UAV forecast

[spamgnome]

Am I really supposed to believe that winds are gusting at over 100 MPH @ 5,000 feet? C'mon...
My Foreflight app says 39 MPH. That seems much more realistic.

 

[deleted member 877]

It looks extreme but anything is possible when it comes to weather-related anomalies. Have a read of this document (see link below)

https://www.weather.gov/media/zhu/ZHU_Training_Page/turbulence_stuff/turbulence3/turbulence.pdf

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Yes, very much so, airlines use this all the time for flight planning and efficiency.

I only look at 10m and 100m, often use Ventusky, which gives decent forecasts for all sorts of data, temps, wind, precipitation, storms, waves, loads of data readily available.

You click wind speed, go to the various altitudes, amazing how it can be almost still at sea level blowing to the east, and 5000m up it's over 140km/hr to the west.

 

[sar104]

Am I really supposed to believe that winds are gusting at over 100 MPH @ 5,000 feet? C'mon...
My Foreflight app says 39 MPH. That seems much more realistic.

Comparing with Foreflight at my location shows that windspeed is in reasonable agreement at 5000 AGL but the direction is 90° out. Surface winds in UAV Forecast are completely wrong in speed and direction. It doesn't seem very reliable at all - even if it just pulled the nearest METAR it would be much better. Personally I think that the UAV Forecast app is borderline worthless.

 

[Porky]

I’ve just started using the NOAA weather reports from the nearest airport. Very accurate and gives you a better understanding of what’s going on in terms of wind/wind speed etc.

 

[spamgnome]

I've been flying for over 20 years and have NEVER seen winds over about 50 MPH at 5,000'. Unless there's a hurricane or tornado, it just doesn't happen. Agree UAV forecast is pretty worthless.

 

[Libertyflights]

I fly hot air balloons and watch winds aloft at 1200 and higher. I have seen over 50 mph many times. Guess it all depends on where you are.

 

[sar104]

I fly hot air balloons and watch winds aloft at 1200 and higher. I have seen over 50 mph many times. Guess it all depends on where you are.

Agreed - 50 mph is quite possible. We see that at ground level sometimes. The problem with UAV Forecast is that the winds it shows are often incorrect at ground level and disagree aloft with other trusted sources.