Federal Aviation NAS Ops Subcommittee Review Administration

By: Gary Pokodner, Program Manager, Weather 

Technology in the Cockpit (WTIC)

Date: August 11, 2015

Weather Technology in the 

Cockpit (WTIC)
Federal Aviation

Administration

Weather Technology in the Cockpit 

(WTIC) - Program Description

• Research projects to develop, verify, and validate 

requirements for incorporation into Minimum 

Weather Service (MinWxSvc) standards

• FAR Part 121, OPERATING REQUIREMENTS: DOMESTIC, FLAG, AND SUPPLEMENTAL 

OPERATIONS (i.e. commercial operations)

• FAR Part 135, OPERATING REQUIREMENTS: COMMUTER AND ON DEMAND 

OPERATIONS AND RULES GOVERNING PERSONS ON BOARD SUCH AIRCRAFT (i.e. 

commuter, on demand, and air taxi operations)

• FAR Part 91, GENERAL OPERATING AND FLIGHT RULES (includes General Aviation 

operations)

• The MinWxSvc is defined as: 

• Minimum cockpit meteorological (MET) information

• Minimum performance standards (e.g. accuracy) of the MET information 

• Minimum information rendering standards

• Enhanced weather training

• Minimum cockpit technology capability recommendations
Federal Aviation

Administration

WTIC Program Overview

Purpose

• Identify causal factors for weather-related General Aviation 

(GA) safety risks/hazards

• Identify causal factors for Part 121/135 adverse weather 

safety risks/hazards and NAS operational inefficiencies 

(current and NextGen)

• Recommend MinWxSvc(s) to resolve/reduce identified safety 

risks and NAS inefficiencies 

• Recommend enhancements to pilot MET-training to resolve 

training shortfalls 

Budget

3

FY14

(funded)

FY15

(funded)

FY16

(funded)

FY17

(request)

$3.4M $3.1M $3.1M $3.3M
Federal Aviation

Administration

WTIC Program Overview

Benefits

• Enhanced safety by resolving/reducing adverse-weather safety risks 

before they result in an accident/incident

• Enhanced NAS efficiency and increased capacity resulting from 

consistent and predictable pilot adverse weather decision making 

due to established cockpit minimum weather service(s)

– Reduced emissions due to enhanced efficiency

– Reduction in flight delays

• Enhanced safety resulting from the resolution of pilot MET-training 

shortfalls

Tracking

• Developing spreadsheet to track gaps, operational shortfalls, 

and MinWxSvc(s) recommendations 

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Federal Aviation

Administration

•WTIC Gap Tracking / MinWxSvc 

Spreadsheet (excerpt)

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Open NAS Ops Recommendations 

and Action Items

• No NAS Ops Open Action Items or Recommendations 

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Recent and Upcoming Accomplishments 

• WTIC Wind Study 

– Delivered Phase 3 final report to RTCA SC206. Positive 

feedback from the committee (spring 2015).

– Completed Phase 4 research planning

– Co-Chair SG7 of RTCA SC-206, outlined “Guidance of Data 

Linking Forecast and Real Time Wind Info to Aircraft”

– Upcoming activities – implement research plan

• Produce trade spaces with Boeing models 

• Develop trade spaces with A320 SESAR FMS (10 altitude wind 

levels and limited interval management) (Need SESAR approval)

• A-IM trade spaces with lead aircraft as active participant

• Lead SG7 of RTCA SC-206 deliverable completion

• Investigate potential sources of truth wind data for HRRR 

accuracy comparison

– No phase 5 research currently planned

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Federal Aviation

Administration

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RTCA SC-206, SG7 Deliverable Outline
Federal Aviation

Administration

Recent and Upcoming Accomplishments 

• Mobile MET 

– Completed demonstration of updated Mobile MET 

prototype tool

• Credibly increased weather situational awareness

• Credibly larger distances from hazardous weather (30dBZ )

• Both groups were much closer than recommended 20 Nmi

• Low performance in discriminating change-detection

• No degradation observed on safety-related flight tasks

– Upcoming activities – final phase

• Identify content and capabilities to support pilot workflow by phase 

of flight

• Finalize MinWxSvc recommendations and prepare 

recommendations for developers

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Recent Accomplishments – Mobile MET 

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Recent and Upcoming Accomplishments 

• GA MET Rendering Standardization

– Completed demonstration of impacts of state-change 

notifications (tactile) in GA cockpit simulator

• Credibly higher recognition of weather state-changes and weather 

situational awareness 

• No credible difference in distance from 30dBZ cells

• No credible difference in inadvertent IMC encounters though 

experimental group had 20% less (33 vs 27)

