Hello and welcome to the 5th edition of EZNews!
We really appreciate all of those subscribers that have recently joined, renewed their membership or signed up for auto-renewal, especially those we had the pleasure of meeting in person at AirVenture and the MMOPA convention in Nashville! Version 1.0.5 of EZWxBrief was released at the end of August. This includes some user experience enhancements for portable devices. We continue to improve the responsiveness of EZWxBrief on smaller portable devices, especially the iPad and Android tablets. Those are being tested now and we'll be releasing more updates in the early part of Fall.
Getting started with EZWxBrief
We want you to get the most from the EZWxBrief progressive web app. Any new application is sure to be unfamiliar and may not be immediately intuitive. So we are now offering a free 15 minute 1-on-1 overview of EZWxBrief if you are struggling to understand how to get started with the app. So this is your chance to book a free session so we can help get you started using the app for your preflight planning. Please note that this free session is not meant to examine the weather for a proposed flight or to provide any other weather training. It is designed to provide a brief overview so that you can be successful in using the many groundbreaking features of the app. Visit https://avwxtraining.com/book-online to book your free 15 minute session (no credit card is required).
Still not signed in to EZWxBrief yet?
We have noticed that a number of EZWxBrief subscribers whose account was moved over from AvWxWorkshops.com in early April have yet to sign in. Currently you cannot log in to AvWxWorkshops to renew your membership with EZWxBrief. Please note that renewing your membership with EZWxBrief does not get you access to the WeatherSpork app. They require two separate subscriptions and are managed by two different companies.
To renew EZWxBrief, you must go to ezwxbrief.com and sign in using your AvWxWorkshops email address and the temporary password issued in an email sent on April 7th (check your spam). You can also request a new password (Forgot your password? link) from the sign in screen which will send you an email to reset your password. If you never took the opportunity to use this new progressive web app and your membership has expired, reach out to us at support@ezwxbrief.com and we'll be happy to extend your membership for 14 days for you to evaluate the simplicity of EZWxBrief.
Getting help with EZWxBrief
At EZWxBrief we have tried to make it EZ to learn how to use this groundbreaking new progressive web app. There's a 140+ page Pilots Guide and dozens of videos available on YouTube (https://youtube.com/avwxworkshops) for you to learn more about the application. And as a bonus, many of these videos also teach you more about aviation weather. For a more personalized touch of how to use the app to plan a flight you are proposing, please consider purchasing a 1-on-1 online session. You'll not only learn how to use EZWxBrief, but you'll also learn more about preflight weather analysis and increase your weather acuity and confidence. Visit https://avwxtraining.com/book-online to reserve your 30 or 60 minute slot.
If you have any questions about using the EZWxBrief progressive web app or run into an issue or bug, the best way to reach us is to send an email through our Contact Us page on the EZWxBrief website. We usually respond to support requests within 24 hours, but often much sooner. This is so we can consolidate all of your feedback, questions and comments into our support tracking application. We appreciate your help!
The Start button
The Start button is located at the top of every major EZWxBrief page including the Home page as shown to the right. A tap or click on this button will bring up the EZWxBrief Quick Start menu. For the most part, all of the major features of EZWxBrief can be accessed through the Start button to make the interface easy to use. This includes the 140+ page EZWxBrief Pilots Guide, Favorites, Settings and access to the EZImagery. If you ever get "lost" in the app, just go right to the Start button to start over.
The only major feature that is not available from the Quick Start menu is the ability to access the EZRoute Profile. All new routes should be loaded through the EZMap first under the Plan a route selection in the menu. This is to be sure you verify the route is correct on the EZMap before analyzing the weather along that route. It's easy to transpose identifiers and accidently propose a different route than what you had expected. For existing routes, the thought is that you can launch the route profile from your EZFavorites. Once a route is created and verified, add it to your favorites in the EZRoute Editor and then you can always launch the EZRoute Profile from there for future EZWxBrief sessions.
Gray matter on the EZMap
If you happen to go to the EZMap and slide the EZDeparture Advisor to the right and see a bunch of gray weather icons (or gray question mark icons), what does this mean? Well, this likely means that the ceiling height and/or surface visibility forecast is unavailable.
EZWxBrief does not rely on a single forecast model to produce the EZForecast you see in the progressive web app. Instead, every hour it blends the guidance from multiple forecast models to produce the forecast you see. Other forecast elements may still be available, but with a missing ceiling height and/or surface visibility, EZWxBrief is not capable of determining the flight category, and therefore, cannot determine the appropriate color, hence the color gray is used. This will occasionally happen if a key forecast model used in the ceiling or visibility blend does not finish and meet the cutoff time for it to be included. In some cases, it may be included for later departure times (times beyond 24 hours from the current time).
AOPA Aviator Showcase
It was nice to meet a few EZWxBrief customers at the AOPA Aviator Showcase in Manassas, Virginia last week as Scott presented "Five things you MUST know about datalink weather." If you missed the one in Virginia, this will be presented again at the next AOPA Aviator Showcase being held at the Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas on October 1st. The presentation is scheduled for at 9:40 a.m. Hope to see you there.
Join us for EZWxChat
Every Tuesday afternoon at 3 pm EDT, you can join Scott for his Facebook Live EZWxChat where he discusses many aviation weather topics including how to use the groundbreaking features of the EZWxBrief progressive web app. If you can't attend live, all of these are recorded and available on the EZWxBrief YouTube channel a day or two later. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any new videos.
What's new with EZWxBrief?
Version 1.0.5 was recently released and contains a few minor improvements to the responsiveness of portable devices. Specifically on smaller devices (e.g., iPad), the main viewport of the EZRoute Profile is scrollable to the right (and left) to view the weather forecast further along the route. Now, when the EZDeparture Advisor time is changed, the main viewport of the EZRoute Profile remains fixed and no longer scrolls back to the beginning of the route as it did before. For all of the recent updates, the latest EZWxBrief release notes can be reviewed here.
Most pilots are weatherwise, but some are otherwise™
Dr. Scott Dennstaedt
Weather Systems Engineer
Founder, EZWxBrief
CFI & former NWS meteorologist
