Mike Cleaver wrote:
Alternatively you could go to your local Airservices' map reseller and buy a copy of the current PCA (Planning Chart Australia) which shows the locations and the Area Forecast boundaries. You can carry them around more easily than Robert's Google Earth map too - even on the cockpit if you want.
Very true, Mike.
However, the PCA only helps in locating places you don't know (or are unsure about) once you have decoded them and then looked up the lat/long in ERSA.
I have been using the area met briefings somewhat irregularly for a few years and, while I know quite a number of the ICAO airfield codes around Qld and northern NSW, I don't know many (if any) if the three letter VFR way point codes that are also regularly used in the forecasts.
So, from now on, when I'm on the ground getting together a weather briefing, using Google Earth is going to be the way I cope with these wretched codes from now on!
I do question why we are still using these codes today. I can understand that in the days of slow morse code and then teletypewriter transmission short codes saved time. In today's world, I can see only one reason - and that's because it has always been done that way!
-- Robert Hart [EMAIL PROTECTED] +61 (0)438 385 533 http://www.hart.wattle.id.au _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