• Poor recognition of symbol changes on topological, IFR and VFR 

map backgrounds

– Upcoming Activities being considered for follow-on include

• Assess performance with more simplistic renderings than symbols

• Define MinWxSvc recommendations for luminance contrast

• Follow-on notification demonstration with larger sample of pilots

• Investigate “safe distance” from severe convection

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Recent and Upcoming Accomplishments 

• PEGASAS (GA Center of Excellence) GA Projects 

– Completed Phase 1 final reports (Spring 2015)

• Identified numerous safety related gaps 

• Notification assessment found prioritized tone/tactile with brief text 

yielded best results

• Briefed GA stakeholders (AOPA, GAJSC, NTSB, AFS) on July 21

– Completed Phase 2 planning and began research efforts

• Research focused on 15 gaps identified in Phase 1 (see backup slides)

• Mitigating latency related issues a primary goal 

– Upcoming activities

• Collaborating with FRASCA to develop trainer that implements 

adjustable weather latency for training

• HITL demonstration to assess benefits/impacts of focused training 

on avoiding inadvertent flight into IMC

• HITL demonstration to assess effects of display factors (i.e., 

encoding severity in tactile notifications) on pilot decision making

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Recent and Upcoming Accomplishments 

• Shortfall analyses in oceanic and remote regions

– Completed shortfall analyses and delivered draft report

• Convection - Lack of information to depict the vertical profile and 

horizontal extent of convective weather results in extra flight time 

and communication

• Turbulence - Lack of accurate turbulence forecasts and sharing of 

turbulence encounter information results in unanticipated 

turbulence encounters or unnecessary avoidance maneuvers

• Icing (Engine Core) - Incidents of ice accretion inside the core of 

an engine inflight at higher cruise altitudes have resulted in thrust 

loss or engine flameout

• Icing (Structural) - Ice crystals accumulated on the pitot tubes 

causing several aircraft systems to degrade or malfunction

– Upcoming Activities

• Identify current MET sources/technologies to resolve shortfalls

• Complete final report and gap spreadsheets

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Shortfall Analysis – Sample Spreadsheet

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Operational 

Parameter Cockpit ATC

Safety

Limitations of onboard radar:

• Difficulty depicting weather behind the 

weather (radar shadows) hindering pilot 

decision-making to deviate through or around 

weather

• Relative lack of radar reflectivity of oceanic 

convection (particularly dry storm tops) 

compared to that over land. 

• Time/effort required to coordinate/approve 

a deviation with ATC can result in limited 

options to deviate. 

• Lack of uplinked current graphic-based 

depiction of convective weather to aid in 

decision-making. 

• Maintaining adequate separation for 

deviating aircraft in non-radar 

environment (primarily lateral 

deviations) 

Efficiency

Higher fuel burn due to:

• Lateral deviation resulting in longer route

• Vertical deviation away from optimum 

altitude

• Lateral airspace constraints with 

aircraft funneling through gaps in 

weather

• Vertical airspace contraints with 

aircraft at same altitude resulting in 

potential lateral separation issues 

Workload 

• Additional communications with ATC for 

route adjustment to avoid convection

• Additional communciations with dispatch 

for fuel burn/flight time adjustments based 

on revised route/altitude which impacts fuel 

reserves for destination and alternate(s)

• Cockpit/Cabin coordination with Flight 

Attendents for seat belt sign/cabin service 

adjustments

• Increased workload/comm in 

coordinating routing/altitude changes 

with pilots/other ATC sectors

Environmental 

Impact

• Lateral deviations and/or holding resulting 

in longer flight times and increased emissions 

Passenger

• Weather Briefing Packet 

(preflight) - Graphical depiction of 

current and forecast convective 

polygons (coverage, cloud tops)

• Online resources (preflight-print 

copy) - Graphical depiction of 

satellite imagery; lightning data; 

"synthesized" depiction of 

convection based on satellite 

imagery and high resolution model 

data; convective forecast polygons 

• Onboard radar 

• Pilot-to-Pilot VHF comm

• AOC updating convective info 

textually via satellite datalink

• Visual "out-the window" 

deviation

- Difficult to impossible at 

night/IMC

- Relative lack of lightning in tropical 

regions

Current Met

Sources / Technology

Shortfall:

Information Gap 

Inefficient rerouting to 

avoid convective activity 

due to a lack of:

