When it comes to safe and effective business aviation operations amid continually changing and often extreme atmospheric conditions, success largely rests on accurate weather data and analysis.
Now, more than ever, large amounts of real-time data, forecast models and scientific research are readily available to pilots, flight planners and others who are looking to improve their weather operations strategies. Many operators have gone a step further by hiring staff meteorologists to help translate the firehose of weather information into an operational strategy pilots can depend on. However, if your operation chooses to self-brief on weather conditions or rely on experts – it’s important for everyone involved to have a useful weather data knowledge base.
Pilots and dispatchers typically receive their initial weather training through the FAA’s Aviation Weather Handbook, but being able to analyze large amounts of atmospheric data usually begins on the job, while working alongside senior pilots or dispatchers.
A useful resource to solidify an aviator’s knowledge about weather data is available free on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) website. The JetStream National Weather Service Online Weather School covers more than a dozen significant topics about the physics of the Earth’s atmosphere.
Self-Briefing Options
Many useful websites and apps are available for smartphones and tablets to satisfy pilots’ desires to self-brief. “Quite a few flight departments use Foreflight,” said Rich Weiss, manager of quality assurance at World Fuels and a degreed meteorologist. “Their software has a pretty good weather tool, including high-level significant weather charts. But it’s based more on flights happening within the next 24 to 48 hours.”
But according to Weiss, the National Weather Services’ Aviation Weather Center is the gold standard for online resources. “It’s really the best aviation weather site in the world,” Weiss said. The Aviation Weather Center includes satellite data, radar reports, pilot reports and model data. “You can get international coverage for flight segments, turbulence, thunderstorms … weather phenomena that you want to keep an eye on.”
Weiss also recommends a weather modeling site called Tropical Tidbits – a toolbox of real-time data visualizations that can perform weather analysis and forecasting. Also, the FAA offers a phone-based weather briefing resource for pilots at 800-WXBRIEF, where callers can interact directly with an expert.
NBAA Air Traffic Services
Located on the floor of FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) in Warrenton, VA, NBAA Air Traffic Services (ATS) factors weather conditions into the guidance it offers subscribers.
“The association’s Air Traffic Services group is constantly looking at weather impacts on the system and sharing real-time updates about those effects,” said NBAA Air Traffic Specialist Mitch Scott. “Weather constantly impacts the available route options in the NAS and it’s imperative that operators are familiar with the route options for any given operation.”
Hiring a Staff Meteorologist
Pfizer Flight Operations Manager and Lead Meteorologist Michael Sautner spent years as a practicing forecaster before joining the East Coast-based pharmaceutical giant. “My boss was always a big fan of having a meteorologist in a flight department,” Sautner said.
Pfizer flies Gulfstream G650s and Augusta 139 helicopters – with much of their meteorology assets focused on the rotorcraft, which primarily operate in the New York/Washington, DC corridor. Before Sautner was hired, Pfizer used weather service contractors for their flight operations until they found themselves “canceling trips because the contractors said the weather was not good when it actually was,” Sautner said. “They’d built a buffer into what they told us.”
Sautner’s practical education for Pfizer pilots includes details about the microclimate of the Northeast corridor, especially in the summertime when warm, moist air pushes in from the ocean that can quickly drive conditions IFR.
On international trips, Sautner emphasizes the importance of carefully planning arrival times, including “any kind of movements in England, Ireland and especially northern Europe,” he said. “For instance, if you try to land in Paris at 5, 6 or 7 a.m., many of those areas will be filled in with fog this time of year.”
Sautner also has an educational strategy that he uses for newly hired Pfizer pilots or dispatchers. “I introduce them to the information sources I use as a meteorologist, how to find them and how to understand the information in front of them,” he said. “A web page of numbers looks daunting, but I’d also show them the tools on all those government websites that break down everything.”
AAM Weather Strategies
With several types of advanced air mobility aircraft expected to be certified and entering regular service in the next few years, forecasting and mitigating challenging weather conditions at low altitudes will be more important than ever. Experts say more data is needed about low altitude weather conditions.
“The planetary boundary layer – that part of the atmosphere from just above the surface up through about 10,000 feet – is the least observed part of the atmosphere,” said Matt Fronzak, spokesman for Friends and Partners of Aviation Weather (FPAW). “And it’s in this area that urban air mobility aircraft may soon be operating.”
The group – comprised of more than 500 weather data users, including airlines, researchers, academics and regulators – works to increase understanding of the weather’s impact on current and emerging aviation operations.
ADS-B Version 3
FPAW recommends using the ADS-B avionics weather function (located on ADS-B V3.0 avionics), which will deliver significant new data to the forecasting system, electronic flight bags or multi-function displays at no cost to the user.
Known as Version 3, the new software will turn participating aircraft into mini weather reporting stations by sampling weather data outside the aircraft every 2.2 seconds. As the FPAW website put it: “Weather awareness and forecasts enhanced by improved weather surveillance could increase aircraft utility, operational efficiency and aviation safety.”
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.