How to obtain a weather briefing

  1. Start by reading through the Preflight, Inflight, PostFlight and Safety Tips sections of the General Aviation’s Pilots Weather Guide.
  2. Read How to obtain a good weather briefing.
  3. Register for an account at the Lockheed Martin Flight Services web portal.
  4. Read through the User Guide and Helpful Videos (found under the Help menu) to learn how to use the LMFS web portal.
  5. Obtain a weather briefing using the LMFS web portal, using these details:


    1. Pilot Qualifications – Student
    2. Type of Flight – VFR
    3. Aircraft N-Number – your training airplane N-number
    4. Aircraft Type – your training airplane type (i.e. CE-152
    5. Departure Airport – O61
    6. Route of Flight – none (online) or local (phone)
    7. Destination/Alternate -Dest:O61, Alt 1: KRIU, Alt 2:KMHR
    8. Flight Altitude(s) – 5000 ft
    9. Estimated time of departure, and estimated duration – approximate for your next lesson, and 2 hours duration

  6. Obtain the same weather briefing from Automated Flight Service at 1-800-WX-BRIEF. Using the automated menu, select the ‘Briefer’ option, ‘California’ and then ‘Northern’.

    You will need to provide the briefer with the same information in the previous step. Explain to the briefer that you are getting your first weather briefing. Ask the briefer to speak slower, or to repeat any missed information. If you don’t understand anything the briefer is stating, please ask the briefer to clarify.

  7. Compare the information you received from the online briefing with the briefing received over the phone. You will likely find that even though the source information is the same, you received different meaning from each briefing. We recommend that you continue to get both the online and phone briefing throughout your training to help you to develop your weather interpretation skills.