FSS RENAISSANCE
January 21, 2000
PILOT WEATHER BRIEFING WORKGROUP RECOMMENDATIONS
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), recognizing the need to establish a
customer-focus philosophy, convened the General Aviation Summit between
November 15 – 19, 1999. The Summit included flight service system customers and
representatives from FAA labor and management (see attached).
These recommendations are the consensus of the Pilot Weather Briefing (PWB) workgroup. This workgroup reached agreement on policy, procedural, and infrastructure changes necessary to meet current and future system needs. Representatives of the organizations comprising this workgroup will actively participate in the writing of the final report and the development and implementation of agency action plans. Additional meetings of the PWB workgroup will be required to review the reports, approve action plans, and monitor implementation.
The actions contained in this report are bold and of critical need. Clearly, the primary theme of this workgroup’s recommendations is a new customer-focus philosophy within the Flight Service system, emphasizing a high level of personal service that incorporates an integrated partnership with users. In order to meet the established goals of the Department of Transportation’s "Safer Skies" initiative, a strategic investment is necessary to significantly improve general aviation safety and strengthen the agency’s ability to meet immediate and future customer needs.
Summary recommendations
The following is an overview of the recommendations agreed upon by all participants. While we recognize that some of the recommendations require re-allocation of Agency resources, many of these improvements do not require additional funding. It should be noted that all of these recommendations are essential. They are not prioritized.
POLICY
Develop new aviation-related policies that satisfy enhanced
customer service needs.
SERVICE
TRAINING
EQUIPMENT
WEATHER PRODUCTS
RESEARCH and DEVELOPMENT
INDUSTRY EFFORTS
ATTENDEES
In attendance were representatives from:
FSS Renaissance Recommendations
Pilot Weather Briefing Work Group
I. Policy
Establish a new customer focus philosophy within the Flight Service System, emphasizing a high level of personal service incorporating an integrated partnership with users. Needed changes include:
- Revise and simplify FSS procedures handbook (7110.10) to incorporate the philosophical/regulatory changes.
- Perform recurrent customer surveys and utilize focus groups to evaluate current performance, identify future needs, and design new systems.
- Market and advertise FSS services to customers.
- Evaluate how customer service can be enhanced by further consolidation and/or expansion.
- Reallign flight plan areas based on customer demand and/or route density patterns.
- Supplement/replace CWSU staff with appropriately trained FSS ATCS in ARTCC and TRACON facilities.
Develop new aviation-related policies that satisfy enhanced customer service needs.
- Enable service providers (ATCS, and FISDL providers) to have access to all PIREPs (airlines, DOD, dispatch centers, etc).
- Examine NAVCANADA system and consider implementing positive attributes (in coordination with industry).
- Provide staffing to handle the demand for services and training.
- Develop policy changes and new programs in a lead region before national implementation.
- Establish aviation weather as a top priority (including funding) at FAA and NWS.
Emphasize customer service needs vice the legal motive(s) for briefing elements, do not include information just for liability purposes (CYA).
- Eliminate international flight cautionary statement.
- Develop clarification or substantial modification of VNR guidance incorporating "how and when to go safely," to avoid overly conservative application and resulting lack of use, and replace with telling pilots how and when the destination can be reached safely.
- Ensure that reporting of PIREPS of unfavorable weather conditions shall not result in enforcement actions.
II. Service
Enable pilot access to information while in flight.
- Complete NAS-wide deployment of Flight Information System Data Link (FISDL).
- Provide easier way to get in-flight weather to single-pilot IFR operations.
- FSS provides VFR flight monitoring utilizing Aircraft Situation Display (ASD).
- Provide "pre-emptive" in-flight calls to pilots to alert them to hazards and changes.
- Provide real-time status of SUA occupancy.
Implement service changes.
- Improve the use of local area knowledge; examine tools for acquiring, retaining, and disseminating this information.
- Replace the NOTAM system; evaluate the new DOD NOTAM system (or others) as a replacement for the current system.
- Provide plain language information and simplify products and services.
- FSS provide more weather interpretation including:
- Short-term forecasting.
- Enhanced briefer capabilities.
- Meteorologist-level briefings.
- FSS to provide single-point service for pilots thereby avoiding the need to communicate with other US government offices (e.g., customs, DOD facilities).
- FSS modify service delivery for today’s generation of pilots’ wider range of technical capability with varying service needs.
- Spend the most briefing time on the most important items for that flight.
- Conduct frequent (at least annually) follow up GA FSS Summits.
- Coordinate results of the GA Summit(s) into "Safer Skies" initiative.
- Improve preflight and in-flight services for rotorcraft.
Implement new services.
- Use VFR flight plan as gateway for FSS to provide enhanced VFR flight monitoring services.
- Automatic closure of flight plan upon landing at towered airports.
- Pre-emptive calls to customers upon receipt of critical flight information.
- SUA/ISE
- Enhanced Search and Rescue (SAR)
- Emergency Services
- Provide a site-specific 800# for each AFSS, in addition to the national 800# WXBRIEF, that shall not be off-loaded to another facility.
- Resolves the cell phone issue
- Increases access to local area knowledge.
