B747 captain laments his company's computer flight plan that does not provide weather and NOTAMS for...

Narrative:

Our computer flight plan places waypoints on the flight plan for enroute alternate airports; today listing egll and bikf as enroute alternate airports. Weather briefing data then excludes information on many airports between egll and bikf approved for use in ops specs; with airport weather and NOTAMS that indicate use in a diversion as required by the FAA to the 'nearest suitable' airport would be accomplished quite safely. The flight plan fails to provide resources that enable the crew to assess nearest suitable airport for such things as fire; etc. The crew must spend additional time gathering this data from private weather sources at times when company computers and/or printers are busy or otherwise unavailable. Additionally the computer flight plan cites waypoints with labels; which invite the crew to go in the wrong direction for a diversion. Today for example at N5755.0w00936.7 which is 529 miles away. Airport egpf is 235 miles away from this waypoint; egaa is 226 miles away. Both egpf and egaa are ops specs listed airports with good weather and no NOTAMS to inhibit a safe landing today. Of course the weather and NOTAMS were not provided for either of these airports in the flight planning package; it would be up to the crew to find the data elsewhere to meet the ICAO required practice to 'assess an alternate plan in event the flight cannot be completed as scheduled'. Now that the ability of pilots to use and mark maps has also been withdrawn the capability of the crew to work long days and keep track of nearest airports; weather; NOTAMS and airport conditions has become an excessive workload operation from preflight planning through enroute monitoring with dispatch increasingly refusing to supply safety information. This is the poorest flight planning product I have seen in 39 years; having used 8 different systems. It introduces more safety and legal traps for the pilot in command than the formerly poorest computer flight plans.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B747 Captain laments his company's computer flight plan that does not provide weather and NOTAMS for all available enroute alternates; only those that are ETOPS or destination alternates.

Narrative: Our computer flight plan places waypoints on the flight plan for enroute alternate airports; today listing EGLL and BIKF as enroute alternate airports. Weather briefing data then excludes information on many airports between EGLL and BIKF approved for use in Ops Specs; with airport weather and NOTAMS that indicate use in a diversion as required by the FAA to the 'nearest suitable' airport would be accomplished quite safely. The flight plan fails to provide resources that enable the crew to assess nearest suitable airport for such things as fire; etc. The crew must spend additional time gathering this data from private weather sources at times when company computers and/or printers are busy or otherwise unavailable. Additionally the computer flight plan cites waypoints with labels; which invite the crew to go in the wrong direction for a diversion. Today for example at N5755.0W00936.7 which is 529 miles away. Airport EGPF is 235 miles away from this waypoint; EGAA is 226 miles away. Both EGPF and EGAA are Ops Specs listed airports with good weather and no NOTAMS to inhibit a safe landing today. Of course the weather and NOTAMS were not provided for either of these airports in the flight planning package; it would be up to the crew to find the data elsewhere to meet the ICAO required practice to 'assess an alternate plan in event the flight cannot be completed as scheduled'. Now that the ability of pilots to use and mark maps has also been withdrawn the capability of the crew to work long days and keep track of nearest airports; weather; NOTAMS and airport conditions has become an excessive workload operation from preflight planning through enroute monitoring with Dispatch increasingly refusing to supply safety information. This is the poorest flight planning product I have seen in 39 years; having used 8 different systems. It introduces more safety and legal traps for the pilot in command than the formerly poorest computer flight plans.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	954765
Time
Date	201106
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	EGLL.Airport
State Reference	FO
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B747-400
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100 Flight Crew Total 15000 Flight Crew Type 1000
Events
Anomaly	No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types

B747 captain laments his company's computer flight plan that does not provide weather and NOTAMS for all available enroute alternates; only those that are ETOPS or destination alternates.