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About PlaneWX
Release Notes

What's New in PlaneWX

Recent feature releases and improvements, newest first.

Crosswind runway pick uses your aircraft minimum only

When scoring crosswind, PlaneWX picks the best aligned runway that meets your aircraft's minimum runway length. It no longer skips a shorter strip just because it is under half the length of the field's longest runway.

What changed

  • Best aligned runway that meets your aircraft minimum is eligible for the crosswind score
  • Shorter runways under half the longest strip are no longer skipped for that reason alone
  • Runways below your aircraft minimum runway length are still skipped
Learn more:WX Score ExplainedWX Score: How It Works

Runway length warning before Add Trip

If an airport’s longest qualifying runway is shorter than your aircraft minimum (or fails paved-only), PlaneWX warns as soon as origin/dest validate, before Add Trip, with Acknowledge & continue. The same static runway check still runs on every briefing refresh as a strong caution, with no WX Score floor or deduction for runway alone.

At create

  • Dialog shows airport, longest matching runway, and your aircraft minimum
  • Acknowledge & continue creates the trip; change airport/aircraft to pick something else
  • Never hard-blocks create. You know your airplane best

On briefings

  • Runway length/surface fitness runs on every refresh, not only inside the 12h-or-less full-preflight window
  • Shows a strong caution banner. Does not floor WX Score to 0% or apply a runway deduction by itself
  • Weather-dependent checks (ceiling, crosswind, icing, and similar) stay gated and scored with the briefing
Learn more:Creating a TripAircraft Profiles

Weather proxies: pick your nearby METAR/TAF

When origin or dest has no native METAR and/or TAF, Add Trip opens a Weather proxy dialog for that airport. Keep the system default or pick your own. Remember for that airport is on by default, so Continue saves the picks for future briefings; turn it off for this trip only. A quiet Weather line above the Add Trip button shows (saved), (system), or (your pick). Change reopens the dialog. On the Home Airport card, Change next to the METAR or TAF proxy badge picks a station; Reset returns to the system default. Saved choices apply to future briefings for that airport.

Add Trip

  • Dialog on origin, then dest, when a product is missing; home is not exempt
  • Weather line above the Add Trip button: (saved), (system), (your pick), plus Change
  • Native airports stay silent; both native: no Weather line

Home Airport

  • Home Airport card: Change next to METAR or TAF proxy badge
  • Reset returns to the system default; saved picks apply to future briefings

Briefing disclosures

  • Proxy weather line at the top; Terminal via labels use (system default) or (your pick)
  • Density altitude: Proxy used note that density altitude will not be accurate when temp/altimeter are proxied
  • Still your call: decision support, not an order
Learn more:Weather proxies guide

Visibility in meters

Prefer ICAO-style meters for visibility? Turn it on under Profile, Preferences, Show visibility in meters. Off by default. Ceilings stay in feet, and your WX Score and stored minimums stay in statute miles; only the display changes.

Where to find it

  • Profile, Preferences, Show visibility in meters
  • Off by default - statute miles until you flip it on

What changes - and what doesn't

  • Visibility labels show meters (ICAO-style) when the preference is on
  • Ceilings stay in feet
  • WX Score and stored personal minimums stay in statute miles - display only
Learn more:Visibility in meters guide

5X5 Aviation Insurance - partnership and what we share

5X5 is our exclusive insurance partner. Eligible Pro Plus members can get a premium credit from them. We updated the privacy policy so you can see exactly what they can ask for.

The partnership

  • 5X5 rewards Pro Plus members who brief with PlaneWX. Credit is theirs to set, subject to their underwriting.
  • 5% at quote and bind for verified Pro Plus. At renewal, more credit is available if you keep Pro Plus and use the platform on at least 75% of flights. Up to 10% total.
  • You do not have to insure with 5X5 to use PlaneWX.

What we share

  • 5X5 does not receive your PlaneWX weather briefings, scores, flight decisions, FRAT/PAVE responses, or self debrief information. For an aircraft 5X5 already insures, 5X5 can see only whether that aircraft is enrolled in PlaneWX Pro Plus and, at renewal, a utilization figure used solely to confirm PlaneWX Member Credit eligibility. PlaneWX never shares your name, email address, or customer list with 5X5.

