Please read below the information on the TAF3 Changes taken place for CASA's exams and for (of course) your general use of pre-flight services effective November 5th 2020.

Quick explanation:

At present, a TAF is issued routinely every six hours and amended when standard amendment criteria are
met.
A TAF3 service is a TAF issued routinely every three hours and receives priority, pro-active amendments to
ensure it contains the latest forecast information.
Amendments within the first 3 hours of TAF validity are currently masked by changes in the TTF. The TAF3
will become the primary forecast in the first 3 hours and amended to provide similar responsiveness to
the TTF.

Characteristics:
• Issued routinely every 3 hours;
• Kept under continuous weather watch by the responsible aviation meteorologist focusing on the next
5-hours of the:
– validity and timings of probabilities (PROBs) (updated if necessary); and
– validity and timings of TEMPO/INTERs (updated if necessary).
• Issued with minute granularity for FROM (FM) element;
• Provides a forecast valid for 18-30 hours;
• Available at Gold Coast and Hobart airports – upgrading current aviation meteorological services;
• Available 24/7 at Darwin and Canberra airports – upgrading current aviation meteorological services;
• Identical code format as the standard TAF; and
• Stamped with ‘TAF3’ in RMKs section for easy identification

What are the advantages of the TAF3 service?
The TAF3 service will offer many advantages to aviation stakeholders.
• A simpler system. There will be a single accurate forecast available for the aerodrome which is well
known to local & international operators.
• Eliminates any potential ambiguity between the TAF and TTF. Understanding the precedence between
the two different forecasts would no longer be required.
• Eliminate alignment issues. These are currently periods when TAF & TTF are not well aligned due to
the TAF being amended up to an hour after TTF. In the proposed solution, the TAF would be amended
immediately as required.
• Australia will exceed ICAO requirements by providing METARs every half hour, SPECIs as required and a
TAF issued at least every three hours (during TAF3 service hours).
• TAF issued routinely every three hours will be extended to Gold Coast and Hobart. These busy airports
currently have no TTF service.
• TAF issued routinely every three hours will operate 24/7 at Darwin and Canberra where there is
currently no overnight TTF service.

What does ‘updated validity every 6 hours’ mean for the TAF3 service?
The validity of the TAF3 forecast will only be extended every 6 hours regardless of how many TAF3
forecasts are issued within that timeframe.

For example: the following TAF3 forecast is issued and valid from 08/0000z to 09/0600z (30 hours) –

TAF YSSY 072310Z 0800/0906
03018KT 9999 FEW035
FM081000 34010KT 9999 -SHRA SCT035
FM081800 21015G25KT 9999 -SHRA FEW015 SCT025
FM090000 15015KT 9999 FEW030
RMK
T 25 26 25 23 Q 1003 1001 1002 1004
TAF3

The next (scheduled) issue of the TAF3 (3 hours after previous) is issued and valid from 08/0300z to
09/0600z (27 hours) –

TAF YSSY 080210Z 0803/0906
03018KT 9999 FEW035
FM081000 34010KT 9999 -SHRA SCT035
FM081800 21015G25KT 9999 -SHRA FEW015 SCT025
FM090000 15015KT 9999 FEW030
RMK
T 26 25 23 21 Q 1001 1002 1004 1006
TAF3

Only on the next 3 hourly issue (every 6 hours) will the validity revert back to 30 hours, i.e. 0806/0912.

TAF3 Implementation