Went flying today, destination Ely. FSS said VFR not recommended due to mountain ob. I wish they would say just once "IFR not recommended because it would be suicide in your non-deiced airplane". So Reno was VFR Ely was VFR Fallon VFR and all were forecast to stay VFR. I launched and shortly I heard a 210 report severe turbulence 8 south of reno at 7200. I was getting light chop at 9500 but not bad especially with a groundspeed of 188 knots. I checked in with Fallon Desert to see if maybe direct Ely was in my future but it was not to be so I descended for the VFR corridor and lost the tailwind. Droned on to Austin and just on the other side was a wall of weather. OAT was below 0 so I turned north to see what I could see. More clouds all the way to the ground. So I tried south. No luck. Back thru the navy's airspace and landed at O43 for lunch. Pretty decent steak salad, I must say. Gas was 3.20 so I went to N86 and filled up for 2.99 since I had to go out there anyway. 9SD will hold 100 gallons so the difference is 21 bucks if she is bone dry. Not worth making a special trip for. Anyway, the mission in Ely is incomplete and I'll try again when the WX breaks.

Dave,

My dad called to say he read forecast winds for mountain tops in the Sierras were 105 mph and that it looked like the jet was right over us. I can see severe turb occuring for sure anywhere near the backside of the Sierras. Glad you played the safe card and weren't forced closer to the mountains in search of VFR after you got trapped. Z

This may warrant a separate thread, but have any of you had negative phone conversations with FSS? I'm to the point now that I do everything but my last minute TFR check via DUATS. On two occasions I've called to get a VFR briefing, told the guy my route and been told, "you're not flying that route today." One refused to brief me further, saying "There are thunderstorms all along your route, and I've got other duties to attend to." Both times I went out to take a look, and easily made my destination. When did these folks become so arrogant? What is funny though, is that if you say IFR they'll brief you from here to eternity, including through thunderstorms, ice, freezing rain. I don't get it. Is it just me?

Maybe that's how things work at Lockheed?

All my FSS experiences have been really positive, but then again I'm a fair wx pilot and haven't filed via phone in about 5 months. I've been going DUATS all the way unless internet access is not possible.

Z

My expierence has been generally positive with all fss with one exception
PRESCOT. It seems that every time I deal with them I find the person that is having a rough day and decides to take it out on me.

I'm a VFR pilot who mainly does local flying, so I don't get wx briefing all that often. I usually just watch the TV news and then go out and sniff the air . But my experiences with Flight Service have generally been very positive. They've never been anything but helpful as I can recall. In fact, last time I went to the Evergreen-oops-McMinnville fly-in (2004),I popped into the FSS on the field there. The wx was turning dogshit and they'd had scads of pilots in there checking on their routes home. They had to be kinda stressed out that day, but they were very helpful anyway.
Now some of them tower controllers, that's another story.....
It'll be interesting to see how Lockheed does with the contract FSS thing. When did they or do they take over? I'm kinda behind the power curve on this one....

Eric

Lockheed took over in October. I think they should stick to building missiles. If you can hang for 7-10 minutes on hold and happen to get a former gubbermint briefer, your in good shape. If you get a newbie, you're screwed. I hope this improves. The gubbermint already pissed away the 2.2b that Lockheed saved them on some other hopeless cause like Iraq or Nawlins.
BTW VFR not recommended today because there is a cloud obscuring the top of a mountain in Utah and California...........

Sunday I went up with my instructor in his G35 Bonanza for complex (wheels go up and down) and commercial. I see why these things fall out of the sky with regularity. You can go from normal cruise to past VNE in the blink of an eye. The aiframe is really clean and the control pressures are light. It's a runway lover with 225 hp for 1 minute then back to 185 max continuous. Amazingly easy to land. I haven't flown anything with the little wheel on the wrong end in quite awhile. Fun stuff. It has monster Baron brakes so it can land where it can't take off.
Dave

The Lockheed takeover of FSS operations is supposed to, over a period of time, improve the granularity with which the briefer can report weather. You guys joke about "VFR not recommended because of mountain obscuration in N. California" but take a look at the standard briefing text. It's a scattershot approach. Why are they telling us about airmets and hazardous weather warnings in Kansas for a 200 nm VFR flight from Reno to San Francisco? I just skip most of that shit and look for keywords like Northern NV and Northern CA.

Supposedly, after Lockheed has learned the current processes and implemented their new and improved systems, the weather briefings will be more appropriate to area and include less irrelevant information. The original system was probably developed for airlines who actually traversed many areas in one flight.

Z