Aug. 21, 2019
To help the federal government’s weather service providers make informed decisions about new and existing weather products, NBAA is asking its members to complete a brief online survey.
“Weather capabilities are changing rapidly, and this survey will help us understand if they meet all the meteorological needs of our diverse membership,” said John Kosak, program manager for weather at NBAA’s Air Traffic Services. “The survey will also help ensure our members know about all the weather product choices available to them today.”
The NBAA Access Committee’s Weather Subcommittee created the survey and hopes to have initial results ready to discuss at the 2019 Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), which takes place Oct. 22-24 in Las Vegas, NV.
The nine-item survey aims to find out whether members pay private firms for weather information and, if so, why. Depending on the reason, it might persuade the FAA and National Weather Service (NWS) to focus on developing better products, improving delivery or eliminating certain products.
The survey also solicits feedback on whether the FAA’s planned discontinuance of certain products will hurt business aviation operations. The FAA, which has already replaced text-based area forecasts with graphical forecasts for aviation for the continental U.S., wants to do the same for the Gulf of Mexico, Bahamas, Caribbean and New York Oceanic region. The agency also plans to replace the text-based Airmen’s Meteorological Information (AIRMET) with Graphical AIRMETs.
Another benefit of the questionnaire is that it will determine which NWS products NBAA members are aware of and help educate members about the full breadth of weather tools that are available from government and private providers.
While respondents to the questionnaire will remain anonymous, the combined results will be shared with the FAA and the National Weather Service (NWS).
Questions about the survey may be sent to weather@nbaa.org.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.