Privacy policy

  • New Insurance partners section. Same rule for any future partner.
  • You can read it without accepting first. Accept is still required for the rest of the app.
Learn more:Press releaseInsurance partners
Labs

Self Debrief: How the Flight Actually Went

PlaneWX Labs for Pro Plus. Your briefing supports your GO / NO-GO call. After you land, Self Debrief asks how it went, while the flight is still in your head. It does not change your WX Score.

A structured look back

  • Rate this flight (how you did, not how fun), navigation methods, mental sharpness, FRAT look-back, discipline, weather, and each phase
  • Saves automatically. The first save is enough. The nudge can stop. Find them later under My Flights, then My Debriefs
  • Open squawks show the next time you pick that tail. Night landings and approaches feed currency on Insights

Private unless you grant it

  • Private notes never leave your account - not mentors, not Trip Watchers, not your public profile
  • One My Crew flag for a mentor or CFI. They see the debrief except private notes, and can leave one note for you

Where to start

  • Self-Debrief chip on the past-trip card, Trip menu on the briefing, or Debrief This Flight on the existing review email
  • No second email. No debrief SMS. Turn the reminder off in notification settings if you want
Learn more:Self Debrief guide
Casual+

Briefing Fuel Plan - FOB, Required FOB, and Add at Origin in Your Briefing

You already know the route. You can add your personal fuel plan directly to any briefing: no separate tool, no mental math at the FBO truck.

New - Route & Fuel card on every briefing

  • Enter your current FOB and see Required FOB (burn + reserve), exactly how much to add at the departure airport, estimated burn, and estimated landing fuel
  • Save auto-promotes your departure fuel to the required FOB if you're short - so you never accidentally save an underfueled plan
  • One-tap shortcuts: Use Required (fuel to the minimum safe load) and Fill to W&B Max (maximum margin for challenging weather or a potential divert)
  • Weather tip reminds you to consider extra fuel when destination weather looks challenging

Dashboard fuel line

  • Each trip card on the dashboard shows a single-line fuel summary: FOB · FOD · add N for next leg: the full picture without opening the briefing
  • Works for both Fuel Advisor trips and Briefing Fuel Plan trips

Multi-leg carry-forward

  • Save the fuel plan on Leg 1 and the return leg's departure fuel is pre-filled automatically
  • Mid-journey legs show FOD · add N for next leg; the final leg shows FOD · add N to restore home-base FOB
Learn more:Briefing Fuel Plan guide
Paid

WX Score History - See the Scores You Actually Fly

Idea from Wayne (@waynemcc). After a season of flying, the question isn't whether one briefing was right - it's whether you fly the scores you think you fly, and what you did with the low ones. Score History plots your archived WX Scores over time: VFR and IFR as two series, your FRAT decision on each point.

My Flights, then Score History

  • Sky dots are VFR. Cloud-grey dots are IFR. A faint line between two dots on the same date is a VFR/IFR twin pair
  • A check is FRAT GO. An X is NO-GO. Clock hands are Postpone. A triangle is Modify. A plain dot means no FRAT was recorded
  • Dashed lines at 50 and 75 are WX Score bands - not a fence you should not have flown below
  • Default view is flown trips. Switch to All past or Cancelled. Last 12 months, or all available
  • A 0% WX Score is the weather picture against your minimums, not a command to stay on the ground. Pilots sometimes record FRAT GO after 0% when they mitigate (file IFR, wait, change altitude). The chart shows the score and the decision you recorded
  • Casual, Pro, Pro Plus, Enterprise, and admin. Free stays without the tab
Learn more:Read the full guideWayne (@waynemcc)
WX Score

See the IFR WX Score on a VFR Briefing

Idea from Wayne (@waynemcc). If you're instrument-rated and the airplane is IFR-certified, a VFR WX Score crushed by ceilings or visibility isn't the whole story. PlaneWX shows what the same weather would score under IFR, and lets you switch the leg with one tap. It does not flip you automatically, and it does not verify that you are instrument current.

