Weather Technology in the Cockpit

Weather information products for use in aircraft cockpits that have entered into the general aviation (GA) aircraft market over the past 10 years have the ability to provide accurate, detailed, and timely meteorological information to pilots that far exceed historical capabilities. These products have been designed and implemented with the ultimate goal of allowing pilots to make better decisions regarding their intended flight operations with respect to current and predicted weather conditions along their planned or current route of flight. There has been an expectation that this would lead to an increase in safety, as evidenced by a significant reduction in weather related accidents or incidents. Despite the proliferation of these products, initial observations are that the level of weather-related accidents and incidents has not decreased significantly. The goals of the Weather Technology in the Cockpit (WTIC) Program are to incorporate WTIC research into released Federal Aviation Administration/Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (FAA/RTCA) standards/guidance documents; improve pilot decision making relative to adverse weather; enhance crew awareness and coordination relative to turbulence; specify minimum weather service for meteorological (MET) information in cockpits; and report “National Airspace System (NAS)” inefficiencies (NextGen and current) not attributable to resolved MET information in the cockpit shortfalls. For the first phase, the WTIC Sub-Projects, core university members, and affiliate university members are organized according to the following four projects: (1) WTIC Project A: Quantifying Causality – Ohio State University (Shawn Pruchnicki, Technical Lead); (2) WTIC Project B: VFR/VMC to IMC Transition – Purdue University (Tom Carney, Technical Lead), affiliate: Western Michigan University; (3) WTIC Project C: General Aviation Weather Alerting – Texas A&M University (Tom Ferris, Technical Lead), affiliate: Western Michigan University; and (4) WTIC Project D: General Aviation MET Information Optimization – Purdue University (Barrett Caldwell, Technical Lead), affiliate: Western Michigan University.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Centers of Excellence - Partnership to Enhance General Aviation Safety, Accessibility, and Sustainability

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $2,494,393.83
• Contract Numbers:

  12-C-GA-PU-007,017,020,033,043

  12-C-GA-TEES-002,004,008,013

  12-C-GA-OSU-003,011,019,027

  12-C-GA-PU-062

  12-C-GA-TEES-021

  12-C-GA-TEES-031

  12-C-GA-OSU-043

  12-C-GA-OSU-050

  12-C-GA-PU-070

  12-C-GA-PU-076

  12-C-GA-PU-094

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Aviation Administration

  800 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20591
• Project Managers:

  Johnson, Ian

• Performing Organizations:

  Purdue University, School of Industrial Engineering

  315 N. Grant Street
  West Lafayette, IN  United States  47907

  Texas A&M University, Industrial & Systems Engineering

  3131 TAMU
  Emerging Technologies Building
  College Station, TX  United States  77843

  Ohio State University, Center for Aviation Studies

  2036 Neil Avenue
  Bolz Hall, Suite 228
  Columbus, OH  United States  43210
• Principal Investigators:

  Pruchnicki, Shawn

  Caldwell, Barrett

  Ferris, Thomas

  Carney, Thomas

• Start Date: 20140117
• Expected Completion Date: 20190930
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Source Data: PEGASAS Project 4

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aircraft pilotage; Aviation safety; Cockpit resource management; Decision making; Flight paths; General aviation; Meteorology; Technological innovations; Weather conditions
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Data and Information Technology; Environment; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01587303
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Partnership to Enhance General Aviation Safety, Accessibility and Sustainability
• Contract Numbers: 12-C-GA-PU-007,017,020,033,043, 12-C-GA-TEES-002,004,008,013, 12-C-GA-OSU-003,011,019,027, 12-C-GA-PU-062, 12-C-GA-TEES-021, 12-C-GA-TEES-031, 12-C-GA-OSU-043, 12-C-GA-OSU-050, 12-C-GA-PU-070, 12-C-GA-PU-076, 12-C-GA-PU-094
• Files: RIP, USDOT
• Created Date: Jan 19 2016 4:03PM