How PlaneWX Keeps Your Briefings Current
Understanding when and why your briefings update — and what you can do to trigger a refresh.
The Briefing Lifecycle
When you create a flight, PlaneWX generates a briefing by analyzing 15+ weather products — METARs, TAFs, winds aloft, AIRMETs, SIGMETs, NBM forecasts, and more. That briefing is a snapshot of conditions at that moment. As weather evolves, your briefing needs to keep pace.
PlaneWX offers several ways your briefing stays current, depending on your plan:
Free Plan
- ✓15 briefings per week (resets every Monday)
- ✓Profile-change refresh (doesn't count toward your 15)
- ✓Full weather product coverage
- ✓Manual "Check Updates" button (live fetch in the final hour)
- —No automatic background refreshes
- —No email notifications
Casual Plan
- ✓Unlimited briefings
- ✓Automatic background refreshes on a smart schedule (up to 5 monitored flights)
- ✓Profile-change refresh
- ✓Live Weather Refresh button in the final hour (5-min cooldown)
- ✓Email alerts for WX Score changes
- ✓Pre-flight summary email about an hour before departure
Pro Plan
- ✓Unlimited briefings
- ✓Automatic background refreshes — up to 10 monitored flights
- ✓Profile-change refresh
- ✓Live Weather Refresh button in the final hour (5-min cooldown)
- ✓Email alerts for WX Score changes
- ✓Pre-flight summary email about an hour before departure
Pro Plus
- ✓Everything in Pro, including auto-refresh
- ✓On-Demand Refresh anytime before departure — not only in the final hour
- ✓15-minute cooldown days out; Live Weather Refresh (5-min cooldown) in the final hour
- ✓Refresh even when no new weather products have published yet
What Triggers a Briefing Refresh?
Profile Changes
ALL PLANSWhen you update your personal minimums or aircraft profile, PlaneWX asks if you'd like to refresh your active briefings immediately. Your WX Score may change based on the new settings — for example, lowering your crosswind limit could turn favorable into unfavorable.
Free plan: These refreshes do not count toward your weekly limit of 15.
Editing Flight Details
ALL PLANSChanging your route, departure time, cruise altitude, aircraft assignment, or flight rules triggers an immediate regeneration since the entire weather picture changes.
On-Demand Refresh
PRO PLUSTap Refresh on your briefing anytime before departure. Days out it uses a 15-minute cooldown and regenerates even if the product schedule hasn't moved; in the final hour it becomes Live Weather Refresh with a 5-minute cooldown. See On-Demand Refresh.
Automatic Schedule
PROCasual and Pro briefings refresh automatically in the background as new weather products become available. The frequency increases as departure approaches — see the schedule below.
Manual Refresh Options
In addition to automatic updates, every plan includes a way to refresh on demand. Free, Casual, and Pro only regenerate when new weather products have published. Pro Plus can refresh anytime before departure — see On-Demand Refresh.
Free Plan — "Check Updates"
A Check Updates button appears on your briefing. Tap it to regenerate your briefing with the latest weather data. Each refresh counts toward your weekly limit of 15.
In the final hour before departure, this button fetches live weather data directly from the Aviation Weather Center for the freshest possible picture.
Casual & Pro — "Live Weather Refresh"
Casual and Pro briefings update automatically, so you typically don't need to refresh manually. However, in the final hour before departure, a Live Weather Refresh button appears so you can pull real-time data on demand.
This button has a 5-minute cooldown between presses to avoid unnecessary load on the weather data sources.
Pro Plus — On-Demand Refresh
One Refresh button stays on your briefing anytime before departure. Days out it regenerates even if no new products have published (15-minute cooldown).
In the final hour the same control becomes Live Weather Refresh(5-minute cooldown). Auto-refresh keeps running either way.
What is "Live Fetch"?
Normally, PlaneWX pulls weather data from its own cache, which is updated on a regular schedule from FAA and NWS sources. This is efficient and fast for the vast majority of your planning window.
In the final hour before departure, freshness matters most. Live fetch bypasses the cache entirely and queries the Aviation Weather Center APIs in real time — METARs, TAFs, SIGMETs, AIRMETs, G-AIRMETs, and PIREPs. If a live request fails, PlaneWX automatically falls back to the most recent cached data so your briefing is never left incomplete.
Auto-Refresh SchedulePRO
Casual and Pro briefings refresh on a smart schedule that matches when NWS weather products actually update. As your departure gets closer, refreshes happen more frequently because forecasts become more accurate and more products become available.
Pattern outlook only — CPC/WPC extended guidance
GFS MOS guidance updates twice daily
NBM hourly forecasts and TAFs now available
Decision window — TAFs, METARs, and AIRMETs updating frequently
Pre-flight — refreshes at departure milestones (T-6h, T-4h, T-2h, T-1h, T-30m, T-15m), not on a fixed hourly clock
The last auto-refresh before departure bypasses the weather cache and pulls real-time data directly from the Aviation Weather Center. A manual Live Weather Refresh button also appears.
Weather Products by Timeframe
Different weather products cover different time horizons. PlaneWX automatically selects the most appropriate products for your departure timeframe:
METARs & TAFs
Current observations and 24-30 hour terminal forecasts
AIRMETs, SIGMETs & G-AIRMETs
Active hazardous weather advisories along your route
NBM (National Blend of Models)
Hourly probabilistic guidance out to 7 days
GFS MOS (MAV/MEX)
Extended model output statistics, 3-7 days
Winds & Temps Aloft (FB Winds)
Forecast winds and temperatures at cruise altitude
CPC/WPC Outlooks
Extended pattern guidance, 8-14 days
Email NotificationsCASUAL & PRO
Casual and Pro users receive proactive email notifications so you're never surprised by a weather change. PlaneWX consolidates updates into digests to keep your inbox clean.
WX Score Alerts
When your WX Score changes by 10+ points. Sent immediately if your flight is under 6 hours away, otherwise included in your next digest.
Pre-Flight Summary
A comprehensive email about an hour before departure with your final WX Score, minimums check, current conditions, score history, and a PAVE nudge if you haven't completed the assessment yet. The separate Pre-Flight Text (Pro Plus) is the 30-minute SMS.
Morning Digest
At 5 AM, one email with your home airport forecast, all active trip updates, and any overnight score changes — instead of multiple individual emails.
Non-urgent emails are held and included in your morning digest. Imminent flight alerts (under 6 hours) still come through immediately.
Tips for Free Plan Users
With 15 briefings per week, here are some tips to make the most of them:
- 1.Set your minimums first. Get your personal minimums and aircraft profile dialed in before creating flights. Profile-change refreshes are free and don't count toward your 15.
- 2.Create flights closer to departure. A briefing created 2 days out uses higher-accuracy products (TAFs, METARs) than one created 10 days out. You get more value per briefing.
- 3.Watch for "Check Updates." If your briefing shows a Check Updates button, new weather products have come out since your last briefing — tap it to get a fresh picture.
- 4.Your counter resets every Monday. Unused briefings don't carry over, so don't save them up.
Good to Know
- • Your trip card shows when the briefing was last updated and its freshness
- • Archived or past flights stop receiving updates
- • In the final hour, both auto-refresh and manual refresh use live data from the Aviation Weather Center
- • If a live fetch fails, PlaneWX falls back to the most recent cached data automatically
- • Casual and Pro users can customize email preferences in Profile → Notifications
- • Pro Plus can tap Refresh anytime before departure — see the On-Demand Refresh guide
- • Quiet hours use your departure timezone as a proxy for your local time
- • The WX Score breakdown is identical between plans — both get full detail