"Friends/Partners in Aviation Weather"
Forum
The following is a synopsis of the meeting:
Paul Fiduccia, President - Small Aircraft
Manufacturer's Association (SAMA) kept a task sheet to track progress of action
items.
NAATS committed to the following three (3) tasks:
-
#2. What weather products do we still use /
don't use?
-
#5. ASOS failures and reporting procedures for
flight service.
-
#9. PIREP distribution practices -- are all
PIREP(s) entered into the system by FSS controllers / or getting to FSS from
tower/center?
Problems Identified by NAATS:
-
Aviation weather product improvements are not
getting to flight service. Many of the FAA's weather R&D and advanced
systems are going into only towers and centers, not flight service.
-
Great technology is available for weather but
instead of talk, we need action from the FAA. Some systems or products
excluded from flight service are: lightning data, CCFP, WARP, ITWIS, NCWF,
ADDS, AWRP, WRF, and NCAR research.
-
Infrastructure - flight service needs equipment
to allow access to data.
-
Pilots need better training from FAA on
weather. [User groups emphasized this need.]
-
For ASOS/AWOS pilots want video imaging of the
sky like what is available in Alaska. [User groups emphasized this need.]
We had personal dialogue with AOPA on ASOS
problems or limitations -
-
Low clouds not directly over the site are
missed.
-
Approaching fog banks / clouds are not
detected.
-
Mountain obscurations are not determined.
-
Sector visibility is not available.
-
Erroneous reports on visibility restrictions,
can be either better or worse than actual weather.
-
No determination of "thin" clouds to
allow VFR operations.
[This item to be followed up with Melissa Bailey,
(Vice President - Air traffic Services - AOPA).]
Two solutions offered by NAATS:
1. Flight service could assist in reporting
ASOS/AWOS outages, if procedures are worked out by FAA & NAATS.
2. Let flight service facilities test new weather
technologies for feedback on usability, problems to correct, customer (pilot)
suggestions/comments and operational deployment potential.
I have been in touch with Ward Simpson about a
Navy project in southern California.
Larry Burdick