- Provides access to TIBS and other site specific services
Provide pilots with alternatives and decision support for "mission success", i.e., flight routes, altitudes, or times for a safe flight to avoid hazard areas.
- Improve business practices by automatically providing daily weather packages to major users (e.g., flight schools, FBOs, air taxi operators).
- Provide international weather briefings.
- Evaluate Remote Airport Information Service (RAIS) at Summit following completion of beta-test.
- Enable electronic flight plan filing by customer directly into FAA system.
- Develop additional services that could be proffered by FSS, e.g. fuel availability, ground transportation, communications relay,etc.
Improve DUATS.
- Conduct a customer satisfaction survey aimed at developing specific improvements.
- Provide a plain language NOTAM translator in DUATS.
- Eliminate non-relevant data from report.
- Revise OASIS requirement document to permit pilot use over modem and additional weather graphics.
- Incorporate a weather risk assessment model.
III. Training
Establish a national training program (implemented on a recurrent basis) that focuses on customer needs.
- Customer service training.
- Meteorology training (forecasting and nowcasting).
- Weather product interpretation.
- Increased aeronautical knowledge.
Enhance FSS training and quality control.
- Train FSS personnel to:
- Advise pilots of effective times and easily identifiable locations of severity and movement of weather hazard areas relative to planned route of flight.
- Suggest alternate routes, altitudes, and times to avoid weather hazard areas.
- Acquire more weather knowledge, especially local climatology
- Increase knowledge of the limitations of typical pilot/airplane combinations.
- Increase PIREP solicitation and dissemination system wide.
- Provide additional positions of "training manager".
- Update and require standardized PWB course every two years for all certified pilot weather briefers (similar to pilot biennial flight review).
- Provide Enroute Flight Advisory Service (Flight Watch) training to all FSS bargaining unit specialists and first-line supervisors.
- Provide standardized training in customer service to all specialists and supervisors.
- Revise PWB evaluation checklist to include customer service as a "special emphasis" item.
- Increase the number of tape talks to one per quarter, with appropriate additional staff.
Improve interaction and develop common aviation understanding between ATCS and customers by:
- Providing appropriate ground school training to all non-pilot FSS specialists and supervisors.
- Having a FSS representative at pilot safety seminars.
- Developing a video for use by student pilots on FSS services.
Improve FSS quality control, by tasking NWS to develop and staff a national training QCO.
PIREP Dissemination
- Train FSS specialists on entry of data from controllers.
- Train CWSU staff to input PIREPs into WMSCR.
- Train terminal and enroute controllers who get PIREPs of widespread weather hazards to communicate to others in ATC and to pilots.
- Emphasize NWS need to request PIREPs where needed to confirm forecast.
IV. Equipment
ATC facility equipment requirements.
- Deploy ASD in all FSS. Incorporate SUA/ISE data that shows location of aircraft receiving in-flight services relative to weather graphics.
- Examine replacement of DF program with SUA/ISE or other program.
- Provide FSS communications/displays for accessing NWS Aviation Digital Data System (ADDS) and other graphics, and FISDL products (to have the same information as pilots).
- Provide enroute and terminal controllers with equipment to display weather hazard graphics.
- Improve area dissemination of PIREPs to pilots by providing one VHF frequency nationwide for a PIREP summary broadcast, transcribed by a FSS specialist
- Provide to all Air Traffic facilities a common data base which contains weather, flight data, flight and briefing history, and NOTAMS.
- Improve data communication system for higher data rates to ensure adequate capacity for new systems, such as OASIS.
- Provide the capability to split flight watch positions among RCOs.
- Enable use of internet by FSS specialists to access weather products.
Create simplified, automated methods to enter, retrieve, disseminate, and display PIREPs.
- Use a direct line to fast file for recording the PIREP, with FSS entry into data base.
- A long-term automation program of PIREP entry and access with virtually no increase in workload, such as one-key entry.
- Provide simple methods for terminal and enroute controllers to retrieve and disseminate PIREPs.
V. Weather Products
Provide highly accurate, precise, and timely operational weather graphics that show current and forecast weather hazard areas of instrument conditions, thunderstorms, icing, and turbulence.
- In addition to voice, provide for their transmission by computer modem and data link.
- Make these products available for preflight and inflight use by FSS/Flight Watch Specialists, controllers, dispatchers, traffic planners, and pilots.
- Use the NWS ADDS as an additional method to disseminate the products.
Provide the same or similar weather products to all ATCS and customers.
Improve accuracy and precision of weather products to increase pilot confidence in the information compared to the weather they encounter.
VI. Research and Development
Fully fund the FAA aviation weather research program.
VII. Industry Efforts
Increase pilot understanding of FSS services.
- Educate pilots to provide the information necessary to receive the services desired, e.g., pilot/aircraft weather capabilities, and knowledge previously obtained from other weather sources.
- Encourage pilots to visit FSS.
- Publish articles on FSS operations/services.
- Encourage more customer attendance in FAA sponsored pilot education events, e.g., Operation Raincheck, Operation Takeoff, aviation seminars, etc.
Increase the number and improve the quality of PIREPs by educating pilots on need and best practice methods of reporting and interpreting
.