More detailed enroute weather and synoptic charts

Hi folks,
First of all, I adore Simbrief and I think the chap who made it (I’ve forgotten his name sadly, apologies) is one of the true heroes of the simming hobby. I’m also delighted that Navigraph have brought it under their wing, as I’ve also very much enjoyed Navigraph’s output for years now.
However, I have always thought the weather information in Simbrief has lacked synoptic charts - that is to say, surface pressure maps, which are very important in weather interpretation and were certainly made part of the weather briefing materials in the airline with which I am most familiar (sadly no longer around).
The other thing is the lack of enroute METARs/TAFs/NOTAMs, which would allow for more detailed enroute diversion planning. I appreciate ETOPS alternates can be selected, and 1 enroute alternate for shorter routes, but this isn’t really enough in my view. You would want to be able to review the wx/notam situation for several suitable enroute alternates, even for a fairly short flight, in case you have to divert due to problems. I think this has always been slightly lacking.
Anyway, those are my small requests. Keep up the good work.
John.

Hi John, thanks for the feedback, maybe we can add some of this in a future update.

The reason these features haven’t been added yet is that most real world OFPs don’t actually include this data. I know pilots can pull the latest enroute weather via ACARS once in flight (as well as prior to flight through company provided software), so maybe that’s why many companies don’t bother to include it in the release itself. Increasingly, this sort of data is also made available to pilots through EFB devices in the cockpit.

I have not seen any companies include surface pressure maps in their OFPs so far. Not to say that none do of course, but it does not seem very common.

SimBrief’s first target has always been to reproduce the real world OFP formats as closely as possible, with other/additional features being added where possible (workload and time permitting). I do think these are valid suggestions and will look into adding them in the future.

Cheers,

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