GAFOR ("General Aviation Forecast") is a Weather Format for reporting weather information for pilots operating in Europe. The GAFOR is used in few European countries. In order to easy transmit and understand GAFOR forecasts, the original (local) names are systematically replaced by a code number. There are two kinds of application:
- In France and Germany the GAFOR - Code refers to regions.
- In Switzerland, Austria, Croatiaand Slovenia the code refers to often used or simply usable and therefore predefined routes for crossing the country. This is a special need for the alpine or other mountainous regions, where VFR routing between mountains higher than the physical performance of pilots (oxygen) or the aircraft are common.
The GAFOR gives information on weather conditions (VIS/ceiling): GAFOR Colour matrix (VIS – visibility hs – cloud base AGL):
X-RAY: Red (C - closed) VIS < 1500m and/or hs < 500ft
MIKE: Orange (M – marginal) 1500m ≤ VIS < 5000m and/or 500ft ≤ hs < 1000ft
DELTA: Yellow (D – difficult) 5000m ≤ VIS < 8000m and/or 1000 ≤ hs < 2000ft
OSCAR: Green (O – open) VIS ≥ 8000m and/or hs ≥ 2000ft
