How much support do you think they get in the ukraine?
Do they receive reports from the ground concerning hail?
Did you know that most reports of hail come from ground observation?
How many observers are there per mile in the more sparsely populated parts of ukraine?
Are you familiar with the overflight restrictions in ukraine that can decrease your ability to maintain safe separation?
Are you familiar with what happens in ukraine when you decide to not fly where you are told?
All these points and questions are strange to me.
1: In my years of airline flying I never used ground reports to locate hail. Any CB that's contouring on the weather radar could be and likely is producing hail. Don't fly there.
2: Likely true. There are always more people are on the ground than in the cockpit. But airline pilots don't rely on calls from Dispatch to avoid weather.
3: See Answer 2.
4: I have never come across, even in the most track restrictive areas of the world, an air traffic control group that will not accommodate deviations from track do to severe weather. Even if they try to restrict, I ain't flying into the side of that CB.
5: You want to fly with or for an airline where the final decisions for the safety of the airplane and its contents does not rest with the crew in control? If that's the way it is in eastern Europe, I'll take the car thanks.