New - Switch to IFR

  • A green X% if IFR* appears next to the VFR WX Score when IFR would improve the number by 20 points or more - and that improvement comes from ceiling, visibility, or IMC rules, not from ignoring ice, turbulence, or storms
  • Switch to IFR & re-brief on the briefing and in Path to Favorable. Confirm, and the leg becomes IFR at that score
  • Same weather, IFR minimums - not a second briefing. Ice, turbulence, and convection still count
  • Owner-only. Shared, public, and group views never show the dual score or the switch
  • Assumes you are instrument current. PlaneWX does not verify currency
Learn more:Read the full guideWayne (@waynemcc)Watch the walkthrough
Scoring Honesty

Gaps Counted From Real Coverage

On a scattered, organized route the score asks whether there are at least two segments you could steer through. Gaps are counted from segments that actually show scattered coverage or heavier. A single isolated cell on a segment does not by itself close that gap.

How gaps are counted

  • A scattered, organized route with genuine gaps bills 20 points when coverage leaves room to steer
  • Isolated, widespread, embedded, and line routes keep their own ladders. Unorganized routes stay capped at 10. Terminal, SIGMET, METAR, and TAF convective deductions follow their own rules
  • A route with continuous coverage still carries the full 35-point gapless charge
  • Your briefing cites the coverage figure the score uses, so the narrative matches the number
  • If coverage detail is not available for your route, the stricter segment count applies
Learn more:Counting the gaps
Scoring Honesty

An Unstable Airmass Is Not a Line of Storms

Route-coverage labels (isolated, scattered, widespread) come from instability: CAPE, lifted index, cap strength. Without wind shear to organize storms, that environment favors short-lived pulse cells with room to fly between. The score reflects that.

Unorganized convection caps at 10 points

  • En-route convective coverage deductions cap at 10 points unless there is evidence the storms are organized: deep-layer wind shear at or above 20 knots, a Convective SIGMET valid when you reach it on your corridor, or radar showing scattered-or-worse coverage on the route
  • PlaneWX already computes shear along your route and shows it in the briefing. That figure also feeds the score
  • Organized convection keeps the full ladder. Multicell, supercell, and squall-line environments keep the full 20/35/40 ladder, and a Convective SIGMET valid when you reach it on your corridor restores it immediately
  • Missing shear data does not buy relief. If storm mode cannot be determined, the full deduction stands
  • Briefing wording tracks the score, so the narrative matches the hazard the number reflects
Learn more:Convective Watch scoring
Scoring Honesty

One Storm System, One Deduction Cap

When route-coverage assessment and an active Convective SIGMET both flag the same en-route storm system, thunderstorm and nearby-SIGMET deductions are capped together at 40 points, floored at whichever single charge is worse.

En-route convective deductions capped together

  • Thunderstorm route-coverage and nearby Convective SIGMET deductions combine under a 40-point cap. The stronger of the two keeps its full weight
  • Only those two en-route categories are capped. Terminal convective deductions at departure or arrival are not part of this cap
  • The score breakdown still shows each line, with a note when the combined cap applies
Learn more:WX Score - How It Works
Scoring Honesty

Empty Radar Corridor Means No Thunderstorm Deduction

When live radar finds the corridor you actually fly through empty, the route-coverage thunderstorm deduction is removed. The score does not ask you to consult a meteorologist about storms that are not on the route.

Quiet on route means no deduction

  • A corridor with nothing in it deducts nothing for route-coverage thunderstorms
  • Quiet is strict: no echo at or above 30 dBZ within 10 nm of any waypoint, no lightning, and nothing at or above 45 dBZ there in the past hour. A single moderate cell on course still costs points
  • The prompt to seek expert weather consultation follows the same reading on an empty corridor

The cap comes from your corridor

  • Two radar figures exist: what is on your route now, and what could reach it by the time you arrive
  • The thunderstorm deduction follows the on-route reading. The wider figure still decides whether radar may move the score at all, and lightning inside it still holds back full relief
  • Radar can only reduce a thunderstorm deduction. It does not add one
Learn more:Live Radar CorridorConvective Watch scoring
Synoptic Intelligence™

Your Local Forecast Office, In Your Own Briefing

Four times a day a meteorologist at your NWS office writes what they think the weather is doing and why. PlaneWX reads those Area Forecast Discussions and surfaces what your office said: the boundary they are tracking, their timing, and their own sentence, quoted verbatim. It appears on your home airport card, in your morning digest, and in how briefings frame frontal timing.

