Hello and welcome to EZWxBrief!
April 7, 2021 was the public debut of EZWxBrief, your best online source for aviation weather and education. And yes, purple is our brand color. At EZWxBrief, we couldn’t be more pleased at the response we’ve gotten thus far. Over the last few weeks we’ve received a ton of feedback. A big thanks to our current members and to all of those that have taken the leap of faith and moved to the EZWxBrief family. We appreciate how many of you have already spread the word to other pilots about this groundbreaking new application. Please keep that momentum going and don't forget our customer referral program. If you recommend EZWxBrief to a friend and that new member pays for an annual membership, we will add a month to your current EZWxBrief subscription. More details about that program can be found here.
Here's what others are now saying about EZWxBrief...
"LOVING this new app! Wow - you are correct. After watching the videos, this thing is PHENOMENAL!"
- Ken S.
"Brilliant, intuitive, graphically interesting, easy to use and navigate, in a class by itself...you have created an entire dispatching suite for general aviation...simply spectacular!"
- Rick J.
"Great Facebook video yesterday! I think you have a true winner here! This is head and shoulders above anything else I've seen. Congratulations you deserve a lot of credit this is a real game-changer."
- Jeffrey S.
"Just a data point for EZWxBrief...for my flight through the Western US system yesterday, the profile was spot-on."
- DW
"I’m a very low hour pilot (200 TT) and I just passed my instrument rating check ride yesterday. During the oral, I leaned heavily on Skew-Ts and the DPE was really impressed with my level of knowledge at the private pilot level with this chart. I told him I did an online workshop for the basics and I love the chart. Your training works!"
- Mitchell H.
Pardon our dust!
As with any new application there will be growing pains and even some unexpected down time. We ask for your patience as we work through all of those. As of now, the application is best used on larger displays (e.g., desktop computer) running as a progressive web app (PWA). If you run the PWA on an iPhone or other smaller portable device you may notice some issues with formatting and general user experience. We are in the process at the moment of optimizing EZWxBrief to operate smoothly on smaller devices. We'll get there, but it'll take some time throughout the summer.
The progressive web app (PWA)
A progressive web app, also known as a PWA, is supported by every major Internet browser and platform. There are many other popular apps (e.g., Twitter, Lyft) that use the PWA concept. Progressive web apps use modern web application programming interfaces (APIs) along with a traditional progressive enhancement strategy to create cross-platform web applications. These apps work everywhere and provide several features that give them the same user experience advantages as native apps that you might download from the App Store or Google Play. However, depending on your device (computer or portable device) there are specific limitations. The advantage of a PWA is that you do not have to download a new version of EZWxBrief every time there’s a new version released. Also, you can install the EZWxBrief PWA on as many devices as you wish and it’s not limited by country.
Although you can run EZWxBrief in a browser of your choice, it is optimized to run as a PWA. Your user experience will be greatly improved. The EZWxBrief pilot's guide will have more information on how to install the PWA on your device. After signing in, click on Start and then on the Quick Start menu, select View the Pilots Guide.
Refreshing EZWxBrief
The data in the application doesn't necessarily refresh when new weather hits the EZWxBrief database. There is a refresh button located on the EZMap (shown to the right), EZRoute, EZImagery and Meteogram. A simple tap or click on that button will refresh the weather data shown. However, from time to time you may notice that there may be other issues that are not directly related to the data (the data is frozen when moving the EZDeparture Advisor). Well, Ctrl-R (or Ctrl-Shift-R) will become your friend to reload the browser if you are using the PWA version on your Windows computer or Cmd-R for an Apple computer. That usually helps to clear the log jam and will also refresh the data on the display. For portable devices you may need to kill the application and restart if you see some weirdness with one of the displays if you are running EZWxBrief as a PWA.
EZWxBrief Auto-renewal
Over the last couple years we have received feedback that auto-renewal should be an option. We hear your feedback loud and clear and now you can set up EZWxBrief to renew automatically as long as you are using a major credit card (MasterCard, Visa or Discover). Note that EZWxBrief never "stores" your credit card information, instead it is passed to our merchant provider that is better equipped to protect your financial details in a safe and secure manner. To set up your account to renew automatically, simply sign in to EZWxBrief and click on the Start button and select "Manage my account" from the Quick Start menu. On that page, you'll see an option to turn on the auto-renew feature as shown above. Just enter your credit card details and sit back and relax as your account will automatically renew for $69 each year. If your credit card information changes (e.g., new expiration date), simply visit your user profile and you'll see a button to update your credit card.
Check out EZWxChat, workshops and 1-on-1 training
EZWxBrief provides some of the most important preflight information available using an easy-to-consume approach. But, every pilot knows that weather is a complex discipline to master. Unlike many of the applications and EFBs available, part of the mission of EZWxBrief is to also provide expert training on how to use the application and to better understand how to minimize your exposure to adverse weather. This is being done in three ways...
First, EZWxBrief provides access to dozens of "bite-sized" training workshop on many different aviation weather topics. After signing in, you can view these in EZWxBrief by selecting the Start button and then select, "Watch Online Workshops" which will show the library of workshops that are available. You can also purchase premium workshops that are much longer in duration and provides a more complete educational experience for a particular topic. This includes the very popular, Mastering the Skew-T Diagram premium workshop.
Second, if you want a more personal touch, consider doing a 1-on-1 online training session. You have the option of booking a session for 30 or 60 minutes. Perhaps you want to receive training on how to walk through a preflight weather briefing for a trip you are proposing. Or maybe you want a deeper dive with a more rigorous curriculum to finally learn all of the weather skills you didn't quite get during your primary training. If so, simply sign in to EZWxBrief and tap or click on the Training selection on the Home page menu. This will take you to our live training site where you can book a 1-on-1 session with Scott.
Third, every Tuesday afternoon at 3 pm eastern time, come join Scott for another episode of EZWxChat. This is will be broadcast live on Facebook (https://facebook.com/ezwxbrief/live). If you are busy at this time, no problem. The recorded version will be available on the EZWxBrief Facebook page (https://facebook.com/ezwxbrief) and a few days later the episode will be posted to YouTube (https://youtube.com/avwxworkshops). Scott will be talking about his favorite topic, aviation weather. The EZWxChat schedule may change, so please check the Facebook page for updates.
What’s new with EZWxBrief?
This past month we spent refining the application, making it more stable and fixing a few bugs that you have reported. You will find a history of the content of each of our releases on our website here. At EZWxBrief, we are working hard to add new functionality as the application evolves with time. While we don’t have specific dates, we have dozens of groundbreaking features we are planning to add over the next several years – you can read about a few of those here in Scott’s blog as they are released.
Lastly, don't forget to follow us on Facebook (https://facebook.com/ezwxbrief), Instagram and YouTube (https://youtube.com/avwxworkshops) to get the latest information and training available for EZWxBrief. As always, enjoy the simplicity of EZWxBrief!
Most pilots are weatherwise, but some are otherwise™
Dr. Scott Dennstaedt
Weather Systems Engineer
Founder, EZWxBrief
CFI & former NWS meteorologist
