

I replied, "The Weather Channel"

His response was a very huffy, "We don't use the weather channel around
here."

But after I informed him I was taking off and I was going around the line,
he ended up giving me a decent briefing.

I am getting back into flying today, but I assume in todays world briefers
are used to pilots having a radar image. Now you get to see for yourself
what the situation with the storms is.

On a tact other than thunderstorms, has anyone ever told a briefer that 1
mile visibility and clear of clouds is VFR in uncontrolled airspace. I have
had to inform briefers more than once to this fact before they would
continue the VFR briefing.

Danny Deger

-Robert