Your local forecast office on the home airport card

  • Names the boundary your office is tracking and where it stands: approaching, moving through, or already past
  • Shows the forecaster's own sentence, checked against the published discussion before display. If the text is not in the product, the quote is dropped
  • Carries the issuance age, and shifts to past tense once a discussion has been superseded
  • The office name links to that office's weather.gov page so you can read the full discussion
  • Available on every plan, including Free

Frontal timing in briefings comes from your office

  • Frontal timing comes from the office responsible for your airport
  • A front's position is matched to your departure time, not the moment the briefing runs
  • Departure window suggestions are framed around the real boundary: leaving ahead of it, or waiting for it to clear
  • Your morning digest carries the same read

Fronts that stall or miss your area

  • Forecasters often write about boundaries they expect to stall, weaken, or slide by to the north
  • PlaneWX reads whether the office expects the front to reach their area, and says so when they do not
  • When the office does not expect arrival, your briefing describes the day-to-day airmass change instead of putting you on a side of a boundary that never passes

Forecast office coverage

  • Coverage spans all 123 offices that issue Area Forecast Discussions: the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa
  • Office identifiers match NWS codes so each airport maps to the correct discussion
Learn more:Your Local Forecast Office guide
Scoring Honesty

Honest Icing & Convective Scoring - Same Products, Clearer Judgment

Icing and thunderstorm scoring show their work when they disagree with a raw chart: cloud-top physics can clear impossible ice, climb/descent use real hybrid peaks, Convective SIGMETs are time-aware (not just corridor hits), the same storm is not double-counted across SIGMET and TAF, and the Summary names convection the score actually deducted.

Icing - Cloud Tops, Phase Peaks, ForeFlight VCS

  • Cloud-top vs freezing-level veto: if path soundings show cloud tops at or below the FZL (or a clear column), hybrid icing severity goes to none - no supercooled liquid water, no structural ice
  • Climb and descent tiles use phase-local CIP/IFI/NWP peaks instead of a hardcoded light/trace floor
  • Briefings acknowledge the same DAFS IFI / CIP cell a ForeFlight vertical cross-section shows, then explain PlaneWX’s different job (severity × probability × path, CIP when fresh, physics gates)

Convection - Encounter Timing & Ledger Dedup

  • Convective SIGMET deductions scale by whether you will actually encounter the storm (motion, track, tops, deviation difficulty) - flying away from a corridor polygon is not a full en-route hit
  • Server convective ledger: one storm does not stack full SIGMET + TAF thunderstorm penalties
  • Low model CAPE cannot erase an active SIGMET/TS in the Summary - narrative must name what the score deducted

Live Radar Badge Clarity

  • Radar badge reflects observed corridor intensity; scoring still considers the wider motion cone for cells that could reach your path
Learn more:Multi-Model Icing AnalysisConvective Watch scoringLive Radar CorridorFAQs
While You're There

Heat Advisories, Sunrise/Sunset, and Hangar Guidance

The While You're There ground weather card watches for extreme heat as well as cold and severe storms. Every day card shows local sunrise and sunset alongside temperature, wind, and precipitation. Hangar recommended also accounts for extreme heat, because hangar shade is a real heat mitigation.

Heat advisories

  • Forecast highs of 95F or more trigger an advisory: use sunshades or gust locks and avoid topping off fuel on a hot ramp
  • Forecast highs of 105F or more escalate to an alert and set the Hangar recommended banner, same as other alert-severity hazards
  • Shade (a hangar or sunshades) is called out as the primary mitigation
  • Extreme heat also prompts a tire-pressure check before departure, where an unshaded cabin can exceed 150F

Sunrise and sunset on every day card

  • Local sunrise and sunset times appear on every day of the ground weather forecast, including model-preview days beyond the NWS 7-day horizon
  • Useful for planning a preheat, an early fuel stop, or a departure timed around daylight

Hangar recommended for extreme heat

  • Extreme heat (105F or more) sets the Hangar recommended banner
  • Shade is the dominant heat mitigation for a parked aircraft
  • The softer 95-104F advisory tier does not set the banner on its own, consistent with other advisory categories
Learn more:While You're There guide
Pilot Profile

Auto-Calculate Your Recent Flight Hours from ADS-B-Confirmed Flights

"Hours (Last 30 Days)" in your Pilot profile fills in and stays current automatically, calculated from flights PlaneWX has already ADS-B-confirmed you flew. The same real flight history also pre-fills your FRAT currency question, with full manual control if you'd rather enter hours yourself.