• Vertical profile of 

convective weather

• Lateral extent of 

convective weather

• Graphical depiction of 

weather satellite data

Frequency

• 9 respondents 

mentioned this 

MET element

• Commonly 

encountered 

throughout 

warmer latitudes

Impact

• Comfort - Avoid turbulence

• Schedule - Longer flight time due to deviations
Federal Aviation

Administration

Recent and Upcoming Accomplishments 

• Functional analysis of WTIC ConOps

– Completed functional analysis of WTIC ConOps

• Developed WTIC Functional Architecture Document (FAD) 

(Sample outputs in backup slides)

• Developed SV-1 (Systems/Services Interface Description), SV-2 

(Systems/Services Communication Description), and SV-4 

(Systems/Services Functionality Description) views

• FAD details the set of functions, requirements, and architecture of 

necessary Data Link Weather (DLW) capabilities to 

implement/enable NextGen weather benefits

– Upcoming activities and uses of functional analysis

• Identification of minimum DLW services

• Identification of internal and external service interfaces for DLW

• Assess gaps in existing functions and data for DLW

• Derivation of service level requirements that can be allocated to 

enabling systems

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Federal Aviation

Administration

BACKUP SLIDES

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Federal Aviation

Administration

• Knowledge Gaps

– Gap 1: Lack of training (mainly due to little opportunity) for student pilots to 

fly in and experience different weather patterns and their associated visual 

and other cues. 

– Gap 2: GA pilots often do not understand the limitations of the technology in 

the cockpit. 

• Skill Gaps

– Gap 3: There is a perceived gap in skills related to VFR-into-IMC decisionmaking. 

– Gap 4: Lack of Situational Awareness relating to VFR-into-IMC..

– Gap 5: Retention of weather knowledge was identified as a gap. 

• Ability Gaps

– Gap 6: Lack of ability of pilots to correlate, interpret and apply weather 

information related to VFR-into-IMC Weather Factors, specifically 

convection, icing, lowered ceilings, quickly emerging weather events, 

precipitation, or pilot-reported turbulence 

PEGASAS Phase II Research

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Federal Aviation

Administration

• Training Gaps

– Gap 7: Existing pilot training activities do not provide pilots with adequate 

exposure to the impact of adverse weather events, information latency, or 

information resolution on the hazards of flying VFR-into-IMC or adverse 

weather conditions. (Source: Survey / Focus Groups / Past Literature).

– Gap 8: Existing pilot training activities to not sufficiently develop or improve 

KSAs regarding adverse weather events, information latency, or information 

resolution on the hazards of flying VFR-into-IMC or adverse weather 

condition

• Assessment Gaps

– Gap 9: Pilot applicants taking written knowledge certification examinations 

can fail all weather questions but still pass the examinations.

– Gap 10: No specific guidance on weather knowledge assessment in the 

Flight Review FAR §61.56.

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PEGASAS Phase II Research
Federal Aviation

Administration

• Technology Gaps

– Gap 11: Identification of adverse weather event triggers (and impact on pilot 

planning efforts) differs between out the window and mobile device / software 

application presentations of weather conditions; differences in awareness of 

trigger severity and potential impact affects pilot planning task and time 

sequences. 

– Gap 12: Existing, commercially available aviation training device (ATD) 

simulators, regardless of certification level, do not present NEXRAD or other 

weather information with the latencies commonly experienced during actual 

flight

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PEGASAS Phase II Research
Federal Aviation

Administration

• Information Presentation Gaps

– Gap 13: The effectiveness of available mobile device and software 

application tools is affected in unknown ways due to timely availability of tool 

features and high-salience alerts. (Source: Past Literature / Technology 

Evaluation).

– Gap 14: Information presentation and interface design in some mobile 

devices and software applications may limit or prevent pilot planning activity 

in potentially degrading ways during adverse or degrading weather 

conditions. (Source: Past Literature / Survey / Technology Evaluation).

– Gap 15: Updates to flight conditions after a pilot obtains a flight briefing may 

not be communicated in a timely manner to pilots. 

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PEGASAS Phase II Research
Federal Aviation

Administration

Functional Analysis – DLW Hierarchy

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Federal Aviation

Administration

Functional Analysis – Sample High Level 

Requirements

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•Establish Crew Connection to WTIC Service

•DLW Service shall provide capability for FAR 121 crew 

to connect to WTIC services.

•DLW Service shall provide capability for FAR 135 crew 

to connect to WTIC services.

•DLW Service shall provide capability for FAR 91 crew to 

connect to WTIC services.

•Transform to Textual Format

•DLW Service shall convert aggregated Weather data into pre-established 

textual reporting format. 

•DLW Service shall convert aggregated Weather data into crew-requested 

textual reporting format.