Aviation Weather Services A Call For Federal Leadership and Action (1995) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix I: Detailed Assessment of User Needs in Alaska
Appendix I: Detailed Assessment of User Needs in Alaska
Pages 96-106
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From page 96... ...
. The committee also held a group discussion about Alaskan aviation weather win personnel from several Alaskan air carriers, professional and industry associations connected with Alaskan aviation, the Alaskan Department of Transportation, and He Alaska Air National Guard.
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From page 97... ...
The NWS's Alaska Regional Office calculated that the average area of responsibility of these offices is 10 times larger than the national average. In addition to its large size, Alaska has a well-earned reputation for climatic extremes and weather fluctuations that impact all modes of transportation.
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From page 98... ...
Even over short distances, Alaska features a variety of terrain and terrain-induced microclimates. As a result, existing weather information systems are often unable to provide accurate information on current or forecast weather conditions along low-altitude flight paths.
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From page 99... ...
Small air carriers and air taxis operate from these towns to provide service to surrounding villages. Typical seating capacity in most of the aircraft serving these villages is about six, including the pilot, and many aircraft have removable seats to facilitate a variable mix of cargo and passengers.
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From page 100... ...
The committee saw both types of responses. Because pilots often make these decisions in the air or on remote runways where company management is not in a position to directly influence their decision, air carriers and air taxis that especially value safety must take special care to select pilots who are most likely to value safety and regulatory compliance above expediency.
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From page 101... ...
Because of the high cost of transportation in Alaska, these expenses can be substantial. Economic Factors Small air carriers and air taxis operating VFR flights essentially decide for themselves whether to dispatch a flight, and it is up to the pilot to determine if weather conditions en route and at the destination meet legal minimums.
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From page 102... ...
Commercial pilots tend to radio weather conditions back to their company offices, and this information is not usually distributed to FSSs or other companies. Although air carriers sometimes train and certify weather observers at their own expense and station them at larger airports to augment weather observations that are otherwise available, each airline tends not to distribute its observations to other air carriers because of competitive pressures and liability concerns.
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From page 103... ...
. As a result, the air carriers and air taxis that service these destinations have established informal sources for weather information to help them decide if the weather conditions (e.g., ceiling and visibility)
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From page 104... ...
These systems are a valuable source of basic data such as temperature, altimeter settings, and wind speed and direction, and they produce official weather reports to meet regulatory requirements for IFR operations. OPTIONS FOR IMPROVING REGIONAL SERVICES Most of the unmet needs of Alaska users of aviation weather services concern the observation arid dissemination of weather information.
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From page 105... ...
Video cameras would also allow users to validate the objective data produced by automated weather stations subjectively.6 Establish a system to repair automated weather observing units more quickly when they malfunction, and, if immediate repair is impossible, to allow manual observations to override the automated system until repairs can be made.
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From page 106... ...
Routine purging of data may make sense in a data-rich environment, but it can be counterproductive in regions where the primary source of information is unscheduled observations, such as pilot reports In the Alaskan aviation community, hand-held VHF aviation transceivers are more common than modemequipped computers. Thus, in regions such as Alaska, information dissemination schemes that rely on radio transmissions are more likely to be widely useful than computer-based systems such as the Direct User Access Terminal Service.
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