How is PlaneWX different from my EFB or aviationweather.gov?

Your EFB is excellent for charts, filing, and day-of flying. Aviationweather.gov and Flight Service (including 1800WXBRIEF) give you official weather products. PlaneWX sits beside those tools. It does not replace them. What PlaneWX adds is decision support days out: a WX Score matched to your aircraft and personal minimums, a dynamic FRAT on the FAA PAVE framework, and mentors who see the same briefing you see. You can also share a flight plan into PlaneWX from a supported EFB. You stay PIC. Charts, filing, and official sources stay where they belong.

Is the briefing accurate?

Your briefing uses the same official observations and forecasts every pilot relies on: METARs, TAFs, PIREPs, SIGMETs and model guidance. It can only be as accurate as those forecasts, and every forecast carries some uncertainty. Every weather briefing, from any provider, also has the same built-in limit. It describes one departure time, one route, one altitude and one arrival time. Real flights change. You leave late, get rerouted, or get assigned a different altitude, and each change puts you in weather the briefing didn't look at. That's why PlaneWX can keep updating your briefing for monitored flights as the forecast changes, and why your decision-making continues in the air.

How can I make my briefing more accurate?

Enter the flight the way you'll really fly it: a realistic departure time, the route you expect to file or be cleared, your planned altitude, and the right aircraft profile. If any of those change, update the trip and brief again. Check again close to departure, when the forecasts are freshest.

Yes, in specific places. Weather reports, forecasts, model data and NOTAMs are fetched and decoded by code. AI reads forecaster discussions and writes the plain-language briefing, the hazard summary and most section ratings. It also proposes a starting WX Score and some deductions, such as for convection. Ceiling and visibility are always scored by code. Within 12 hours of departure, your personal minimums and aircraft limits are checked by rule-based code, not the AI. Further out, AI also helps weigh icing and turbulence against your limits. You always make the final call.

What is the WX Score?

The WX Score is a 0-100% metric calculated against YOUR personal minimums and your specific aircraft, not generic VFR/IFR categories. It tells you, in a single number, how well conditions are expected to match your standards. Every deduction is transparent and explained.

What is the PAVE framework?

PAVE is the FAA risk framework: Pilot, Aircraft, enVironment, and External pressures. It is the structure behind a serious preflight risk assessment, not a weather product by itself. We walk through it in plain language in our PAVE risk assessment guide. PlaneWX FRAT uses that same framework as a living sit-down assessment near departure. See how PlaneWX FRAT works, including how the briefing and airport context feed the enVironment side.

How far in advance can PlaneWX forecast weather?

PlaneWX provides weather intelligence from 14 days out through departure. Confidence improves as your flight approaches. We are transparent about uncertainty at every time horizon.

What is the mentor system?

PlaneWX connects you with experienced pilots who can review your full briefing (WX Score, aircraft profile, personal minimums) and offer a second set of eyes grounded in shared data, not guesswork. Mentor sits alongside the risk-management loop when you want it.

Is there a free plan?

Yes. Free forever includes full-quality briefings. We limit how much you can use PlaneWX, not how good the analysis is. Details on plans and what each tier includes are in PlaneWX Plans help.

What's the difference between Casual, Pro, and Pro Plus?

Casual is for pilots who fly a few times a month and want auto-monitoring. Pro raises limits and automation. Pro Plus adds Ground Protection, Auto-Brief, Pre-Flight Text, briefed fuel stops, and Labs. Compare current limits and features in Plans help, or start from the pricing section on this page. Personal minimums still drive the WX Score on every plan. If you are setting those for the first time, see personal minimums for weather planning.

What happens after the 14-day free trial?

You keep access on Free, or choose Casual, Pro, or Pro Plus. No card is required to start the trial. Plan details stay in Plans help.

Decision-MakingLast reviewed 2026-10-02

Time Lapse: Datalink Radar Is a Picture of the Past

An instrument-rated Cherokee Six pilot used in-cockpit NEXRAD to pick his way around Texas thunderstorms at night. The airplane flew into severe weather and broke up near Bryan. Based on the AOPA Air Safety Institute case study and the NTSB final report, a look at what datalink weather can and can't tell you.

Datalink radar in the cockpit is one of the best things to happen to general aviation weather. It is also always a little out of date, and a storm moving fast enough can close a gap that still looks open on the screen.

The AOPA Air Safety Institute (ASI) re-creates this flight in its video "Accident Case Study: Time Lapse," which you can watch below. The summary that follows is ours and is based on the NTSB final report (CEN12FA108), which also gives the official probable cause. Watch the full case study for ASI's own analysis.

AOPA Air Safety Institute: Accident Case Study: Time Lapse — Video: AOPA Air Safety Institute, Accident Case Study: Time Lapse.

The flight, in short

On December 19, 2011, a 33-year-old instrument-rated private pilot with about 392 hours was flying a Piper PA-32-260 Cherokee Six with four passengers from Hampton, Georgia to Waco, Texas on an IFR flight plan. After a fuel stop in Jackson, Mississippi, the flight left about 5:50 PM. His GPS unit had a current NEXRAD weather subscription.

Level at 8,000 feet, he told Houston approach he'd been “looking at my nexrad” and asked about a 250 heading. The controller said that heading would put him in moderate to heavy precipitation. Over the next 20 minutes or so the pilot and the controller talked through the weather: the airplane skirting light to moderate precipitation, a heavy to extreme cell about 8 miles ahead and to his right, and the pilot maneuvering to find a “hole” to go through.

At 9:42 PM the controller said the airplane had just made a left 360 and was headed right into heavy weather, and suggested a turn to 220. The pilot answered, “We're in some bad weather here. I'm going to try to get out of it.” That was his last transmission. Radar showed a descending turn and lost the airplane two minutes later at 6,800 feet. The left wing had failed in positive overload, and all five people aboard were killed.

The NTSB determined the probable cause to be: “The pilot’s inadvertent encounter with severe weather, which resulted in the airplane’s left wing failing in positive overload. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s reliance on outdated weather information that he received on his in-cockpit Next-Generation Radar (NEXRAD).”

Why the age of the picture matters

The GPS unit's manual said NEXRAD data was for “long-range planning purposes only” and not to “penetrate hazardous weather,” because it “is not real-time.” After this accident, in June 2012, the NTSB issued a safety alert warning that the age shown on a cockpit NEXRAD display can be misleading, and that the actual radar data can be as much as 20 minutes older than the display suggests. Around fast-moving, fast-building storms, that difference matters.

Use datalink radar to stay well clear of weather, not to thread a path between cells.
Assume the picture is older than the age on the screen says.
Treat a controller's live radar call as fresher than your own display, and take the turn they suggest.
Brief convective weather on the ground and plan wide deviations or a stop before you're in it.

Putting it into practice

Why it matters

The best time to avoid a line of storms is before you take off, with the whole picture in front of you and no clock running. PlaneWX never recommends GO or NO‑GO. The pilot makes the call.

Decision loop

1Weather Briefing
2FRAT
3GO / NO-GO
4Self Debrief

Mentor is an optional layer on any step, not a fifth stage.

Tool or habit

Brief every flight in PlaneWX and look closely when a Convective Watch shows up along your route. Set a storm avoidance personal minimum and let the WX Score check it. Use the FRAT, which opens 4 hours before departure, to be honest about night, a long day and the pressure to get home. You record your own GO / NO‑GO decision.

Sources

PlaneWX complements FAA and Flight Service weather products. PlaneWX is decision support. It is not a substitute for your full preflight briefing (for example a standard briefing through Flight Service or your EFB).