New - Automatic Hours (Last 30 Days)

  • Recalculates every time you visit your Pilot profile, without remembering to update it by hand
  • Duration comes from actual block time when available, falling back to planned time en route, then a distance-based estimate
  • Only counts trips ADS-B has actually confirmed you flew - not just planned trips
  • On by default for every pilot; your existing value is left untouched until real flown data is found

New - Opt Out Any Time

  • Turn off "Auto-calculate from flights" next to the field to enter hours manually instead
  • While it's off, a "Calculate from my flights flown" button lets you pull in the ADS-B total on demand, as a one-time fill rather than an ongoing sync
  • Manual entries are never silently overwritten - auto-calculation only ever runs while the toggle is on

Also - FRAT Currency Prefill

  • Starting a brand-new FRAT pre-fills "Hours in this aircraft (last 30 days)" from the same ADS-B data, scoped to that trip's specific tail number
  • The value is always rounded down, so an auto-filled number can never understate your currency risk
  • Adjust the slider yourself at any point - your manual value is respected for the rest of that assessment
Learn more:Pilot Profile guideFRAT
Regional Watch

Pin Your Preferred Region for Regional Watch

Regional Watch follows you, not just your home airport. You can pin any of the 23 US aviation regions directly from the dashboard, with no trip to Settings required. International pilots get the nearest US region loaded automatically, and anyone can hide the card entirely if US weather isn't relevant to their flying.

New - Inline Region Switcher

  • Tap the compact region badge (for example Up. MW) on any Regional Watch card to instantly swap regions
  • Your selection saves automatically to your profile - no Save button needed
  • Smart suggestions group options as Auto (current), Nearby (adjacent regions), and All Regions
  • A 'Not your area? Change region' nudge appears when the region is auto-detected, making the option easy to discover

New - International Airport Support

  • Pilots based outside the US see Regional Watch automatically. PlaneWX resolves the nearest US aviation region by geography
  • The same smart-suggestion picker shows 'Nearest' + adjacent regions so cross-border pilots find their area quickly
  • If no region can be matched, a manual picker appears so you can choose one

New - Hide Regional Watch

  • Click the small × next to the 'Regional Watch' label to dismiss the card from your dashboard
  • The morning digest regional section is also suppressed - you still receive METAR, TAF, and upcoming trip data
  • Restore it any time from Profile, Preferences, Regional Watch, Show again

Also

  • Preferred region preference is honored in morning digest emails - the regional synopsis reflects your saved region, not just your home airport's auto-detected one
  • Profile, Preferences, Forecast Region offers the same smart picker for users who prefer managing settings in one place
Learn more:Regional Watch guide
Visual Mode

Visual Mode - Live Forecast Imagery in Every Section

Visual mode is a briefing view that shows official NOAA/AWC forecast charts inside each section of your briefing, alongside Quick and Enhanced. Every chart is automatically matched to your departure window and cruise altitude, so you see the 18Z turbulence chart for your Wednesday evening departure, not the current-conditions map.

New - Section-by-Section Forecast Imagery

  • The Pattern: WPC Prog Chart (cycle-anchored to your departure window) + WPC Surface Analysis
  • Ceilings: AWC Aviation Clouds Forecast (GFA) + G-AIRMET Sierra
  • Convective: SPC Day 1/2/3 Categorical Outlook - automatically selected by days-until-departure
  • Turbulence: GTG Total turbulence at your cruise altitude + G-AIRMET Tango-H and Tango-L
  • Icing: FIP forecast icing probability at your cruise altitude (CIP for departures within 1 hour)
  • AIRMETs: G-AIRMET Sierra chart time-stepped to your window
  • Multiple charts per section use carousel arrows - swipe left/right to flip through slides

