The FAA’s Helicopter Operations Weather Information (HOWI) project is surveying the helicopter community to identify gaps and shortfalls associated with weather information. It’s part of the agency’s Weather Technology in the Cockpit program in conjunction with the Partnership to Enhance General Aviation Safety (PEGASAS) and Georgia Tech, Purdue University, and Florida Tech universities.
The HOWI team aims to identify gaps and shortfalls that pertain to weather-information relevancy, availability, and barriers to effective use via a widely-distributed questionnaire to the rotorcraft community. The team seeks to identify not only the type of weather information available to pilots but also the sources available or used such as online, avionics, and dispatch; the relevancy of the information; how it’s used in practice; and what additional information would be beneficial for missions, including air ambulance, search and rescue, law enforcement, observation, air tour, and air taxi.