I have not left the airport. It's only about 2:20 from my airport in MA so food has not been an issue. It's either the first or last stop depending on which way I'm going
This let's you quickly look at weather across distance browsable by time for a 3 day window
https://www.avxcwx.com/?stations=KPYM,KBDL,K1B1,KAVP,KLHV
The data is nothing new because it's publicly available but I had not found a free site that presents the data this way
I had one of the original iFly units. Loved it but it was not very robust. Kept using iFly on phone for a few years after until I installed Garmin units in my panel and went with their phone app for compatibility.
Yeah, I did not glean that from the screenshot on their website. Anyhow, AVXCWX is free and quick. Again, not meant to be a preflight tool, just a means to ascertain the likelihood of a successful trip over the next few days.
Weatherspork looks nice but it does not appear to do what AVXCWX does which is weather over distance browsable by time. And, yes free is important to me. I already give Garmin plenty of my money for this publicly available data
Per Dana's request, the search is now placed on the URL so you can bookmark different searches. If the search is not on the URL the last search from your last visit is used.
Like this
https://www.avxcwx.com/?stations=KPYM,KBDL,K1B1,KAVP,KLHV
That would not be terrible but I have other things queued up to do first. Also, TAFs and METARS are available all over the place. I wrote this page because I could not find a site that gave me a picture across distance over time
Also, if you compare TAFs to this app you will find them amazingly...
METARS are a picture in the moment. TAFs only give you about 24 hours where the NOAA data goes out 3 days
this is intended to be a planning tool not a preflight tool
intended to answer the question: Can I get there and back this weekend?
If no airports along the way, look here https://vlab.noaa.gov/web/mdl/nbm-stations-v4.0
you might come up with something like this: KPYM KBDL 46014 OKPC1 MBMW1
note that's just an example because not non-airport stations are in CA
These are not METARS, this is the NOAA nation blend. There's a link on the info page to all the stations included. At some point I'll add functionality to find non-airport stations but that's down the road a bit
I saw some usefulness in a website that shows 3 day weather forecast for cross country flights so I created one. Real quick way to determine if you can get there. It got a nice write up in General Aviation News. https://www.avxcwx.com. Have a look.