New - Visual Mode Section Imagery

  • Official NOAA/AWC charts in each weather section, matched to your departure window
  • Altitude selector pills show your cruise level plus the two adjacent pressure levels for easy comparison
  • Open in Windy opens your route on windy.com

New - Smart Time & Altitude Matching

  • Charts are selected by anchoring to the WPC/AWC model cycle init time and picking the forecast hour closest to your departure - not just 'hours from now'
  • Icing and turbulence charts are snapped to the nearest available pressure level for your cruise altitude
  • Chart labels show the exact valid time (e.g., 'Wed 18Z · F30') so you always know what you're looking at
  • Imagery freshness gate: if a briefing is more than 6 hours old, imagery is suppressed with a stale notice - tap Refresh to re-enable
  • Forecast horizon notices when products aren't yet available for your window (e.g., GTG within 18h, G-AIRMET within 12h)
Learn more:Visual Mode Guide
NOTAMs

NOTAM Integration - Filtered, Prioritized, and Scored

Your briefing includes relevant NOTAMs for departure and arrival airports, filtered by time, sorted by priority, and wired directly into your WX Score. Airport closures and TFRs that close an airport are flight blocked (0%). Approach outages and runway contamination carry score penalties. A wall of 100+ raw NOTAMs is replaced by the handful that actually matter for your flight.

New - Smart NOTAM Filtering

  • NOTAMs filtered to only those active during your flight window - with a ±4-hour safety buffer for critical items
  • Cancelled NOTAMs (type C) hidden entirely - they're not a factor and shouldn't add noise
  • Three priority tiers: Operational (Tier 1, always expanded), Awareness (Tier 2), and Lower Priority (Tier 3, collapsed by default)
  • Procedure NOTAMs (approach amendments) grouped by runway direction - expand just the runway family you'll use
  • All TFRs except airport-closing ones shown as a single reference line with link to tfr.faa.gov, without walls of TFR text
  • NOTAM count in the card header breaks down as total · operational · awareness so you know exactly what you're looking at

New - NOTAM-Driven Scoring

  • Airport or primary runway closure: flight blocked (0%)
  • Airport-closing TFR: flight blocked (0%)
  • RWYCC below your aircraft's hard minimum: flight blocked (0%)
  • IFR approach outage on a planned IFR flight: 5-15 point penalty
  • GPS/RAIM outage affecting planned RNAV approach: up to 10 point penalty
  • RWYCC below your aircraft's soft threshold: 10-20 point penalty
  • All NOTAM deductions appear in the score breakdown alongside weather deductions

New - FICON Field Condition Card

  • FICON NOTAMs (US) and RSC reports (Canada) render a dedicated Field Condition card with a visual RWYCC 0-6 gauge per runway surface
  • Hard and soft RWYCC thresholds configurable per aircraft in your Aircraft Profile
  • Inline text highlighting calls out the most important values (DA, HAT, RVR, contamination type) directly in NOTAM text

New - Canadian NOTAM Coverage

  • NOTAMs for Canadian airports (CY-prefix ICAOs) fetched live from Nav Canada's public NOTAM service
  • ~80 major Canadian airports (CYVR, CYYZ, CYUL, CYYC, CYEG, CYWG, and more) seeded nightly
  • Smaller Canadian airports fetched on demand at briefing time - no gaps for north-of-border flights
  • Canadian RSC runway condition reports parsed and mapped to the same RWYCC 0-6 scale as US FICON

Heads Up

  • PlaneWX NOTAM data is not a certified pre-flight briefing under 14 CFR 91.103 - always obtain an official briefing before flight
  • NOTAM data may be delayed up to 30 minutes - time-sensitive items (pop-up TFRs) should be verified with ATC or 1800wxbrief.com
  • European and other international NOTAMs are not yet supported
Learn more:How NOTAM filtering worksSetting your RWYCC minimums
Trip Planning

Paste a Full Route String

Copy a route directly from ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, or your printed flight plan and paste it into the New Trip dialog. PlaneWX resolves the waypoints, strips airways, and auto-fills Origin and Destination - including international routes across Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean.

