Delivering Weather Data to Texas Pilots and Other Users (0-1799-1)

This project will ultimately serve to supplement the manner in which Texas pilots receive weather data. This will be accomplished first by inventorying the sources used by pilots to get weather data. The reliability, and convenience, of these sources will be evaluated and the unmet needs enumerated.|The approach described above will be tailored to the needs of pilots with all levels of competency. This includes the weekend-only pilot interested in whether the local area will continue to have visual meteorological conditions (VMC) to those planning a cross-country routing in VMC, to the high time, instrument-rated pilot who will wonder about airframe icing on route or about low ceiling and visibility at the destination.|Characterizing these sources of weather data and contrasting them to the classes and needs of Texas pilots is the essence of the first year of the project. With respect to the pilots, these "needs" will be further contrasted with the weather-related accident statistics to find if there is an indication of any relationship. However, this correlation between weather and accident statistics will primarily be a second year effort.|The second year will be dedicated to implementing, on an experimental basis, the recommendations resulting from the first year of research. At this early date, it appears that educating the user (pilot) may be a major part of this effort. An evaluation of the convenience, safety, and cost to the state of implementation will be made. A comparison between cost and results will be completed and reported.