Connected Aircraft Tapping Into Real-time Weather Info

Until recently, passengers in a modern airliner could tap into far more information about weather than was available to the crew piloting their airplane. Passenger connectivity speeds have grown rapidly, and because of the slow pace of regulator approval, far more useful and powerful information has been available on passengers’ mobile devices via the Internet, but that is finally changing.

“There is pent-up demand,” said Mark Miller, senior vice president and general manager of aviation for weather information provider WSI. Cockpit connectivity is nearing a tipping point. Aircraft are being equipped for a lot of cabin connectivity purposes, but tapping into it for the cockpit is in “various stages of getting to fruition.”

In addition to providing weather information for a variety of industries, WSI offers the Pilotbrief service online as well as on an iPad app. WSI, a division of The Weather Company, also provides the weather data for the FAA’s ADS-B in Flight Information Services-Broadcast system, as well as for the Sirius XM WX system.

For business aircraft operators flying under Part 91, there generally aren’t regulatory restrictions preventing pilots from using in-flight Internet connectivity available through air-to-ground telecom or satcom systems. The same is not true for commercial aircraft operators, although the FAA does provide guidance on the subject. Advisory Circular 00-63A acknowledges that electronic flight bags (EFBs) are “an acceptable means to view METI [meteorological information] and AI [aeronautical information] in the cockpit.” However, the agency notes that because software and data connectivity are required, the EFB must be classified as Class 2 with Type B software “and requires an authorization for use via OpSpec/MSpec/Letter of Authorization (LOA) A061, Use of Electronic Flight Bag.”

In addition, for Part 121 operators regulations about record retention apply, and the operator should have a network security plan to ensure data confidentiality, integrity and availability when pilots are accessing the cabin Internet system. The advisory circular also points out that pilots should not use airborne Internet to access non-pertinent information.

“At the end of the day, airlines have to work with their principal inspectors to get approval for their implementation,” said Miller. “The guidelines provide a framework, but that’s open to interpretation at the inspector level. That’s the challenge our customers are facing, and we’ve been diligently working through the process.” Feedback from WSI customers indicates, however, that regulators worldwide are becoming more amenable to pilots using the Internet to access valuable weather information.

Aviation Center

To provide the information that its customers want, WSI has its own aviation center where 35 aviation meteorologists monitor weather and a variety of hazards such as turbulence, convection, volcanic ash and dust and provide alerts. With many of its customer airlines, WSI receives the operations’ flight plans, releases and schedules so the preflight briefing can include the latest weather information tailored to the flight plan. This information is also available as on overlay in Pilotbrief for improved pilot situational awareness, Miller explained. And if the operator has airborne connectivity, pilots can more easily receive continuous updates and adjust the flight path as necessary.

One piece of information that is becoming more refined via WSI is turbulence. WSI installs its Turbulence Auto-Pirep System (Taps) in the aircraft. Taps monitors accelerometers already in the aircraft and records turbulence that exceeds a specified threshold, and the information is sent back to WSI. Currently the turbulence information is transmitted via Acars, and more than 650 airline aircraft operated by airlines in North America, over the North Pacific and even one in China are participating.

Miller said the turbulence information will be available in the Pilotbrief app, or it can be accessed by dispatchers who can communicate it to the flight crew. “Taps is a set of algorithms encoded into the condition trend monitoring system in the aircraft,” he said. “There’s no hardware and no [added] sensor, and it has a very low cost to get up and running.” WSI is hoping to have Taps installed on 1,000 aircraft by year-end. While it could work on business jets, too, Taps is better suited to large fleets, he said. “Customers that have launched Taps are seeing a significant reduction in crew injuries and maintenance costs from turbulence.”

WSI is also tapping into winds aloft data provided by connected aircraft. “There are a number of different applications you can envision for connected aircraft,” he said. “And there is equal value for data coming back; the aircraft becomes a node on the network, and we have a continuous flow of information to and from the aircraft.”

For pilots who use the Pilotbrief app, especially flying business jets with airborne Internet access, WSI is working on optimizing the data flow to avoid high data charges. One way to do this is to host mapping data, which doesn’t change much, onboard a server on the aircraft and download only the updated weather data.

“Everybody is motivated to optimize that experience for the ultimate end user, who is the pilot,” Miller said. “To me it’s one of these transformative times in aviation, the convergence of technology and the potential to unlock so much in terms of safety and efficiency.”