New - Route String Paste

  • Paste a full ATC/FMS route string (e.g. KMKC ZORLA WALTO FST J42 ELQ UJ10 CUL UJ32 SJD MMSD) directly into the Waypoints field
  • Airways stripped automatically - US jet (J), victor (V), and high-altitude (Q) airways, plus international airways like UJ and UM
  • 5-letter GPS fixes and 2-4 letter VOR/NDB identifiers resolved using live AIRAC data
  • First token auto-fills Origin; last token auto-fills Destination - including overwriting your home airport when the route starts somewhere different
  • International VORs and navaids resolve: Mexican (SJD, CUL), Canadian (YVR, YYZ), and Caribbean fixes all supported
  • Unresolvable identifiers (procedure names, airline codes) are silently skipped without breaking the rest of the paste
Learn more:How to paste a routeWatch the video walkthrough
International Coverage

Phase 1 & 2 International Airport Support

PlaneWX supports flights to and from international ICAO airports worldwide. International routes use ECMWF model weighting, regulatory context, runway condition codes, worldwide navaid resolution, and international hazard detectors.

New - International Airport Coverage

  • Enter any 4-letter ICAO code worldwide as departure or arrival (EGLL, LFPG, MMMX, YSSY, etc.)
  • METARs and TAFs fetched from NOAA's worldwide ICAO data feed
  • ECMWF is the primary forecast model for routes outside the continental US, automatically weighted over GFS for non-CONUS routes
  • International SIGMETs (severe turbulence, icing, volcanic ash, tropical cyclones) checked against your route corridor
  • US-only products (G-AIRMETs, WPC discussions) automatically suppressed for international routes - no empty sections

New - Regulatory Context

  • When both airports are outside FAA jurisdiction, your briefing includes a Regulatory Context block
  • Covers applicable rule sets: EASA (Europe), Transport Canada, and general ICAO Annex 2 VFR minima
  • Alaska (PA-), Hawaii (PH-), Puerto Rico (TJ/TI-), and US territories (PG/PW-) treated as FAA jurisdiction: full domestic analysis applies
  • International briefings include a disclaimer noting potential data gaps and advising use of local aviation weather services

New - Runway Condition Codes (RWYCC)

  • METAR runway state groups (8-digit ICAO Annex 14 format) are parsed and translated to the standard RWYCC 0-6 scale
  • Friction coefficients mapped to RWYCC using ICAO Doc 9137 Table 4-1 thresholds
  • SNOCLO (runway closed due to snow) detected and triggers a flight blocked (0%)
  • CLRD (runway cleared) recognized and elevates the RWYCC appropriately

New - International Hazard Detection (Phase 2)

  • Tropical cyclone warnings: active storms within 500 NM of your route are flagged, with intensity, direction, and NHC advisory link
  • Orographic wind hazards: Föhn (Alps), Bora (Adriatic), Mistral (Rhône Valley), Tramontane (Gulf of Lion), Chinook/mountain wave (Rockies), Norwester (Canterbury NZ), and Zonda (Andes) detected by region
  • International terminal forecasts: GFS model-derived hourly forecasts for international airports without TAF service
  • 24-hour METAR history injected into briefing context for non-CONUS airports, helping the AI identify recurring fog, diurnal winds, and ceiling patterns

New - Worldwide Navaid & Waypoint Database

  • International VORs, NDBs, and DMEs imported from OurAirports - worldwide coverage for physical navaids
  • US navaids remain authoritative from FAA NASR (never overwritten by international sources)
  • New source column in navaid database tracks data provenance: nasr, ourairports, or airac
  • 5-letter GPS fixes resolved on demand via AIRAC.net (live AIRAC data, updates every 28 days) with write-through caching - fixes appear instantly for future requests

Improvements

  • Proxy weather station generator works for international airports
  • TAF self-proxy guard covers K-prefixed 3-character FAA IDs (for example, O61 and KO61 are the same airport)
  • Headwind, terrain, and icing gotcha thresholds reflect high-performance and FIKI-equipped aircraft
  • Alaska ECMWF bonus is longitude-constrained so Scandinavian airports stay outside that Alaska path
  • isFullyUsJurisdiction treats Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam as US jurisdiction for regulatory classification
Learn more:Flying Outside the USWeather Proxies

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