WASHINGTON, D.C. — The use of pilot weather reports, commonly known as PIREPs, will be the topic of discussion during a National Transportation Safety Board forum scheduled for June 21-22, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the NTSB’s headquarters.
The forum, “PIREPs: Pay it Forward…Because Weather for One is Weather for None,” will focus on the need to improve the PIREP and weather dissemination process, as well as future improvements and emerging technologies that may provide greater pilot awareness of weather conditions.
“We cannot control the weather. but we certainly can plan for it when we receive reports about conditions experienced by others along our intended route,” said NTSB Member Robert Sumwalt. “For PIREPs to be most effective they must be accurate and made quickly available in the National Airspace System. There are several problems degrading the effectiveness of PIREPs and it is our intent to use information gathered during our forum – from across the broad spectrum of the aviation community – to find ways to best improve PIREP handling and use.”
Topics for the panel discussions include:
- The use and significance of PIREP information to weather services, air traffic controllers, pilots and researchers;
- The lifecycle of a PIREP;
- PIREP training, education and operations; and
- Future improvements and emerging technologies for PIREPs.
The NTSB anticipates officials from federal agencies, airlines, associations and academic organizations to participate in the two-day forum.
The free event is open to the public.
Not in Washington? You can view it online via webcast at NTSB.capitolconnection.org. The webcast will be posted to the NTSB website and will be available for 90 days.
Those interested in participating in the forum, but who are unable to attend may submit an inquiry or provide insights at [email protected].
I was a very active pilot for a dozen years all over the USA. I flew 95% on an IFR flight plan. Thus the ‘system’ knew it was a Bonanza, at what altitude, time of day, my filed TAS, ground speed, etc.
The system of today and even then could have compiled my data (called data mining today) with all the others in the system and provided corrections to predicted winds aloft. With only a small change in the filed flight plan and an occasional call for OAT, turbulence experienced or such these data could be fed back to the meteorologists for improved forecasts.
Great idea Ed except that your assumption is incorrect. First, what you file isn’t necessarily the TAS that you achieve. That will make a mockery of computing winds aloft. Add to that the fact that ATC doesn’t know your heading so that makes computing winds aloft impossible. And as far as OAT is concerned, is your gauge reading accurately? Not only will the gauge in various aircraft vary in accuracy, but also placement on the aircraft will make a huge difference. Unless you can translate the gauge reading to accurate static air temperature, the indication has limited value other than for warning the pilot that icing is possible as the gauge indication descends below +10 degrees C. All the data mining in the world is useless if it is the wrong data, incomplete data or inaccurate data.
One solution is Data Link Out, which is made possible through ADS-B Out transmission. All that is needed is an additional single line of code that includes PIREP data. Call sign, position, speed and altitude are being transmitted currently. Only a few more digital bits would be necessary including heading, icing, turbulence, cloud bases and tops etc. to make a PIREP complete.
The faa still uses morse code. And how much longer will the faa keep sending weather data coded as if we were reading it from paper tape punched teletypes … Another 50 years or so ?
Lockheed’s 1800wxbrief.com allows “translation” of WX to simple English format, by simply checking a box at the top of the page. Website has an abundance of tutorials to assist.
Hit the wrong key. “Sumple” should read “Simple”. Sorry about that!