Airport Briefing

Airport Briefing combines essential aerodrome information, runway statistics, approach availability, live METAR data and historical weather conditions into a single overview. It helps pilots understand the airport layout and evaluate the weather conditions that may affect their arrival or departure.

1. Airport Identification

The top of the page displays the official airport name, making it easy to identify the aerodrome currently being reviewed.

• Location: The airport's geographical location displayed on the map.
• ICAO: The four-letter ICAO identifier.
• Elevation: The airport's elevation above mean sea level, displayed in feet.
• Coordinates: The airport's geographical latitude and longitude.

2. Airport Overview

The Airport Overview section summarises the information most relevant to flight planning and approach preparation.

• Expected approach: An estimate of the most likely approach direction or runway based on the prevailing wind distribution over the previous 30 days and the available approach procedures.
• Approach procedures: Available instrument approach types, such as ILS, RNP, RNAV, VOR, LOC, NDB, where supported by the aeronautical data.
• GPS jamming warning: Displays an alert when a relevant GNSS interference warning or risk indicator is available for the area.

The suggested approach is a statistical indication, not an operational clearance or a prediction of the runway that ATC will assign. Actual runway selection depends on current conditions, ATC instructions, NOTAMs and operational restrictions. Approach availability should always be verified against current official aeronautical information.

A GPS jamming alert does not necessarily mean that interference is occurring at the airport at that moment. Pilots should consult current NOTAMs and official GNSS interference reports.

3. Most Frequently Used Runway

This section identifies the runway whose orientation is most compatible with the prevailing wind statistics. It also displays the average wind conditions used for the analysis.

• Preferred runway: The runway statistically favoured by the observed wind direction.
• Average wind: The mean wind direction and speed over the selected historical period.
• Wind compatibility: Runway preference is estimated by considering headwind and crosswind components.

This is a historical tendency, not a live runway assignment. The currently active runway may differ because of live winds, runway availability, traffic, noise restrictions or ATC decisions.

4. Airport Layout Map

The airport map provides a visual representation of the runway and taxiway layout.

• Green: Runways.
• Orange: Taxiways (TWYs).

The map is based on OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. Its geometry and labels may be incomplete, outdated or inaccurate. It is provided for general orientation only and must not be used as a substitute for official aerodrome charts, an airport diagram.

5. Runway Information

The runway details section provides information about all runways associated with the airport, rather than only the runway most commonly favoured by the wind.

• Runway designation: The runway number and, where applicable, its L, C or R suffix.
• Dimensions: Runway length and width, where available.
• Surface: The reported runway surface type.
• Heading: The runway's magnetic heading.
• Elevation: Runway elevation.
• Lighting: Shown if runway have lighting system installed.

Lighting information may not reflect its current operational status. Always check the applicable AIP, NOTAMs and airport information before flight operations.

6. Frequencies and Live METAR

This section groups the airport's available communication frequencies and the latest available METAR report in one place.

• Station: The service or station associated with a frequency, such as ATIS, Tower, Ground, Approach.
• Frequency: The corresponding radio frequency, displayed in MHz.
• Live METAR: The latest available routine or special aerodrome weather report.

METAR provides observed weather information, including wind, visibility, significant weather, cloud conditions, temperature, dew point and pressure. The report's observation time is normally given in UTC.

7. Last 30 Days: Flight Categories

The historical statistics summarise the number of days in each flight category during the previous 30 days.

• VFR: Visual Flight Rules conditions.
• MVFR: Marginal Visual Flight Rules conditions.
• IFR: Instrument Flight Rules conditions.
• LIFR: Low Instrument Flight Rules conditions.

The distribution helps identify how frequently the airport experienced different levels of meteorological conditions. The classification thresholds depend on the applicable regional criteria and the methodology used by the application.

These statistics describe historical weather, not the probability of a particular category occurring on a future flight. Missing observations may affect the totals.

8. Meteogram: Temperature and Wind

The meteogram combines temperature, wind speed, gusts and flight category information in a time-based graph.

• Orange line: Air temperature, with the temperature scale on the left side of the graph.
• Green line: Wind speed, read against the wind scale on the right side of the graph.
• Thin dashed green line: Wind gust speed.
• Background columns: The flight category assigned to each hourly observation.
• Horizontal axis: The observation time, displayed chronologically.

Using separate scales allows temperature and wind to be displayed together without treating them as quantities with the same units. Wind speeds and gusts should be compared using the right-hand scale; temperatures should be read using the left-hand scale.

The flight-category columns show how the weather classification changes over time. They provide context for identifying periods when conditions improved, deteriorated or remained relatively stable.

9. Show All 30 Days

By default, the meteogram display last 3 days data. Press Show all 30 days to expand the graph and inspect the historical hourly observations across the full 30-day period.

In the expanded view, the same visual conventions apply: temperature is shown in orange, wind speed in green, gusts as a thin dashed green line, and flight categories as columns.

The extended graph helps reveal recurring weather patterns, daily temperature cycles, changes in wind speed and gust intensity, and periods associated with lower flight categories.

Historical data coverage depends on the observations available for the airport. The 30-day view should not be interpreted as a forecast for the next 30 days.

10. Important Operational Disclaimer

Airport Briefing is an informational and planning aid. It does not replace official AIP publications, current aerodrome charts, NOTAMs, ATC instructions, official weather reports or the pilot's operational assessment.