Pilot Reports (PIREP)

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TimothyOa
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Pilot Reports (PIREP)

Postby TimothyOa » Mon Aug 04, 2014 9:17 pm

It seems that very few pilots make a PIREP, in flight, in Australia. Why is that?

When a pilot receives Pre-flight Information from NAIPS (Air Services Australia) . . . if not based on ATIS or METAR or SPECI, then the information presented is a collation of best guess and weather modelling.

How many times has a SIGMET for Severe Turbulence or Severe Icing been issued, and it has been Light or possibly Moderate, at most? How many times was CAVOK or visibility greater than 10km issued and it turned out to be foggy or 500m Visibility and it turned out to be CAVOK and 10km?

Such reports of Severe anything or poor visibility would certainly affect the Go-No-Go decision or Alternate Requirement or route selection or amount of reserve fuel versus payload.

I had called Bureau of Meteorology, from Melbourne-Tullamarie, to suggest to the person taking my call that the weather briefing information was overly conservative. He told me that B.O.M. seldom receives any feedback from pilots validating weather . . . even with very sophisticated weather modeling programs, B.O.M. produces their best guess, lacking "real-time" feedback.

In another post, by Ozloadie, he espouses, ". . . the amount of inflight intelligence and information gathered is even more reliant on you the captain and/or crew. It goes hand in hand with inflight wx broadcasts and advisories from pilots enroute confirming or challenging critical wx elements. No such thing as useless information."

I agree with him.

Aside from the regulatory requirement to report hazardous weather, we owe it to each other to provide a PIREP and feedback to Bureau of Meteorology, to facilitate more acurate weather forecasting.

Putting a brave face on or simply being lazy or indifferent goes against Civil Aviation Regulation 1988, Division 3, Part 247, Page 130.

"247 Meteorological conditions observed en route

(1) The pilot in command shall report, in the approved form and at
such times as requested by a meteorological observer, the
meteorological conditions observed en route.
Penalty: 5 penalty units.
(2) When any meteorological condition, hazardous to flight, is
encountered en route, the pilot in command shall report the
condition as soon as possible, giving such details as appear
pertinent to the safety of other aircraft.
Penalty: 5 penalty units.
(3) An offence against subregulation (1) or (2) is an offence of strict
liability.

Note: For strict liability, see section 6.1 of the Criminal Code."

Please make PIREPs. The life you save may be a mate.
ozloadie
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Re: Pilot Reports (PIREP)

Postby ozloadie » Tue Aug 05, 2014 10:59 pm

Thanks for the mention.
I believe one of the major causes of the decline of wx and inflight info broadcasts over the years was the removal of the Flight Service Units. A lot of those operators would live and travel over their particular region enough to daily compare the broad forecasting to the actual wx in situ which was the equivalent of local knowledge.

The other topic I posted about "Inflight Scans Include Behind" resulted in my being trapped between two converging wx fronts resulting in a brown out. Other pilots were skirting the systems without anyone reporting the obviously unreported specifics or considering that a thick high wall of smoke is a wx phenomenon in it's own right. I (+1pax) conducted a successful forced landing and flew out the next morning (172RG Cutlass). Apparently another pilot 100 mile away persisted in penetrating the fronts and killed himself.

I had contacted the tower on the coast (two hours flying away) requesting assistance and they had no idea that the smoke had penetrated so far or so fast inland.

They also offered me a radar vector and assisted approach, but when I enquired about a precision approach over an island in line with the centerline on final in the smoke, they couldn't guarantee it (that was 1982, they can do it now).
So I took the paddock underneath me and stayed overnight.

There is an over reliance on pocket technology and I don't think pilots as a community talk to each other anywhere near the way they did before, and they should. If the technology fails and it's possible, the conversation will be very necessary.
So I agree, talk it up and tell.

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