Weather Briefing: Fill & Download for Free

It is not all that difficult. Aside from weather briefings and charted weather maps, all those airliners will have a built-in weather radar in the nose of the aircraft.So, when they see something like this on their radar screen, I think and hope they will turn left to avoid the thunderstorms up ahead and to the right:

When I was a student pilot, and for a number of years afterwards, the official way to get your weather was to phone 1–800-WX-BRIEF and say “My tail number is N38290 and I need a standard weather briefing for a VFR flight from Rochester NY to Albany NY cruising at 9,000 feet” and be prepared to write really really fast. If you said you were a student pilot, sometimes they'd slow down a bit. I almost never heard any analysis or advice. When it became available, I'd use DUATS, which was a text mode site that you would telnet into and receive the same info. As a matter of fact, I would go to DUATS and print out a standard weather briefing and the phone and just check the stuff off as the briefer read them out. The first time I did a weather briefing in Canada I was amazed at the level of actual analysis. To the point where he suggested that if I delayed my departure by an hour, I'd have a smoother ride.

Sometimes the worst things can turn out the best. You never know!!I was scheduled to fly Air Force General Paul K. Carlton from Andrews Air Force Base to his home base, Scott AFB, outside St. Louis. General Carlton was the commander of Military Airlift Command, all of the Air Force’s airlift aircraft.I walked up to the weather desk and was handed several copies of my weather briefing, which never happens. We normally got one. I looked at the briefer quizzically, and he said, “You’re gonna need extra copies.”A BULLSEYE IN THE CENTER OF AMERICAWith one quick glance I saw the Surface Analysis chart, which shows air pressure lines all over the USA. They converged into a set of tight concentric rings, with the bullseye on St. Louis. That means that the general’s base was the center of a gigantic low pressure area.The forecast called for tornadoes to be all over the base’s area at the time of our arrival. I walked over to the Andrews Command Post red phone and told them I was cancelling the general’s trip.YOU CAN’T DO THATIn a horrified voice, the guy on the phone said, “You can’t cancel a flight on General Carlton! He’s the chief of all transport aircraft in the Air Force.”“Well, I’m cancelling and once you see the weather, you’ll see why!”The weather guy was right that I would need multiple copies of my briefing papers!We had some interesting people on Andrews, one of which was Colonel Al Guidotti, the operations officer who was responsible for Air Force One (26000 and 27000 at the time) as well as the rest of the Presidential and Congressional fleet. Later he was promoted to Brigadier General and became commander of the whole wing!About three minutes later, Colonel Guidotti stormed in. Picture George Kennedy in the original “Airport” movie: gruff, a cigar, right out of central casting. He bellows, “Where’s Captain Wagner?”I walked over to him, holding out one of the extra copies of the weather briefing. He snatched it, threw it down on the counter and flipped the pages.Then he looked me in the eyes and says, “Well, Captain, if it was me, I sure as hell wouldn’t go, either. But, godammit I wish you would.”Staring into the eyes of the guy who controlled Air Force One, I couldn’t even blink. I think I swallowed my tongue.Then he smiled, slapped me on the shoulder, and said, “Just kidding. Good call, I’ll handle General Carlton, but come with me.”As we left Base Ops for the passenger terminal, the chief pilot from my squadron walked up—clearly the guy on the red phone in the Command Post had made some calls after we hung up!!I gave my chief pilot one of my several copies of the briefing and he flipped through it as we walked. He never said a word.OUT OF CHARACTER FOR CARLTONCarlton was a pretty gruff guy, too. Most of our four-star generals—and I flew most of them—were very nice, but not Carlton. He had spent four years as an aide to the legendary Curtis LeMay and, apparently, adopted some of LeMay’s characteristics.Except that day.Guidotti showed him the weather stack and Carlton took it well. Carlton said it was a good call and shook my hand. We chatted amiably for a few minutes. He was uncharacteristically very polite.Along with the general’s aides, the whole entourage headed off to the Officer’s Club for lunch. Guidotti gave me a smile as they walked away.I looked around and my chief pilot was gone.WHAT ABOUT THE TORNADOES?They might have gone calmly to lunch, but I went back to Base Operations for the entire duration of what would have been my two-hour flight to St. Louis and sweated. I felt bad actually wishing for a tornado.But I did.The weather guy kept me up-to-the-minute. This was in 1978 or so and there was no such thing as the instant weather we have today. It took an expert inside an Air Force weather station to keep me up to date.Within minutes of our scheduled arrival time, Scott Air Force Base was hit directly by a large tornado. It damaged hangars and C-141 jets on the flight line and destroyed some houses on base.I swear I did not actually jump up and down and hoot and holler. You believe me, right?But I can say that the weather guy noticed I was not mourning the damage at Scott Air Force Base.WHAT ABOUT THE AFTERMATH?The next morning I received a call that my presence was required in my commander’s office. I walked in and the commander sat behind his desk, formal-like, with his hands clasped together on the desktop. Bolt upright. Not smiling. Our squadron operations officer and chief pilot flanked his desk. There was a chair, front and center, for me. I checked it for leather straps and instruments of torture.I thought, “Holy Shit, someone’s head has to roll over Carlton’s flight being cancelled and they’ve decided it’s going to be me.”There was a moment of silence as the commander looked over to the chief pilot and nodded, indicating he was to deliver the news.He told me they all agreed that was one of the most ballsy moves they’d seen.Then a pause. I was waiting for the, “But . . . . .”The “but” never came. Instead they said they weren’t sure they’d have made the same decision with the pressure of General Carlton on them. But they and Colonel Guidotti agreed with me. They all shook my hand and slapped me on the shoulder and told me that now Guidotti wanted to see me.I went to his office, reported in, and without even mentioning the events of the previous day, he offered me an assignment to fly our VC-9C aircraft, which were used as Air Force Two.So, in my mind, a tornado ripping up hangars and big jets at our arrival time is the best excuse I ever saw for delaying a flight.And somewhere, in some musty box of mine—no doubt quite yellowed by now—is my copy of that day’s weather briefing.R.I.P AL GUIDOTTIAl Guidotti was a colonel when this story took place, but he made Brigadier General soon afterward and became the wing commander.He died on May 23, 2020 at age 85 so he was dead when I wrote this.I just got word of his passing today (July 19) through the SAMFOX Association newsletter. They had a photo of him in his obit, after he got his star.This was taken on Spot One at Andrews, right where the jet in which I was going to fly General Carlton was parked.