How many FSS?

[wxman]

Would it take to staff a 24hr FSS.

How many fewer would it take if a CWO also on site?

[bigfssguy]

as little as 4 people for a 24 hour operation and that i'm aware of there is no such thing as a CWO onsite at an FSS. If there are FSS there we are all certified weather observors. Never heard of it, but not to say there isn't anything out there?

[lilfssister]

4 sounds like a low number big guy? I would think 5 or maybe 6, but I could be wrong? WIth an Arctic work week probably 5.

I agree though, that there would not be much point in having a CWO if you had a 24 FSS. Why incur the expense of a CWO when there's certified wx observers there 24 hrs?

[wxman]

not the norm but it does happen.

Case in point is YYB that has both CWO and FSS.

Just hopin for our staff.

[bij]

not the norm but it does happen.

Case in point is YYB that has both CWO and FSS.

Just hopin for our staff.

Are you working in a place that has a tower possibly becoming FSS, as in YSB?

[bigfssguy]

Rankin runs on an arctic work week with 4 people, here in Churchill we have 5 people on a semi arctic work week. In a normal southern station if i had to guess i would say 6 people roughly for 24hrs single stand.

North Bay had a CWO becasue it would be really tough to do wx obs from a few hundred feet underground. Now that the FSS has migrated to the surface and into the new building i wouldn't be surprised to see them pick up the wx obs. but then again goverment doesn;t take change well so i could see Enviomnet keeping the CWO. Who knows though.

[bigfssguy]

Rankin runs on an arctic work week with 4 people, here in Churchill we have 5 people on a semi arctic work week. In a normal southern station if i had to guess i would say 6 people roughly for 24hrs single stand.

North Bay had a CWO becasue it would be really tough to do wx obs from a few hundred feet underground. Now that the FSS has migrated to the surface and into the new building i wouldn't be surprised to see them pick up the wx obs. but then again goverment doesn;t take change well so i could see Enviomnet keeping the CWO. Who knows though.

[pokaroo]

YYB FSS is in a cab they always have been. The Arctic guys were in the hole. They do not run a 24 operation and that could be why they have a CWO.

[sigmet77]

There is a CWO because of the location of the met compound. "Southern" FSS need 5+1 if the run single stand. YYB should be one of few FSS that has a CWO and they will probably disappear over time.

[thatdaveguy]

Also, no FIC's AFAIK do their own weather observation.

Standard staffing for single stand: 5 operations, 1 supervisor.

[lilfssister]

I can think of one FIC that does wx obs.

[bigfssguy]

Yes Lifss, Winnipeg FIC does there own wx observing.

[lilfssister]

Well, then there's more than one.

[NJ]

YZF as it is now does WX

[lilfssister]

YYB FSS is in a cab they always have been. The Arctic guys were in the hole. They do not run a 24 operation and that could be why they have a CWO.

YYB had a control tower til March 1999.

[pokaroo]

Yes there was. Has there ever been a North Bay FSS (CYYB airport) providing AAS not in the cab?

[G.N. Thompson]

Out of curiousity, when FSS only, what duties/priorities come before wx obs? Wx spcls?
GNT

[sigmet77]

Aren't you FSS?

[pokaroo]

Untill recently the arctic radio guys were down in the hole with NORAD. The actual YYB airport FSS were up in the cab

[G.N. Thompson]

Sigmet,
Negative. I think a lot of frustration would be avoided if everyone understood the plan.
GNT

[thatdaveguy]

Out of curiousity, when FSS only, what duties/priorities come before wx obs? Wx spcls?
GNT

everything does.

[G.N. Thompson]

Dave,
Is that just your take on it, or has your manager actually decreed wx as your lowest priority? If that's affirm, let me guess that neither of you have shot an approch in IMC?
GNT

[grimey]

Dave,
Is that just your take on it, or has your manager actually decreed wx as your lowest priority? If that's affirm, let me guess that neither of you have shot an approch in IMC?
GNT

Depending on the equipment available, all of the information that goes into a METAR/SPECI may be immediately available to the FSS in the cab, especially if they have a laser ceilometer. So just because we didn't have time to put a special out, doesn't mean we can't give the current visibility, ceiling, RVR, and recent pireps to a pilot. If it's nasty IMC, I try to give pilots as current a picture as possible, regardless of whether it has actually gone out as a special or not. But official wx obs are considered to be pretty low priority. That doesn't mean the info won't be relayed to any pilots operating in the area, or that it will be delayed for an extreme amount of time before being entered into the system, though.

[G.N. Thompson]

Dave, Grimey,
So from the perspective of people in dispatch or the flyer checking your wx from 400 miles away, exactly what gets a lower priority than wx spcls officially?
GNT

[lilfssister]

Digging in the "when did I last read that part of MANOPS?" memory bank, order of priority is :

Emergency
Inflight
Preflight
Other

Wx obs fall into the inflight category (with the caveats as described by grimey, as to when the conditions may be entered into the system and passed on to the farther away inflight or the preflight crowd by other FSS, ATC, or dispatch/self brief)