Graphical Area Forecasts to replace ARFORS in Australia

[JEM]

For Australia. Happens 9 November. See the BOM home page or Recreational Aviation Australia latest newsletter 31 October for details.

 

 

[johnm]

......... change is good :D

 

 

[JEM]

......... change is good :D

Might it have an effect on the plain english converter?

 

 

[Happyflyer]

Might it have an effect on the plain english converter?

Yep, you won't need it anymore!

 

 

[rrogerramjet]

The wind forecasts are upside down. Reads from bottom to top going up in alt.

 

I assume that is in concurrence with the theme of Graphical.

 

 

[Happyflyer]

The wind forecasts are upside down. Reads from bottom to top going up in alt.I assume that is in concurrence with the theme of Graphical.

I would have thought that's the right way up. The low altitude is at the bottom, just like the atmosphere!

 

 

[onetrack]

The request came from the aviation industry, according to the BOM. I guess going from text-style to graphical-style is going to be good for the computer/mobile phone generation.

 

What next? Comic-book style, instruction pamphlets?

 

Graphical Area Forecasts

 

 

[Possum1]

What next? Comic-book style, instruction pamphlets?

No, but an interactive game might be a possibility.

Here in Queensland there is a proposal to have the Driver's Licence Theory test changed to an interactive course because the little darlings are incapable of swotting up on the road traffic rule book(books are so like yesterday), learning the rules by studying said rule book and taking the test. Too much for their attention spans, I suppose.

 

 

[SDQDI]

No, but an interactive game might be a possibility.Here in Queensland there is a proposal to have the Driver's Licence Theory test changed to an interactive course because the little darlings are incapable of swotting up on the road traffic rule book(books are so like yesterday), learning the rules by studying said rule book and taking the test. Too much for their attention spans, I suppose.

I wouldn’t be too quick to criticise the youngsters and their knowledge of the road rules, I think you would find most p platers would know the road rules better than all of us fuddy duddies. Obviously their driving skills may leave a lot to be desired but the knowledge of the rules is generally there.

I know for myself when doing my licence I was telling dad left right and centre about all these new rules that had been introduced/changed since he had last read a rule book and I know for myself that I haven’t read a road rules book since I passed my last license (notice one with c and one with s to please everyone!) test so I would expect to not be up to date 100%

 

 

[Camel]

Typical ! Doesn't work on first day ! Because of Airservices ?

 

 

[Happyflyer]

Looks like system down. No new forecast, no old forecast, can't get thru to airservices on the phone. Oops!

 

 

[SDQDI]

Gafs seem to be up and working at last:thumb up:

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

I wouldn’t be too quick to criticise the youngsters...

Some of the most dangerous drivers are older immigrants who got a license in their home country.

Australia recognises their piece of paper, no matter how dodgy that licensing system might be, so they are let loose on our roads.

 

 

[Possum1]

NAIPS is still offline though. It let me in briefly once about 2.00 pm this afternoon but no joy since. I got as far as the TAFs and the new Graphical Area forecasts at the end of the report.

 

 

[Downunder]

No towns, airports, geograghical features in the wind map...

 

Do we just random guess the correct box?

 

 

[giantkingsquid]

No towns, airports, geograghical features in the wind map...Do we just random guess the correct box?

It seems that it's been setup for EFBs, very difficult to use manually. Should be interesting for students completing nav training!

 

 

[Downunder]

It seems that it's been setup for EFBs, very difficult to use manually. Should be interesting for students completing nav training!

My android ozrunways uses it as a standalone map but I can see it probably should be used as an "overlay".

 

 

[giantkingsquid]

My android ozrunways uses it as a standalone map but I can see it probably should be used as an "overlay".

I meant more for TAS/GS calculations. It will actually give a more accurate flight plan because the grid's are smaller than the old areas, but that means significantly more work when working it out manually. Also the forecast is only valid for the centre point of each square which could lead to some slight errors if your track went diagonally across the edges of the squares the whole way. Assuming you can reference your track without any markings on the GPWT!

 

 

[ben87r]

GPWT in itself isn’t the issue, it appears they’ve used 1.25 degree boxes! That’s way to small for manual LL planning.

 

 

[rgmwa]

The smaller grids may give the impression of great accuracy but the forecast winds are still just that - forecasts. For manual planning, wouldn't you just pick an average wind for the track and altitudes you wanted to fly at and use that?

 

 

[giantkingsquid]

The smaller grids may give the impression of great accuracy but the forecast winds are still just that - forecasts. For manual planning, wouldn't you just pick an average wind for the track and altitudes you wanted to fly at and use that?

But surely to create your average wind you would have to calculate it for each of the grids? How do you go about "picking" an average on a 500 nm stage? Semantics I suppose.

 

 

[rgmwa]

But surely to create your average wind you would have to calculate it for each of the grids? How do you go about "picking" an average on a 500 nm stage? Semantics I suppose.

By scanning the boxes along the track you should quickly get a pretty good feel for average wind speed and direction. A 500 mm stage in our small aircraft would probably be broken up into shorter legs for planning anyway, so you'd do an estimate for each leg. I daresay your estimate would be no worse and probably better than the old Arfors values we used to use.

 

 

[Nightmare]

It seems that it's been setup for EFBs, very difficult to use manually. Should be interesting for students completing nav training!

Having completed my XC endo last year, I think it would've been easier to do the training using these new GAFs. It seems to be better set out and easier to understand, but more importantly, easier to find the relevant info quickly, that you need for the flight.